Working as an SEO

My experience in the digital world amounts to roughly four years now. However, this experience crosses many borders of marketing, site building, eCommerce, SEO and more. Yet, I’ve had a “wake up” moment during month 6 working as an in-house SEO coordinator for a number of different travel brands – not something I have previously done. My freelance work and “jack-of-all-trades” experience has taken me far, but working with a structured company has really changed my view on search engine optimization, how I work, and my opinions of the future.

As a lover of content, I quickly found a place for myself handling many of the content creation processes for about 4 different brands. I enjoy being a part of the user experience as they read and digest what our pages have to offer. Keep in mind, these are just some important takeaways from my first six months working in house for someone other than myself. These do not reflect high touch SEO practices, and shouldn’t be taken as facts or a baseline for all agencies or in house departments. To keep up with my employment and achievements, consider visiting my LinkedIn profile.

How My Opinion of SEO Has Changed

The good: I now LOVE content even more, and I have a newfound appreciation for the “hacker” mindset that true optimization has grown from. As search engine optimization has changed throughout the years, and for different search engines as well, the “hacker” mindset has helped SEO’s to generate an out-of-the-box way to approach marketing, which I can appreciate. I feel like I’ve learned so much more about the breadth of optimization and just the general upkeep of much larger sites – something I would’ve never been able to get my hands into.

The bad: honestly, nothing about SEO. The only aspect of not working for myself is dealing with clients and stakeholders. While this component is often easy to do, as most of the individuals I report to are quite helpful, some push back in ways that are puzzling. I often find myself more stressed about meetings and calls, than I actually do about the projects I’ve completed.