“Nobody is going to do the spoon-feeding for you.” Pranav Jha built his SEO agency through self-research. 🔍
My good friend Pranav Jha, from Noida, has been in SEO for about 10.5 years and runs an SEO agency focused mainly on the Indian market. 🎙️
He came to my house to talk about his journey from a village in Bihar, India’s SEO boom, his agency’s revenue and how AI is changing SEO. 🇮🇳
📊 In this episode, we unpacked:
- 🌱 From Madhubani to SEO
- 🇮🇳 Why India’s SEO market is booming
- 💸 His biggest mistake and his agency’s numbers
- 🤖 His AI tools
- 🧭 Advice for SEO beginners
- 🔮 AI’s impact on SEO
🎥 Watch the full episode:
🌱 From Madhubani to SEO
Pranav comes from Madhubani in Bihar. After a B.Tech in computer science, he came to Delhi in 2012 and started in website development, .NET and software testing. 🌱
Around 2013, a travel client asked him to try Google Ads. He generated revenue within a month, then discovered SEO while researching more traffic sources. 📈
There were few good courses or videos then, so it was all self-research. Seeing results in Search Console and Analytics was “actual learning.” 🔍
He was the first in his family to start a business. His family wanted him to take a secure job, but once they saw his growth, they started trusting him. 👨👩👦
🇮🇳 Why India’s SEO Market Is Booming
Pranav says Indian clients now understand SEO, local SEO and organic traffic. Brands spending heavily on Meta and other paid ads now want to invest in SEO too, and they’re asking for PR and guest posting services. 🇮🇳
About 80% of his clients are Indian, though many target Canada, Europe and Australia. 🌍
He credits Jio (around 2017–18) for a huge shift. Even villages now use Amazon and Swiggy, and more people are working from home and starting businesses. 📱
India’s young population and its passion for technology are why many international clients now want to enter the Indian market. 🚀
💸 His Biggest Mistake and His Agency’s Numbers
His biggest mistake: doing SEO for clients but neglecting his own website. He now invests in his own site and growth. 💡
His agency generally makes around $25K–35K a month from SEO, and the team grew from two or three people to about 30. 📊
His team advice: make KRAs clear and transparent, and give people the training, SOPs and tools they need. Long-term team members make the whole process smoother. 🤝
His best compliment: telling a prospect to Google “digital marketing consultant in India” and having them find him on top. Results build trust. 🏆
For more agency-building stories, read Navneet Kaushal on building a million-dollar SEO agency. 🔗
🤖 His AI Tools
- 🤖 ChatGPT (Pro)
- 🧩 Extensions and plugins for data scraping
- 🖼️ Image tools
- 🎨 Canva, now with AI built in
- ✍️ Grammarly, also adding AI
He no longer follows one person. He learns topic by topic, like schema from one source and website structure from another, plus books and case studies. 📚
🧭 Advice for SEO Beginners
- ⏳ Be clear on your goal and trust the journey. Some get there in one year, some in three
- 🤝 Meet the best people in your niche and ask for their best advice
- 🔍 Research deeply and reverse-engineer competitors
- 🪞 Don’t obsess over others. Understand your weaknesses and improve your own game
For another Indian SEO’s view, read Pavan Agrawal on earning with AI SEO. 🔗
🔮 AI’s Impact on SEO
Pranav expects a huge impact. SEO is a game of quality content and solving user intent, and “Google is not afraid of AI content” if it serves that intent. 🎯
AI is in an early phase and improves with better input. What we saw three months ago is already different, and he expects big changes within a year. 🚀
He compares it to the computer revolution of the 1990s, which created whole new jobs, citing Narayana Murthy. “We have to adapt it.” My take: use AI as your friend, or it becomes your enemy. 🤝
For more on this, read Anil Agarwal on surviving AI in SEO. 🔗
- 🔍 Self-research and real results are the best teachers
- 🇮🇳 Indian brands are now investing in SEO, PR and guest posts
- 🏠 Don’t neglect your own website’s SEO
- 🤝 Clear KRAs, SOPs and tools keep a team stable
- 🧭 Network with experts and reverse-engineer competitors
- 🤖 Adapt to AI, don’t avoid it
He said it generally makes around $25K–35K a month from SEO, with a team of about 30.
After web development work, a travel client asked him to run Google Ads in 2013, and while looking for more traffic sources he discovered SEO and taught himself.
Focusing only on clients’ SEO and neglecting his own company website.
🎙️ More Inside A Hustler’s Brain Interviews You’ll Love
- How Alexander Ljubinkovic Built a Profitable SEO Agency from Scratch? 😮
- How To Grow A 7-Figure SEO Agency That Runs Itself by Rafid Nassir 🚀
- This ChatGPT SEO Hack Beats 99% of SEOs 🤯 ft. Amit Tiwari
- Anurag Batra Talks on Entrepreneurship In India: No Silicon Valley here
Are you working on your own website as hard as your clients’? Share this with an Indian agency owner. 💬
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Jitendra Vaswani is a well-known expert in SEO and AI-driven digital marketing. He has spoken at international events and founded Digiexe, a digital marketing agency, and AffiliateBooster, WordPress plugin designed specifically for affiliate marketers. With over 10 years of experience, Jitendra has helped many businesses succeed online. His bestselling book, Inside A Hustler’s Brain: In Pursuit of Financial Freedom, with over 20,000 copies sold globally, underscores his influence and commitment to empowering digital marketers.