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Meet the team Leadership
Michael Melen
Co-Founder
Michael Melen is the co-founder of SmartSites. He built his first website at 9, sold his first internet company at 19 and co-founded SmartSites after finishing Cornell University in three years. He has spoken on SEO, PPC and AI search at events including LeadsCon and TES.
- HometownGlen Rock, NJ
- CollegeCornell University
- At SmartSites15 years, 6 months
SmartSitesLeadership
Clients love working with Michael.
★★★★★Nick O.“Michael Melen and his team are as professional as it gets, hands down one of the Best Website Building and SEO companies on the market.”“Michael Melen and his team are as professional as it gets, hands down one of the Best Website Building and SEO companies on the market. Whenever my clients need these services they are who I use. Highly recommend.”
★★★★★Ed M.Application Associates“Michael and his team did an amazing job with our full website re-design - the site looks awesome!”
★★★★★Valerie P.Concierge Key Health“Mike is quick, creative, open-minded, and a great partner for anything web related - especially websites and SEO. Always impressive and goes above and beyond.”
★★★★★Oscar A.Presidential Aviation“Michael is a dedicated professional, smart, insightful and he's always one step ahead of the industry and his clients' needs. It has been a pleasure working with such an honest and intelligent business man.”
★★★★★Dr. Leonid RubinovReal Smile Dental“Michael spent time with me understanding who I wanted my target audience to be. This way, we were able to build a new website and created a strong online presence.”
★★★★★Matthew J.Foundation Flooring“Michael and his company do an excellent job handling my SEO and social media. I started using him the last 6 months of the year and my entire business grew by over 30% from one year to the next.”
★★★★★Elmar A.Studio Esthetique“Through all these years of our partnership, we have seen measurable improvements in lead volume, quality of conversions, and overall marketing efficiency.”“Working with SmartSites has been a strong asset for our medspa's digital growth. Team demonstrate deep expertise in marketing strategy for the aesthetics and cosmetic treatment industry. Through all these years of our partnership, we have seen measurable improvements in lead volume, quality of conversions, and overall marketing efficiency.”
★★★★★Joe B.Frank Leta Automotive“Since switching, our organic traffic has continued to grow month over month. It's our number one traffic source for all of our websites, which is not always the case in my industry.”“I've been using SmartSites for many of my locations, and have been very satisfied with the results and level of support. Since switching, our organic traffic has continued to grow month over month. It's our number one traffic source for all of our websites, which is not always the case in my industry. I would highly recommend SmartSites to anyone wanting to improve their digital presence!”
Results from Michael's clients.
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Medical & Healthcare Studio Esthetique
Medical Spa Increases Conversions by 10x
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Medical & Healthcare Podiatry Center of NJ
NJ Podiatry Practice Expands Lead Volume by 6x
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Home Services Air Duct Brothers
Air Duct Cleaning Company Boosts Lead Volume by 14x
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Medical & Healthcare Dr Alex NYC
NYC Cosmetic Dentistry Practice Lifts Conversions by 6x
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Retail Coin Exchange NY
Coin Dealer Increases Revenue by 33x
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Retail Bullion Exchanges
Precious Metal Dealer Lifts ROAS by 36x
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Automotive Frank Leta Acura
Acura Dealership Increases Site Traffic by 49%
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Industrial & Commercial nymachinery.com
Heavy Equipment Dealer Grows Organic Traffic by 12x
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Medical & Healthcare Shinji Lee MD
Plastic Surgery Practice Drives Lead Volume by 55%
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Automotive Auto Detail STL
Auto Detailing Shop Drives Conversions by 114%
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Business to Business Evalve Technologies
Managed IT Provider Increases Organic Traffic by 30x
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Automotive Sell My Car STL
Car Buying Service Quadruples Lead Volume
Michael's talks & podcasts.
22 talks and 1 webinar.
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From $0 to $30M ARR – Lessons From Scaling a Digital Agency
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Attracting and Retaining High-Value Healthcare Patients
LeadsCon -
State of Search
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Lessons From Growing 1,000 eCommerce Brands
Shopify NY -
10x Your Digital Marketing with Generative AI
State of Search 2024 -
AI’s Black Box: Secrets of Today’s Digital Marketing Algorithms
Island Conference
Recent posts by Michael.
- AI search · Oct 16, 2026 25 AI Search Optimization Statistics That Will Shock You AI-assistant visits to our clients nearly doubled in a year, and those visitors convert better than visitors from Google. Here are the 25 AI search numbers…
- SEO · Sep 29, 2026 Healthcare Marketing Strategies, Ranked by What Our Data Says Works Healthcare marketing strategies ranked by what our data supports, with the benchmarks behind them: organic traffic by domain rating, Google Ads cost per lead by specialty,…
- SEO · Sep 28, 2026 SEO Benchmarks 2026: What Good Looks Like Across 1,160 Websites Organic share of visits by industry, click-through rate by Google position, Business Profile medians and organic vs paid conversion rates, from the analytics of 1,160 client…
Off the clock with Michael.
Michael’s Story
Michael Melen is the Co-Founder of SmartSites and has been involved in digital media and website development since high school. He spent some time working for Laws.com & Hospital.com and brings an enormous amount of experience in the SEO world.
Michael was mentioned in Forbes at just 16 years old and sold his first internet company at 19. Before graduating college, he consulted both Disney and Budweiser on their digital media campaigns. Michael co-founded Melen LLC, parent company of SmartSites, upon graduating from Cornell University in just three years.
