Meet our New Head of Content: Hannah Smith

Hi everyone! I’m Hannah, and I’m thrilled to be joining the amazing WTS team as Head of Content. Some of you may know me already, but for those of you I’ve yet to meet, here’s a little bit more about me.

Career to date

It’s been kind of a wild ride, and if I’m honest, I’ve never had any sort of plan. I left school at 18, and was the manager of a Ladbrokes betting shop by the time I was 19.

At 20, I somehow persuaded my Area Manager to put me forward for the District Manager training programme. Part of that programme involved working with various head office departments – one of which was marketing. Like many folks who work in retail, my dream at that point was to find a job which didn’t involve working at weekends, so when a job role came up in the marketing department I applied for it, and got it.

My first marketing role was Retail Marketing Exec – I got business cards and I remember feeling like a proper grown up. I spent a couple of years working in Ladbrokes’ marketing department, and learned tonnes, before taking a job at competitor betting company, Coral.

At Coral, I got the chance to broaden my marketing experience – in addition to retail marketing, I worked on Direct Mail, Advertising, Sponsorship, Events, and even a little PR.

By this point I’d been in the betting industry for close to ten years, and I really wanted a change. So, I took a job at a marketing agency called Gravytrain. Originally, my role was to market the agency itself, but pretty quickly I found myself working directly on our client’s PPC and SEO campaigns.

From there, I took a role at Distilled – initially working as a technical SEO, and then later I switched to content strategy, and creative content campaigns (today we call this Digital PR, back then we called it various other things!). Over a five and half year period at Distilled, I was part of the creative team which delivered over 14,000 pieces of linked coverage for our clients.

From Distilled I moved to Verve Search, where, for close to three years, I led the creative and PR team. In that time I was responsible for launching more than 150 creative content pieces which generated over 8,250 pieces of linked coverage.

I left Verve Search in 2019, and set up my own company, Worderist.com. Through this company, I most often work as either a Fractional Head of Creative, or a Fractional Head of PR for agencies and inhouse teams; plus I also offer creative content consultancy, content strategy, training, and executive coaching.

WTS & me

I’ve been a part of WTS from the beginning :)

Back in 2019, when Areej said she was thinking about creating a space to help people like her in Technical SEO connect, grow, and thrive in the industry; I said: “Count me in!”, and I’ve been involved in WTS in various ways ever since:

• I attended our first meet-up at a coffee shop in Waterloo
• I was the first person to speak at a WTS event
• I acted as emcee and spoke at our first WTSFest in London, and at our first WTSFest in Philadelphia
• In 2022 I ran our first live-cohort WTSTraining course over Zoom to support 8 WTS members in creating their first speaker pitches
• In 2023 Areej launched the WTSKnowledge initiative and brought me in to act as Editor
• I devised, organised, and delivered a session at our WTSWorkshop day in London, in 2025.

A photo of Hannah, and all of the attendees at the first WTS event on 11th June 2019.

In addition to this, I’ve also helped support our local WTSFest emcees; and provided feedback and support to many of our WTSFest speakers over the years.

Looking ahead

I’ll be working as Head of Content for WTS on a part-time basis, whilst continuing to work with my amazing clients at Worderist.

As you’ll have seen in the section above, I’ve been involved with WTS in various ways, and on various projects over the years; and I’m so excited that I now have the chance to do even more to continue to build this amazing community, and support the people within it.

To me, WTS is a place of reciprocal magic. People make deep connections here – they find kinship, opportunities, and they raise each other up. Every time you show someone here that you believe in them, it helps them believe in themselves. And in turn, when they show you that they believe in you, it helps you believe in yourself.

I’m beyond grateful to Areej and Erin for their continued belief in me, and for giving me this incredible opportunity to serve this community.

If you’d like to connect, you can find me on LinkedIn, and of course, in the WTS Slack community.