# Michael C. Hurley

> 20 Years of SEO, Now AEO/GEO · Technical Web · AI Agent Tooling. Search and growth operator with 20 years of SEO (2005–present), now focused on AEO and GEO. Founded the local SEO agency studioTWELVE, ran all operations at SEO agency White Fox Studios for nine years, did SEO for his own restaurant, owned marketing and martech as CTO of a real estate SaaS, and now leads SEO at Hustle Launch. Builds the sites being optimized: production Next.js, Convex, and Stripe sites plus the AI agent tooling around them, and writes and teaches technical SEO for answer engines and browsing agents.

Canton, NC · [828-593-1935](tel:+18285931935) · [michaelmonetized@gmail.com](mailto:michaelmonetized@gmail.com) · [michaelchurley.com](https://www.michaelchurley.com) · [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelchurley) · [GitHub](https://github.com/michaelmonetized) · [X](https://x.com/michaelh_rley)

## Core Skills

- **AEO / GEO:** llms.txt and agent-readable (Markdown) content, AI crawler policy (training vs. retrieval bots), JSON-LD structured data and entity markup (Organization, Person, FAQPage, sameAs), citation-focused content structure, measuring AI citations and referrals
- **Technical SEO:** server rendering vs. client-rendered content, crawlability and indexation, sitemaps and robots.txt, information architecture and topic clusters, page performance, local SEO and Google Business Profile, directory citations and NAP consistency
- **Analytics & reporting:** PostHog, Ahrefs, SpyFu, first-party event tracking, user-intent analysis to prioritize roadmaps
- **AI & agents:** MCP-based agent harnesses, multi-agent orchestration, token-efficient HTML-to-Markdown ingestion for LLMs, OpenRouter, Claude Code / Cursor workflows
- **Engineering:** TypeScript, Next.js (App Router, SSR), TanStack Start, React, Convex, Vercel, Stripe API, Clerk, Bash, PHP, Swift, Rust

## Experience

### Director, [Hustle Launch](https://www.hustlelaunch.com)

**Feb 2024 – Present · Performance marketing and web design agency serving businesses in FL, SC, GA, NC, and TN**

- Lead SEO and local search delivery for client accounts: Google Business Profile, directory listings and citations, link building, and editorial placements.
- Wrote a full technical SEO and GEO audit and phased roadmap for hustlelaunch.com covering structured data gaps, rendering, IA and topic clusters, and AI crawler policy, sequenced into a 4–6 week foundation sprint and a 6–10 week architecture and performance phase.
- Built a 50+ directory NAP citation checklist used for client local-SEO audits.
- Built the Assessment Toolbar Chrome extension (2024) that opens the current page in Google's Rich Results Test, the Schema.org validator, PageSpeed Insights, WAVE, SpyFu, and other audit tools in one click.
- Build and maintain client and agency sites on Next.js, Convex, and Vercel, plus My.HustleLaunch.com, an AI marketing SaaS with a Buffer integration.

### Contract Product Engineer, Zaxby's Franchising LLC

**Aug 2024 – Feb 2026 · Sylva, NC, then Waynesville, NC · Martech, product engineering, and DevOps for the Zaxby's "Zamily" franchise network**

- Built and shipped YourZaxbys local store marketing (LSM) and operations software that ZFL franchise owners could license for their stores.
- Contracted to train on site first at the Sylva, NC store (Aug 2024 – Mar 2025), then in Waynesville, NC, learning store workflows firsthand before building the software.
- LSM: store-level pages (menu, catering, events, community, careers) with location-specific metadata, event promotions, and a guest satisfaction survey; local growth playbook covering Google Business Profile, events, and partnerships.
- Ops: live shift dashboard (sales, labor % vs. goal, speed of service, COGS %, SMG guest satisfaction) fed by PAR, Crunchtime, Berry-AI, and SMG CSV ingestion; above-store dashboards for stores, schedules, audits, and reports; hiring, onboarding with encrypted SSNs, checklists, and Steritech tracking.
- Stack and DevOps: Next.js, Convex, Clerk, Recharts, Vercel, CI gates, Sentry, PostHog, Resend. Demos: wwwyourzaxbyscom.vercel.app, waynesvilleyourzaxbyscom.vercel.app

### Founder, [HurleyUS / Michael Monetized](https://www.hurleyus.com)

**Current · Independent products and open source**

- Technical SEO in the Age of Agentic AI (Sep 2026): 68-page, 10-chapter field guide on pages that people and browsing agents can understand and use (rendering, structured data and entity facts, crawler access policy, measurement), with a workbook, four sector playbooks, and a Python page-inspector toolkit with tests.
- url-to-md: CLI that converts HTML pages to clean Markdown for LLM ingestion, cutting token usage by about 40% compared with raw HTML.
- shagent / agent-os: Bun and TypeScript agent harness using MCP and OpenRouter, and a shell-native multi-agent orchestrator with a real-time WebSocket dashboard.
- stripe-convex: reusable Stripe + Convex payments package (checkout, cart, coupons, 19 webhook events).
- Ship and run production sites on Next.js, Convex, Clerk, Stripe, PostHog, Sentry, and Vercel, including michaelchurley.com, bestwnc.com (Western NC local business directory), and uncap.us.

