Two Brothers.
One Shared Obsession.
We're Ahmed and Abd Shanti. Twin brothers from Palestine who somehow turned a childhood obsession with the internet into an agency that helps brands get found by every algorithm that matters.
The Real Story (Not the Marketing Version)
Here's how this actually started. Two teens in Palestine with one shared laptop, a terrible internet connection, and an irrational belief that the internet was going to change everything. We weren't wrong about that last part, but boy did we underestimate how much work it would be.
People always ask about the twin thing. "Do you finish each other's sentences?" No. But we do finish each other's code reviews, which is honestly more useful. Abd handles the strategy, the client relationships, the big picture thinking. Ahmed handles the technical implementation, the systems, the "how do we actually build this" questions. It works because we trust each other completely and argue constantly. Both are necessary.
We started Outline Technologies in 2015, back when SEO was simpler and the idea that AI would someday answer people's questions for them sounded like science fiction. Back then, you could rank a page by writing a 500 word blog post with the keyword in the title three times. Those days are gone so thoroughly that remembering them feels like recalling a different industry entirely.
The name "Outline" came from how we think about problems. Before you build anything, you outline it. Before you write anything, you outline it. Before you can improve someone's visibility, you need to outline where they stand and where they need to go. We're the people who draw the map before the journey.
Over the last decade, we've watched the search landscape transform from blue links to answer boxes to AI generated summaries. Each wave killed agencies that couldn't adapt and created opportunities for those who could. We adapted every time, not because we're smarter than everyone else, but because we're constitutionally incapable of ignoring new technology. When ChatGPT launched, we didn't panic about it killing SEO. We spent three weeks reverse engineering how it decided which brands to mention. Then we built a methodology for getting our clients mentioned too.
Today, that methodology has become our entire service model. Nine services, three pillars, one obsession: making sure the algorithms (all of them, search and AI alike) recognize our clients as the most authoritative, trustworthy sources in their space. Not through tricks. Not through hacks. Through genuine depth, technical excellence, and the kind of consistency that compounds over years.
Same DNA. Different Superpowers.
Co-Founder / The Builder
Ahmed Shanti
The one who builds things. Websites, audit tools, automation scripts, server configurations. If it involves code, data, or systems architecture, Ahmed is already deep in a terminal window making it happen. Reads AI research papers at night for fun. (Abd finds this concerning but professionally useful.)
Co-Founder / The Strategist
Abd Shanti
The one who talks to clients and translates business goals into technical strategy. Thinks in frameworks, speaks in metaphors, and has an annoying habit of being right about market trends six months before they happen. Started doing SEO at 17 because he wanted to rank his own blog. The blog didn't survive but the obsession with algorithms did.
A Decade of Figuring Things Out
The Beginning That Nobody Asked For
Two teenagers in Palestine who spent way too much time on the internet figured out that businesses needed help getting found on Google. Nobody took us seriously at first. Why would they? We were building websites on shared hosting and learning SEO from blog posts at 2am. But we landed our first client (a local restaurant) and tripled their Google Maps visibility in six weeks. That got people's attention.
Growing Pains (With Emphasis on Pain)
We took on everything. SEO, web design, social media, print design, logos, business cards. If someone asked for it, we said yes. That was a mistake because being okay at twelve things is worse than being great at three. But it taught us what we actually cared about: the algorithmic side. Search engines, data, systems. That's where our brains naturally went.
The Focus
We dropped everything except SEO and web development. Revenue dipped for two months and then shot up. Turns out, clients prefer hiring specialists over generalists. Who knew. (Everyone knew. We were just stubborn.) This was the year we decided to go all in on understanding how algorithms think, not just how to trick them.
The Expansion
We started working with international clients. Projects across the Middle East, Europe, and North America. Our approach hadn't changed much: understand the algorithm, build what it rewards, measure obsessively. But the scale had changed. We were managing sites with millions of monthly visitors and the patterns we learned at that scale made us better at everything.
AI Changes Everything
ChatGPT launched and we immediately understood: this was going to reshape how people find information. While most SEO agencies panicked about AI killing search, we saw an opportunity. If AI is going to answer people's questions, someone needs to make sure it gives the RIGHT answers. That someone might as well be us.
GEO Before It Had a Name
We started optimizing content for AI citation before anyone called it GEO. We tested what made ChatGPT mention certain brands. We studied how Perplexity chose its sources. We built our own auditing pipeline to measure AI visibility. By the time the industry caught up with terminology, we had a year of data and methodology already working.
Nine Services, One Obsession
Today we offer nine services across three pillars: Search Visibility, Growth Engine, and Build. But they all connect through one insight: algorithms reward genuine authority. Whether it's Google's PageRank, ChatGPT's citation logic, or Perplexity's source selection, the pattern is the same. Be genuinely useful. Be consistently present. Be technically excellent. That's it. That's the whole secret.
Our Values (The Real Ones, Not the Poster Ones)
Data Over Opinions
We've had heated internal debates about strategy at 11pm. You know what settles them? Data. Not who argued louder. Not who's been doing this longer. The numbers. If the data says we're wrong, we change our minds. If the data says a client's idea won't work, we say so honestly instead of billing for something that'll fail.
Honest Over Impressive
We'd rather tell you 'this will take 6 months' and be right than say '30 days guaranteed' and be lying. Some clients don't want to hear that. That's fine. Those clients end up at agencies that over promise and under deliver, then come back to us anyway. We'd rather lose a pitch than lose trust.
Learn or Die
The SEO playbook from two years ago is partially obsolete today. The AI landscape from six months ago is already different. If we stop learning, we stop being useful. Ahmed literally reads AI research papers for fun. (Abd thinks that's weird but appreciates the competitive advantage.)
Build Things That Last
We could write hacky code that works today and breaks next month. We don't. Every website, every system, every strategy we build is designed to compound over time. Quick fixes feel good for a week. Solid architecture feels good for years.
Want to Work With Us?
We're selective about who we work with. Not because we're snobs, but because we give every client our full attention and there are only two of us running this show (plus our amazing team).
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