Brent D. Payne Brent D. Payne Brent D. Payne

SEO Expert
SEO Mentor
SEO Speaker

Brent D. Payne is an accomplished SEO strategist and digital marketing expert, best known for founding Loud Interactive in 2011.

With an approach deeply rooted in both technical acumen and creative problem-solving, Brent has earned a reputation for his results-oriented methodology. He is a sought-after speaker at search industry conferences and a trusted advisor to Fortune 500 leaders looking to develop impactful digital strategies. As CEO of Loud Interactive, Brent continues to push the boundaries of enterprise SEO, guiding teams and organizations through the ever-evolving search landscape with forward-thinking tactics and proven methodologies.

Brent D. Payne is an SEO visionary

Always drawn to the e-commerce space, Brent's solutions have helped e-commerce companies not only optimize the 20% of their site driving 80% of their revenue but to optimize 100% of their site to provide a much healthier, holistic, fully optimized picture to search engines. These methods have resulted in 40% year over year over year gains for Loud's clients at massive scale.

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SEO Expert

SEO at scale demands more than human effort — and Brent understands this. He has redefined SEO scalability at Loud Interactive, where his AI-powered SEO engine generates high-performance, search-optimized content with greater accuracy, consistency, and speed than 600+ writers combined. This has set a new precedent for SEO-driven growth. His vision at Loud is clear — AI isn’t replacing strategy; it’s amplifying it.

SEO Mentor

Brent is a respected lecturer and mentor dedicated to shaping the next generation of digital strategists. He has been a Techstars Mentor for more than 20 locations. His mentorship has met with wild praises from the Managing Director to the founders.

SEO Speaker

For over a decade now, Brent has been a leading voice to reckon with in the SEO, AI, and reputation management domains. As a keynote speaker at SMX, SES, PubCon, and AMA, he has been instrumental in shaping how businesses and brands approach search, reputation, and visibility. Beyond industry events, Brent has delivered guest lectures at Chicago Booth, NYU, and Northwestern.

Timeline

Brent D. Payne cut his teeth on digital marketing in his early 20s. At the time he worked at a computer RAM manufacturer, Viking Components and worked with value added resellers to sell RAM for computers and flash cards for digital cameras. He had a vision for the future with the internet as he does now have vision of the future with AI. With nearly 15 years at Loud Interactive's helm, Payne has seen the landscape of SEO, social media, and online reputation management change and grow. One to continually embrace the latest strategies and tactics, Payne sees today's greatest opportunity to garner digital traffic is to embrace the opportunities presented by AI.

1999

Viking Components, Inc.

eBusiness Channel Account Manager

Built Viking’s online division by leveraging SEO, viral marketing, and early social media
Sold over 2 million dollars per month in flash cards for digital cameras via Amazon.com through SEO strategies and tactics

2004

Targus

eBusiness Sales & Marketing Manager

Managed end-to-end sales, marketing and merchandising for Targus’ U.S. website
Expanded Targus’ digital reach by building online partnerships with Amazon, Best Buy, Newegg, and Buy.com

2008

Tribune Interactive

Search Engine Optimization Manager

Worked closely with the Tribune Interactive teams to create an SEO-first culture
Tripled non-branded SEO traffic from 500K visits per day to 1.7 million visits per day

2009

Tribune Company

Director of SEO

Optimized 70+ Tribune broadcast sites, including KTLA, WGN, and WPIX
Trained over 10,000 journalists and anchor people on SEO via in-person trainings

2010

435 Digital

SEO & Social Media Director

Collaborated directly with Bill Adee to build Tribune’s in-house SEO agency
Expanded the firm’s SEO & social media services beyond internal properties

2011

Loud Interactive

CEO

Founded and scaled Loud Interactive — one of Chicago’s leading SEO firms
Helped Fortune 500 brands, universities, and media giants dominate search results

A self-made leader and expert, Brent built his career from the ground up. He was raised in Oregon and spent his early career in California, before establishing himself in Chicago.

Family remains at the heart of his world. Brent, his wife and his five kids - two sons & three daughters, share a life rooted in love and strength. He is also deeply committed to giving back to his community, frequently volunteers at local school initiatives, and uses his platform to support causes like ALS.

Client Testimonials

In 2013, I invited Brent to be a speaker at a Society of Professional Journalists conference. Brent successfully led an engaging and informative discussion with a room full of journalists who to this day apply the SEO best practices in their newsrooms thanks to Brent’s knowledge and infinite wisdom.

Steve Schuster, Award-Winning Journalist

Whenever the subject of search engine optimization arises for our founders, my first phone call has always been to Brent Payne. He is one of the most knowledgeable and helpful mentors we’ve had at Techstars Chicago, and I’m grateful for his leadership skills and practicality in SEO!

Neal Sales-Griffin, Managing Director - Techstars

Brent is the best SEO I’ve ever met. I once interviewed ten search engine optimization experts to get advice about my website. Brent was the only SEO who provided mind-blowing insight. I’ve been referring businesses to Brent since 2010.

Troy Henikoff, Managing Director - MATH Venture Partners

Brent is creative, energetic and a great SEO resource.

Bob Barba - United Airlines

Brent Payne is a search marketing legend and owns one of the best search engine companies in Chicago: Loud SEO. Over the past few decades, he has represented quality, trust, and the rare ability to consistently execute at the highest level in the local SEO and digital marketing service space. I’ve seen good and great SEO experts, but Brent is in the top 1% of search engine experts in the United States.

Andre Kazimierski, Founder - Improovy

Our meetings with Brent are the highlight of my week. He’s really helped to take our SEO/content strategy to the next level. And he’s made my job a heck of a lot easier!

Lo Kidd, Content Manager - Trainual

Brent has clear credentials and experience to help companies, big and small, implement effective SEO strategies. He breaks things down into tactical, simple terms and tasks so you not only understand what you’re implementing but why.

Rachael Feuerborn, Chief Product Officer - 1871

Brent has a masterful understanding of SEO and is skillfully able to adapt to different situations and verticals to provide meaningful and lasting results. He is thorough, straightforward, loves to solve challenges, and explains solutions in an easily understandable way. Throughout the engagement with Loud, Brent taught us SEO basics, strategies, and advanced applications that we are still utilizing today and continue to drive results.

Noah Schatz, Founder & CEO - Domu.com

Brent is very knowledgeable, can quickly assess a website’s strengths and weaknesses, and provides easy-to-implement tactics. He is skilled at communicating in a way that makes the more technical elements of SEO accessible for a non-expert. He is generous with his time and has taken on our industry-specific SEO struggles as a challenge and puzzle to solve.

Grace Mohan, Senior Marketing Manager - Elevance Health

In my experience, the signal-to-noise ratio amongst individuals in the SEO industry is particularly bad. Supposed ‘experts’ miss the forest for the trees and focus on short-term gains that are either not scalable or sustainable. In stark contrast, Brent has provided a foundation on which to build SEO success. He provides high-quality work that cuts through the noise. And most importantly, the results are undeniably excellent. Highly recommended.

Neil Davis, Founder & CEO - Minded

Brent is a true expert. What do I mean by this? Well, he is like e.e. cummings of SEO.

He also has a tremendous work ethic, born of a relentless curiosity. He’s been a phenomenal business asset to us.

Delamon Rego, SVP of Revenue - DECKED

My best meeting of the week is the one I have with Brent. Always. I’ve learned a ton about SEO from him, and he’s helped us make great progress with our content. Highly recommend working with him!

Joe Corcione, Marketing - Trainual