![[Fully Managed] Dustin Peterson from WormWood Ep. 122](https://penji.co/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/BLOG-IMAGE-Dustin-Peterson.png)
Shannon Donnelly (SD): Alrighty. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Fully Managed Podcast, the podcast where we discuss marketing and business tips to help assist you on your business journey. I’m your host, Shannon, Penji’s partnership coordinator, and I’m joined here today with a very special guest, Dustin Peterson from Wyrmwood SEO. Thank you so much for coming on with me today. I really appreciate it.
Dustin Peterson (DP): Absolutely. Thank you.
SD: So could you just start by telling us a little bit about yourself and how you kind of got to this point in your career and everything in between?
DP: Sure. So it’s kind of an interesting trajectory. I used to play in bands and I got into web design and digital marketing to promote my bands. That eventually turned into a career in graphic design and web design. Over the years, I worked for a company that did digital advertising and marketing. My career took a bunch of twists and turns from there and I worked for a lot of startups, one of which was an influencer marketing company in Hollywood called Digital Media Management. We worked with A-list celebrities like Felicity Huffman, Vanessa Hudgens, Kate Walsh, and others. We would build properties around them, starting with selling their social feeds. Nicole Richie was one. I was a salesperson; I would go out and sell ad deals. I’d get budgets from agencies for our celebrities and they wouldn’t quite perform the way we wanted, so I started digging into the marketing side. That’s how I got into SEO, Facebook advertising, paid search, and so on. I worked for a bunch of different companies over the years. My most recent jobs were at a commercial real estate company and at Verizon Media, which isn’t even a company now. Fast forward to Wyrmwood—I know the owner through a friend. It’s just an SEO company with a long track record of success and great quality work for clients. So that’s how I ended up at Wyrmwood. Kind of a long story.
SD: No, not at all. Trust me, some people spend ten minutes on the introduction, and that’s okay, too. I really enjoy hearing how people got to where they are now, and that’s a very unique upbringing. The celebrity thing is really cool. Do you have a favorite person that you’ve interacted with?
DP: So it’s crazy. I didn’t really—we were a lot of us were—you know, now I think the company has evolved because this was like 2011 to 2013. But I had a couple of interesting interactions. One was with Naya Rivera.
SD: Oh, my God. Yes.
DP: Yeah, Glee. She came into my office with Big Sean, the rapper, and she spit her gum in my garbage can. And I was like, whoa, the girl from Glee spit her gum in my garbage can.
SD: That’s awesome.
DP: Yeah.
SD: It’s a privilege.
DP: Yeah. She had a terrible accident later on and passed away.
SD: Yeah, that happened a few years ago, I think.
DP: Yeah. And then I also interacted with Felicity Huffman when she came in. We built a site for moms around her because her brand was kind of Desperate Housewives at that time. She was one of the few A-list celebrities I got to meet in person. She was very cool, very funny.
SD: That’s really cool. It’s good to also have good interactions. You always hear diva things about celebrities, so it’s sweet to have nice interactions—especially when you’re doing good things for them.
SEO Engineering at Wyrmwood
SD: Your title is SEO Engineer. What would you say that is? I don’t usually hear “engineer” paired with SEO. What does that entail?
DP: Yeah, the engineer title might be unique to Wyrmwood. We interact with clients during the sales process and engineer the SEO strategy. So once the salesperson brings someone in, we look at their website and digital footprint and construct an SEO strategy. We’re essentially engineering it.
SD: That makes a lot of sense. Other agencies might use different words, so I was curious if it was a different kind of job. But it’s definitely clever language. You’re describing exactly what it is. “Engineer” makes you think of constructing something—and that can be a plan.
DP: Exactly. Modern SEO has so many moving parts. There’s on-page, off-page, load time, copywriting, keyword optimization—it’s complex. We felt like “engineer” gives more credit to the effort we’re putting in.
SD: I actually really like it. It sounds very astute. Titles should encompass all the work someone does, and “account manager” doesn’t always do that. Sometimes a “coordinator” is a director, really.
DP: Exactly. Technology moves fast. A few years ago, “SEO Account Manager” might have been accurate, but things evolve.
The Hardest and Easiest Fields for SEO
SD: What do you think is the most difficult field or subject to do SEO for?
DP: Technically, everything’s similar. The real challenge is competition. Legal—especially attorneys, class action lawsuits, corporate law—that’s highly competitive. When industries have high click rates, it means a ton of people are bidding, which makes ranking harder.
SD: That makes sense. I’ve talked to SEO specialists in the legal field. I’d guess niches are tough too, since people build entire agencies around them.
