Published by Sue Johns-Chapman
Published Date 27.07.2026 
One category, one entry a year – and a sixth year in a row placement among the world’s best small SEO agencies.
Six years. Six entries. Six shortlists.
five elements digital has again been shortlisted for Best Global Small SEO Agency at the Global Search Awards. Only six agencies worldwide made the category in 2026.
For a small independent agency from Bucharest, this is an extraordinary validation, and we do not take it for granted. The first shortlist was exciting. The sixth means something deeper: our work has continued to stand up internationally through difficult markets, algorithm updates and now the transformation of search through AI.
We are proud of that consistency, but even more grateful: to the judges and organisers for their time and expertise; to our clients for trusting us with difficult projects – especially in difficult times; and to our team for carrying the same standard into the work every day.
Why the Global Search Awards matter to us
The Global Search Awards create a serious benchmark beyond any market. A 20-person Romanian agency can be compared to other excellent agencies from much larger economies, using the same criteria, and only the quality of the work matters.
CEE has exceptional digital talent, but not always the budgets or visibility of larger markets. Being selected repeatedly proves our team, with that specialised knowledge, precision and persistence, can bring you further than just geographic proximity. It also makes the Awards a place where work from very different markets becomes visible and celebrated.
Small agency. Enterprise SEO.
five elements digital is a boutique enterprise SEO and performance marketing agency based in Bucharest, serving mature and highly ambitious businesses across Romania, CEE and Western Europe. We began in 2009 inside newsrooms and opened our expertise to the wider market in 2018. Overall, specialization was the key factor for sustaining growth against a difficult market in 2025.
Publishing SEO remains our deepest specialism. Eight of Romania’s ten leading publishing houses are active clients, and each month more than half of the country’s internet users visit websites we optimize. Other specializations we deeply pursue is our work with industrial and B2B companies, classifieds platforms (jobs, real estate, horizontal platforms), medical (dentistry and hospital chains) major e-commerce websites and multi-location businesses.
We call this market leader SEO. Most of our clients are either leaders defending their visibility and position as number #1 in the market, or challengers determined to become such detached leaders. This work is not about easy growth curves. It is much easier to lose out against to stay where you are, and it means aligning management, editorial, marketing and development teams, changing organisations as well as websites, and turning strategy into implementation.
Our founder, Steffen Heringhaus, previously served for many years as CDO at Ringier in Romania, one of Europe’s leading multinational publishing groups. This year-long experience inside a mature media business gives him the perspective needed to serve highly ambitious companies: understanding management priorities, organisational realities and ownership for sustainable results, many years in a row, which he has woven into five elements digital’s DNA.
He is also a lecturer in SEO and AI at SNSPA – the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, a judge at GPeC, Romania’s largest e-commerce event and competition, and Learning Chair of EO Romania.
The year behind our entry
2025 was not an easy year for SEO in Romania. Economic stagnation and political uncertainty delayed investments, while AI gave clients new reasons to question content budgets, search strategies and agency models.
We responded by becoming more focused and useful. We exceeded our annual revenue target, increased average contract value by more than a third, and grew paid media from one specialist into a profitable three-person unit contributing more than 12% of turnover. We also launched AI visibility audits and retainers that won their first international clients within a quarter.
We rebuilt and documented our workflows, allowing a leaner editorial structure to remain productive without abandoning a principle that matters more than ever: content must still be useful, original and made for people.
Two projects that represent our work
CNN Romania. When Antena 3 relaunched as Antena 3 CNN, we joined the core team shaping the transformation. We worked with editorial leadership on the content concept, trained the newsroom, supported technical changes and organised content around three horizons: immediate traffic, mid-term topical authority and long-term authority.
Within twelve months, the website rose from number 22 to number seven among Romanian publishing sites. Search traffic grew 20% year on year, while Google Discover traffic increased more than sixfold. The growth was overwhelmingly non-branded: earned visibility, not borrowed fame. Last month they closed #6 in national ranking, and on many individual days they hit #2 nationwide for the first time.
Aan ATV ecommerce website. A counterexample of how we can be useful to small businesses if they are determined: This niche e-commerce business had stagnated for two years before our collaboration began. We rebuilt its indexing architecture around long-tail spare-parts demand, strengthened commercial landing pages and used targeted link building. When implementation with their team stagnated, we helped find a practical route forward to getting things done.
Over two years, organic traffic roughly tripled and revenue grew two-and-a-half-fold. It proves something central to our work: excellent SEO is not reserved for the largest budgets. Precision, patience and cooperation can change a business.
What the sixth shortlist means
A sixth consecutive shortlist does not tell us that we have arrived. It tells us that the way we work is worth continuing.
This recognition belongs first to our team and clients. It also belongs to the Global Search Awards community: the organisers, judges and fellow finalists who make excellent work visible and give agencies everywhere a reason to compare and improve.
Congratulations to Aperitif, Deviation, Kia Ora Digital, Search Engine Results and Seed Digital. We are honoured to share the shortlist with you.
Thank you to the Global Search Awards for recognising five elements digital for the sixth year in a row. We will come to Dublin grateful, proud – and still ambitious enough to hope that six may be our lucky number.
Learn more about five elements digital, explore our enterprise SEO services, or connect with us on LinkedIn.
