Welcome to a new WTSInterview edition, where we interview brilliant SEOs in our industry and share their stories with the world! WTS members are welcome to share their story by simply filling out this form; we encourage folks from all walks of life in our industry to do so.

Introducing Dian Puspasari! Dian is an SEO Specialist with over five years of experience helping small and medium-sized businesses, as well as nonprofits, grow their online presence through search engines. Originally from Indonesia, she spent the last few years living in the United States before recently moving back to her home country.

Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her cat, Max, and volunteering both online and in-person with animal rescue organizations. She supports these organizations through hands-on animal care as well as helps manage their websites, SEO, or Google Ad Grants, which allows her to combine her passion for animals with the skills she does best.

How did you get into SEO?

I was part of a mentorship program that was a partnership between the university I attended and one of the prominent football teams in the United States. The program was designed to help guide students as they prepared to enter the job market and navigate the fields they were most interested in.

At the time, my main interest was social media because I already had a couple of years of experience in that area. But after a few sessions with my mentor, he suggested that I look into SEO because the field was growing. To be honest, I didn't think much of it at first because I was so determined to pursue a career in social media.

The turning point came during a mock interview, which I failed. It was so discouraging for me, but it pushed me to consider my mentor’s advice about SEO. I started researching the skills listed in SEO job descriptions, followed people in the SEO community on Twitter, and also signed up for free trials of several SEO tools. All of that effort helped me land my first SEO position.

What is your favourite SEO task?

My favorite SEO task is analyzing a website’s performance through analytics tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Microsoft Clarity, or Bing Webmaster Tools. I really enjoy looking at the queries people are searching for and the different channels a website gets traffic from. I also like being able to share those insights with other departments, like the social media or paid teams, so everyone can make better decisions based on the data. I’ve always loved seeing SEO as part of the bigger marketing picture.

What is your go-to tool or resource that you can't live without?

It’s so hard to pick just one, but if I had to, I’d say Semrush because I can do a lot of things within the platform, such as website performance analysis, competitor analysis, blog content ideation, and rank tracking.

What is something you learned in SEO that made you have an 'AHA' moment?

My AHA moment was realizing that SEO is not a standalone project, especially nowadays as search engines and LLMs have become so sophisticated. They look at a website as a brand and gather information from many different places across the web. That made me realize SEO is now heavily tied to brand-building efforts, which is why it’s so important to collaborate with other departments like social media, content, web development, PR, and paid teams to make sure the website (and the brand) gets the visibility it needs and business goals are achieved.

What is your proudest industry achievement?

One of my proudest achievements was helping one of my clients gain massive exposure in both AI and traditional search through the content I created for them, not only for local searches but also national searches. For example, one of their informational blog posts gained over 1k% increase in clicks, 300% increase in impressions, and 800% increase in traffic YoY from Google Search alone. The post was also featured in AI Overviews for national searches. For a local business in a smaller city in the US, those numbers were huge.

What advice would you give those starting out in SEO?

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes because that’s how you learn and grow. Sometimes being too afraid to make mistakes is what prevents us from doing the things that actually work.

Give a shout out to a person of marginalised gender in the industry who inspires you and tell us why

I can’t thank Areej AbuAli enough for being such an amazing person and for providing me and so many others with a safe space to grow, not only professionally but personally through WTS. Managing a community is not an easy feat and takes a lot of work, but she makes it happen.

I’ve been fortunate enough to receive opportunities through WTS that I probably wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. For example, I was able to attend Google I/O because of WTS. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me and I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to attend.

What empowers you to be the brilliant person you are?

I would say it’s the drive within myself to always do better and the ability to pick myself back up after setbacks. I’m also not afraid to go the extra mile and put in the work to achieve the things I really want.

Finally, how does it feel being part of the Women in Tech SEO community?

I feel so lucky to be part of this space and it has helped me become more confident every day. I’m naturally introverted, but I’m so inspired by the people in this community that it’s encouraged me to learn how to express myself more.

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Thanks, Dian, for a truly insightful interview!

Check out our Interviews page for more interviews. If you've enjoyed reading this, we'd love for YOU to share your story with the world! Simply fill this form here, we welcome brilliant SEOs from all walks of life! 🙌🏽