DP: Medical’s another one—healthcare, especially with telemedicine becoming more common. It’s a massive, competitive industry.
SD: Yeah, I was looking for a doctor recently and the number of options was overwhelming. Too many choices!
DP: Exactly. Play the numbers.
SD: Is there a field that’s easier or more straightforward?
DP: We serve a lot of local businesses—landscapers, contractors, small businesses. With those, sometimes there are three quick fixes I can make that show up in search the next day. It’s rewarding to deliver quick value. SEO is often a long game, but with small businesses that don’t have digital expertise, we can come in and really make an impact.
SD: That’s really nice—more rewarding because it’s cause and effect. The long game is harder to measure. But if you tweak a few things and see results, it’s satisfying.
DP: Totally. We’re very data driven. We start with a baseline and target specific keywords so we can show lift in rankings over time.
Managing SEO Expectations
SD: What do you do when results aren’t what you expected?
DP: We reassess. Usually, it’s because other people are making changes. I had a client where I rewrote optimized copy, and then someone on their web team altered it. We look for why things didn’t work, explain it, and course-correct if needed.
SD: That’s an interesting testament to how many factors can affect SEO. You can have a plan, but other people or actions can impact it.
DP: Absolutely. And if we made a mistake, we own it. But we try not to take on clients we can’t help.
SD: Have you ever had a client come in with an issue that was just a simple fix?
DP: Sure. Like they’ve got WordPress set to block search engine crawlers. We’ll just tell them straight—“You’re not ranking because Google can’t crawl your site.” But honestly, those are ideal clients. They’re busy running a business, and we can take this off their plate and add real value.
Using AI in SEO
SD: Do you use AI regularly, and what for?
DP: Mainly for content. We’ll use AI for a first draft, feeding it data points. Then we rewrite, clean it up, make sure it flows logically, and optimize for keywords—AI can’t do that. It saves time, but we still need that human touch.
SD: That’s a really good point. AI’s a tool—it depends on how skilled the user is. A good writer can use it to make better content faster, but a bad one won’t get great results.
DP: Exactly. And AI-generated content is detectable by Google. If you rely on it too much, your content can get downranked. There’s an opportunity for creators who still care about quality.
SD: What I’m waiting for is better regulation of AI-generated reviews. That’s one thing that really worries me.
DP: Yeah, it’s already tough to post fake reviews. Google and Yelp have safeguards. It’s not foolproof, but it’s getting better. The web’s becoming less anonymous.
Time for the Game
SD: Okay, time for the game! First question—Google or Microsoft?
DP: Google. No hesitation. Microsoft’s great, but Google changed the world—YouTube, Search, Android. Personally, that’s more interesting to me.
SD: Totally agree. Google is the pioneer of so many things. Apple would be your ultimate?
DP: Yeah, the Steve Jobs biography is so good. iPod, iPhone—completely changed the world.
SD: I love those types of innovations. It’s inspiring when someone creates something people thought was impossible.
DP: Nerd fact—Apple patented touchscreen tech, sued everyone else, and won. But a judge wouldn’t enforce it because it would shut down the smartphone market. That’s how powerful Apple is.
SD: That’s like Disney and the public domain fight over Mickey Mouse.
DP: South Park parodied that!
The Absurd Question
SD: Okay, absurd question—how many eggs can you eat in a day?
DP: I eat about three now. Maybe six? If it’s a contest, maybe twenty or thirty. But fifty? That’s wild.
SD: I’ve heard eighty. I don’t believe them. Too much cholesterol.
DP: New science says eggs aren’t as bad as we thought. But still—that’s a lot.
SD: I’ll look that up. I love how much free knowledge is online now—YouTube doctors, specialists, all of it.
DP: Yeah, it’s amazing. So many people didn’t have access before. It’s a game-changer.
Final Question
SD: Last one—would you rather be stuck on a deserted island with someone you hate or be alone forever?
DP: Someone I hate. I could learn to like them. And if it’s really bad, I’ll go to the other side of the island. I don’t really hate anyone. Most conflict is just misunderstanding.
SD: I love that. Most people would rather be stuck with someone than be alone. Being totally alone forever sounds awful.
DP: Totally agree. Human interaction matters.
Closing
SD: That’s a wholesome note to end on. Everyone—be like Dustin. Dustin doesn’t hate anyone. Thank you so much for coming on with me today. I’ve learned a lot about SEO, which I don’t get to talk about much, so this was really nice.
And thank you to everyone for watching or listening. Don’t forget to like and subscribe to hear more stories like this and learn more like I get to do.
DP: Thanks for having me. Really appreciate it.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinpeterson
