John Battaglini is Director of SEO at OuterBox, the Akron, Ohio, ecommerce and performance marketing agency. Raised in Ohio's Mahoning Valley in a family of entrepreneurs, he spent 14 years at Verizon Wireless and ran a freelance design and marketing business before joining OuterBox in 2018, where he worked his way up through the search team.
The Mahoning Valley and Verizon Wireless
Battaglini grew up in the Mahoning Valley of northeastern Ohio, in a family of entrepreneurs, where he says on his personal site he found his interest in both technology and marketing. He learned early, he writes, that many people "make the decision to do business based on price but stay because of people."
After high school he earned an associate degree in travel and tourism and a bachelor's degree in communications management from Jones International University. He moved into leadership roles in telecommunications, including 14 years as a supervisor at Verizon Wireless, from 2000 to 2014.
Starting My Valley Marketing
After a layoff notice in 2013, he started My Valley Marketing, a small freelance design and marketing business, which he says built up both his design skills and his business sense. From 2014 to 2018 he freelanced for local businesses in the Ohio Valley on web design, development, and marketing, while also working as an account executive for YP, the Yellow Pages company, and later in sales for AT&T Mobility.
Rising Through OuterBox's Search Team
He joined OuterBox in November 2018 as SEO operations manager. Over the next five years he served as director of search engine marketing, director of client services, senior SEO strategist, and associate director of SEO, and in October 2023 he became director of SEO. His LinkedIn profile describes more than ten years leading SEO for enterprise, ecommerce, and B2B companies.
In 2025 he recruited an SEO strategist for the agency's Essentials team in a LinkedIn post, writing that 20 years on, OuterBox was "still growing, evolving, and innovating."
He lives in Salem, Ohio, and since 2012 has served as an elder and presiding clerk on the board of Damascus Friends Church.