SmartSites Makes the Inc. 5000 for the 10th Year in a Row

When you choose a marketing partner, you are betting on the next three years, not the next three months. You need to know that the team running your organic SEO and paid campaigns will still be staffed, still getting better and still picking up the phone when your contract comes up for renewal. That question is why one piece of news matters to us. Inc. has named SmartSites to its list of America’s fastest-growing private companies for the 10th year in a row.

Only 96 companies on the 2026 list have reached ten appearances, and we’re one of them. Here’s what that streak measures, and what it means for your campaigns.

We Made the Inc. 5000 Ranking Every Year From 2017 to 2026

Inc. Magazine revealed the 2026 Inc. 5000 on Aug. 11, 2026, and SmartSites was on it for the 10th year running. We have appeared on every list from 2017 through 2026, with no gaps.

Our 2026 placements are No. 4,010 nationally, No. 115 in New Jersey, No. 343 in the Advertising, Marketing & PR category and No. 316 in the New York area. Each number places us against a different group of companies. All four come from the same measure: how fast our revenue grew.

The Inc. 5000 Ranks Growth, Not Size, and That Bar Is Harder to Clear

The Inc. 5000 ranks companies by percentage revenue growth over three years. For the 2026 list, that window ran from 2022 to 2025. That makes it a growth list, not a size list. The Fortune 500 ranks the largest companies by total revenue, and a giant can stay on it for decades while barely growing.

The entry rules are strict. A company has to be private, for-profit, U.S.-based and independent, with at least $100,000 in revenue in 2022 and at least $2 million in 2025. Both ends of the window count, so one strong year isn’t enough to qualify.

Only 96 Companies on the 2026 List Have Made It Ten Times or More

Award posts rarely mention this part. Every year, Inc. measures a new three-year window, and each window overlaps the one before it. The 2026 list covered 2022 to 2025, and the 2025 list covered 2021 to 2024. To stay on the list, a company has to qualify again every year on fresh numbers. A flat year doesn’t disappear after one list, either. It counts against you in more than one window.

That’s why the streak is the harder number to hit. Of the 5,000 companies on the 2026 list, only 96 have made it for the 10th time or more. SmartSites is one of them.

When people ask about the list, our co-founder talks about the run of years rather than the rank. Michael Melen, Co-Founder, said: “Most agencies on this list are new. We’ve been on it every year since 2017, and I’m prouder of the consistency than of any single rank.” A rank of 4,010 in one year is a solid result. Ten years in a row on a list where most names come and go shows a company built to last.

370+ In-House Specialists Run Your Campaigns Under One Roof

Brothers Alex Melen and Michael Melen founded SmartSites in New Jersey in 2011. We are still headquartered there, at 45 Eisenhower Drive, Suite 520, in Paramus.

Our team has grown to more than 370 people, and every one of them is in-house. They cover SEO, AI search optimization, PPC, web design, social media, and email and SMS marketing, plus local SEO and Google Business Profile management. That is the full-service model in practice. The people who design your site, the people running your PPC advertising and the people writing for search all work under one roof. Your account never gets passed to a subcontractor you have never met, whether you hired us as an organic SEO agency or for PPC management services on Google, Microsoft and Meta.

That team has driven $2.1 billion+ in client revenue, and our clients rate us 4.9 on average across 2,100+ reviews. Our credentials back that up: #1 on Clutch’s Top SEO Companies for October 2026, #1 on Forbes Advisor’s Best SEO Services of 2026 with a score of 9.9/10, and a BBB A+ rating. We are also a Google Premier Partner, Microsoft Advertising Select Partner, Meta Business Partner, Klaviyo Master Platinum Partner, Amazon Ads Verified Partner and TikTok Marketing Partner. If you are trying to work out who the best SEO agency is for your business, independent rankings like these narrow the field faster than any sales deck can.

Client Results of 44x, 15x, and 7x Are the Real Proof

Our growth comes from theirs. Agencies grow when clients stay, and clients stay when the numbers move.

Hearthstopper, a fireplace accessories retailer, grew conversions 44x. Capital Auto Sales, a used car dealership, grew leads 15x. Boardroom Socks, a men’s dress sock brand, grew revenue 7x. A retailer, a car lot and a clothing brand all had different goals, but each project started the same way: work out what a lead or a sale is worth to that business, then build the search, paid and website work around that number.

If your customers come from the surrounding towns, local SEO often does a lot of the work. It improves your Google Business Profile, your location pages and your local citations, so you have a stronger chance of showing up when someone nearby searches for what you sell. Working with a local SEO company only pays off if you can see the results, so every lead, call and sale shows up in a live Client Hub. There you see revenue by source, and visits from AI assistants are tracked as their own channel.

Ten Years of Growth Means a Steadier Partner for Your Campaigns

For you, ten years on a growth list answers a practical question: will this team still be improving your account in year three? A company that has qualified ten times in a row has kept hiring, kept training and kept enough clients long enough to grow alongside them.

You’ll see that consistency in how we work every day. Every client gets a dedicated project manager. Our Paramus team works Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm ET, so the person who knows your campaigns is reachable on a set schedule, not whenever an inbox gets cleared.

A proposal from us starts with your numbers: your traffic, your leads, your cost per lead, and where search, paid ads and site improvements can move them. We will show you the plan, the reporting and the results our clients have already achieved. We don’t promise a ranking or a spot in an AI answer, because nobody honest can.

How to Read the Inc. 5000 When You Compare Agencies

It Measures Speed, Not Size

A smaller company growing quickly can outrank a much larger one growing slowly, so read any rank as a measure of speed, not size. Because the list measures revenue growth alone, pair it with case studies, client reviews and a look at how an agency reports results before you sign with anyone.

Every Honoree Cleared Two Revenue Floors

Any company you find on the 2026 list had at least $100,000 in revenue in 2022 and at least $2 million in 2025. A business can’t get on by spiking from nothing in a single year, so a long run on the list reflects growth from a real base.

Call (201) 870-6000 to get a free proposal from SmartSites.

Each client’s results depend on that client’s market, budget and starting point, and they are not a guarantee of similar outcomes.

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