Groove Digital: Building an Agency's SEO Engine

Groove Digital is where I spent nearly four years building an agency's entire SEO function from the ground up — from a three-person operation in a shared office to the organic-growth engine behind a fast-growing, multi-agency group. I joined as the first dedicated SEO hire executing campaigns, and left as the strategist who architected the systems behind 12+ accounts across three continents. In January 2026 the agency merged with Chase Marketing and Neuro to become Unify.

The mandate

When I joined, Groove Digital was three people with big ambitions and no real SEO infrastructure. The brief was open-ended and high-stakes: build organic growth for a growing roster of clients — often in markets where we had zero presence — and build the systems to do it repeatably as the team scaled.

The real challenge was never a single campaign. It was building an SEO function that could:

  • Win in competitive sectors with no existing visibility
  • Scale across a dozen-plus accounts without dropping quality
  • Earn authority internationally, not just locally
  • Run as a repeatable system, not a series of one-offs

About Groove Digital (now Unify)

Groove Digital started lean and grew into a 100m² studio before merging, in January 2026, with Chase Marketing and Neuro — a CRO agency — to form Unify, a combined performance-marketing group.

What I built

Over four years I owned SEO end to end and built the infrastructure behind it:

  • SEO strategy for 12+ accounts across competitive sectors
  • Roadmaps from scratch in markets where the client had zero organic presence
  • PR and link-building systems across three continents — earning authority at scale, not buying it
  • Operations infrastructure — processes, templates and reporting that scaled with the team

From specialist to strategist

I arrived executing other people's campaigns. I left architecting systems, leading accounts, and tying SEO directly to revenue. Groove Digital doesn't hire followers; it builds leaders — and it taught me to lead through chaos, build under pressure, and think like a founder.

The outcome

The function I started as a one-person operation became core to how the agency grew — and to the multi-agency group it became. Employee number three at a three-person shop; one of the people who helped build it into Unify.

What this means for your business

This is the case for one strategic SEO leader over an entire agency — someone who can execute, architect the system, lead the accounts, and own the full funnel from rankings to revenue. That's what I built at Groove Digital, and what I now bring straight in-house.

Building a team that needs that? Reach out at mo@sahardid.com.