Michael Roberts

Biography

Career Story

Michael Roberts was born in Columbus, Ohio, and grew up watching his father run a small HVAC company, an early education in how service businesses live and die by local reputation. He studied Business Administration and Information Technology at Florida International University, graduating in 2006.

At FIU, he crossed paths with Konstantin Rodriguez in a shared marketing analytics course during their senior year. The two stayed loosely in touch after graduation as their careers moved in different directions before the industry eventually pulled them back together.

Michael took his first marketing role at a regional home services franchise group in Columbus. By 2009, he had moved fully into digital, joining a local SEO agency that served contractors, plumbers, and moving companies across the Midwest.

When Google launched the Knowledge Graph in 2012, Michael immediately recognized the significance of entity-based search and began developing structured data implementations for service businesses. By 2014, he had built verified Knowledge Panels for over 40 moving and home services companies across 12 states.

In 2016, Michael went independent and spent four years as a consultant focused on entity SEO for moving companies and home services operators. He developed a proprietary entity architecture framework that mapped USDOT license numbers, state operating authority, and service-area data into structured markup. He joined Local SEO USA in 2021 after Konstantin introduced him to Michael Chen.