### Chief Technology Officer, Realay.com (Kaibo, LLC)

**Mar 2023 – May 2024 · Real estate SaaS platform · Overlapped White Fox Studios and Hustle Launch**

- Owned product engineering plus all marketing and martech development for a real estate SaaS platform, while the sales side handled outbound sales and partner onboarding.
- Took the product from a WordPress MVP to a React build.

### Director of Operations, White Fox Studios

**Feb 2015 – Feb 2024 · SEO agency**

- The owner's only direct report; ran all agency operations: SEO strategy and delivery, sales, marketing, client delivery, and growth; built internal software and client systems.
- Built and still maintain the Rotary Swing iOS app.

### Earlier SEO and Marketing Roles

- **Franchise Partner (LSM), Papa John's franchise partnership** (May 2014 – Feb 2015): Franchise partnership that dissolved; the role included local store marketing (LSM).
- **Co-Owner / Operator, Hurley's Creekside Dining & Rhum Bar**, Maggie Valley, NC (Jul 2010 – May 2014): Rebranded and relaunched his restaurant, ran operations, marketing, and SEO; grew annual revenue from $1.3M to $5.33M.
- **Founder, studioTWELVE**, South Florida (2007 – 2010): Web design and local SEO for small businesses in South Florida; grew annual net profit from $50K to $387K.
- **Production Manager, Signs R Us** (2005 – 2007): Production management with SEO as part of the role.
- **Software Developer and Systems Administrator, Lowcountry Today** (2005 – 2009): COBOL and ColdFusion applications, Windows Server administration, banner ad design.

## Education

- **B.S. Computer Science**, College of Charleston (2003–2007)
- **A.A. Commercial Graphics**, Trident Technical College (2001–2003)

## Site

- [Home](https://www.michaelchurley.com/): Resume and contact
- [Book a call](https://www.michaelchurley.com/book): Schedule a 30-minute call with Michael
- [Portfolio](https://www.michaelchurley.com/portfolio): Sites, interfaces, and marks
- [Blog](https://www.michaelchurley.com/blog): Build logs and notes on web development, SEO, and AI agents
- [How this site is built for AI search and agents](https://www.michaelchurley.com/aeo): Every machine-readable surface, with live links and why each exists
- [Technical SEO Field Guide](https://hustle-revenue-path.michaelh-rley.chatgpt.site/field-guide): Technical SEO in the Age of Agentic AI (68 pages, workbook, toolkit)

## Machine-readable

- [/llms.txt](https://www.michaelchurley.com/llms.txt): This file: Michael's resume in llms.txt format
- [/llms-full.txt](https://www.michaelchurley.com/llms-full.txt): The whole site as Markdown: resume, every page, portfolio, and every blog post
- [/agents.md](https://www.michaelchurley.com/agents.md): Usage guide for AI agents: endpoints, .md routes, MCP and WebMCP tools, booking, contact
- [/resume.json](https://www.michaelchurley.com/resume.json): Resume in JSON Resume (jsonresume.org) format
- [/portfolio.json](https://www.michaelchurley.com/portfolio.json): Portfolio pieces with titles, categories, media, and live links
- [/blog.json](https://www.michaelchurley.com/blog.json): Blog posts with title, slug, URL, date, description, tags, and Markdown link
- [/resume.md](https://www.michaelchurley.com/resume.md): Resume as Markdown
- [/feed.xml](https://www.michaelchurley.com/feed.xml): Blog as RSS 2.0
- [/feed.json](https://www.michaelchurley.com/feed.json): Blog as JSON Feed 1.1
- [/openapi.json](https://www.michaelchurley.com/openapi.json): OpenAPI 3.1 description of the JSON endpoints, Markdown routes, booking API, and MCP endpoint
- [/mcp](https://www.michaelchurley.com/mcp): Remote MCP server (Streamable HTTP, POST JSON-RPC); Server Card at /mcp/server-card
- [/aeo](https://www.michaelchurley.com/aeo): How this site is built for AI search and agents (case study with live links)
- Markdown for any page: append `.md` to its path (for example https://www.michaelchurley.com/index.md, https://www.michaelchurley.com/blog.md, https://www.michaelchurley.com/portfolio.md) or send `Accept: text/markdown`
- Agent tools: the MCP server at https://www.michaelchurley.com/mcp and in-browser WebMCP expose resume, portfolio, blog, page Markdown, search, and booking tools (get_booking_options, get_availability, book_meeting). See https://www.michaelchurley.com/agents.md

## Optional

- [Full site as Markdown](https://www.michaelchurley.com/llms-full.txt)
- [github.com](https://github.com/michaelmonetized)
- [x.com](https://x.com/michaelh_rley)
- [www.linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelchurley)