🎤 WTSFest Philadelphia up next on October 7th
🎟️ Tickets also on sale for Melbourne, London, & Portland
🎤 WTSFest Philadelphia up next on October 7th
🎟️ Tickets also on sale for Melbourne, London, & Portland
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 Maggie Swift! Maggie Swift, co-founder and CEO of Unframed Digital, leads the only SEO agency dedicated exclusively to the architecture and interior design industries. With over a decade of experience, she delivers measurable growth through tailored digital strategies. Maggie’s clients, including Rocky Mountain Hardware and Engel & Völkers, rely on her expertise to enhance their digital presence.
A sought-after speaker and workshop leader, she helps brands thrive in competitive markets, managing over $3 million in annual SEO click value. Maggie’s lifelong passion for design drives her commitment to supporting businesses and craftspeople in the built environment.
Like most marketing agency founders, we started our business doing anything and everything that someone would write us a check for! Ultimately, this led to a complete operational failure and bogged down numerous processes in our operations and sales.
We got to the point where we needed to niche down our services, and I went into analysis mode. Quantitatively, we had more clients in SEO than in any other service. Qualitatively, we loved SEO because it was so data-driven and provided the most impact to our clients’ bottom line. We feel that a website is a business’s most important asset. We are not just about increasing revenue for our clients, we are focused on long-term increases to their profit margins through optimized foundations. SEO allows us to focus on those important aspects and goals.
I love the data and reporting side: analyzing various data points to decide next steps, looking at the numbers that tell the success or failure of tactics. SEO is essentially a series of creating hypotheses and running tests, so when we are able to validate our assumptions, it feels really good.
Reporting is exciting too. We are so passionate about SEO becoming the most profitable marketing channel that when we report on those wins, it’s everything that we work for. I am not just talking about revenue or profit growth either: our clients see a shift from seasonal revenue peaks and valleys to sustained revenue month after month, a value that surprises many of them.
Right now, it’s AlsoAsked. I don’t think it’s that obscure anymore, but I still meet people who haven’t used it much, and they’re missing out. It’s one of the few tools that really helps me get out of the keyword mindset and start thinking more like how a user thinks. When I’m working on content outlines or trying to add depth to a page, it gives me that “next layer” of context, the kinds of follow-up questions real people are actually asking.
That’s where I often find the real intent behind the search. Sometimes a pattern in the questions completely changes how I approach a topic or even helps me reframe a page’s structure entirely. I use it alongside search results, forums, and client insights - obviously, it’s never just one tool, but AlsoAsked is usually what gets me unstuck when I’m feeling too zoomed in on individual keywords. It connects the dots in a way that makes content feel more human.
It hit me when I was staring at Google Search Console and realized that nothing I’d done on–page or off–page was moving the needle—until I fixed my metadata. I had a long-form guide ranking around position 12 with a dismal 1.2% click-through rate.
So one afternoon, I rewrote the H1 and title tag from bland copy to something that actually spoke to the reader’s pain point and promised an outcome. Before, it was “How to Choose a Mattress: The Ultimate Guide”. My change: “Find Your Perfect Mattress in 5 Simple Steps (No More Tossing & Turning)”. I also tweaked the description to lead with a clear hook - “Discover the five sleep-science secrets top brands won’t tell you.” Within ten days, impressions remained steady, but the clicks tripled, and my ranking shot up into the top five results. That’s when it really sunk in: SEO is about human psychology and copywriting.
Building Unframed Digital into something real and trusted, and being a business owner. That’s what I come back to the most. We aimed to repair the broken agency-to-brand relationship and foster a culture where people felt appreciated, valued, and supported. We are people over profits, always. This not only shapes our team internally, but it also adds accountability to our ethos. Accountability is the basis of a trusting relationship, and in a world where there are a lot of bad players, we need to do everything we can to foster transparency and do great work.
Start small and start curious. It’s easy to get overwhelmed because SEO touches so many areas - tech, content, analytics, and UX. It’s hard not to want to master everything, but in reality, you shouldn’t be the master of every area of SEO. Pick one piece that feels approachable, like content or on-page structure, and just start experimenting.
Also, don’t get discouraged by slow progress. SEO takes time, and sometimes the early wins aren’t visible yet. However, you learn the most by doing - testing things, observing the results, and making adjustments. That loop teaches you more than any course or blog ever will. You cannot have an ego in SEO - it is a constant state of learning from others, admitting mistakes, and starting again. Don’t ever stop asking questions.
Kari DePhillips, owner of The Content Factory and one of the founders of the Sisters in SEO Facebook group.. She has cultivated an AMAZING community of badass women SEOs that come together, share knowledge, and support each other. We have learned a great deal from this community, and even more importantly, we have connected with some amazing contractors who help us fulfill our client services. This is a community built from the goodness of her heart, a passion for SEO, and a desire to give back. I am passionate about sharing information, and I admire any business leader who shares the same sentiment. We truly are better, together.
Childhood trauma that causes anyone to be an overachiever…it’s true! But where I really find my mojo is in my endless curiosity and the acknowledgment that I can always learn from someone. I wouldn’t be where I am today without my network of mentors, and as long as you continue to be vulnerable with people, you will get magic handed to you on a silver platter that takes you to the next level.
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Thanks, Maggie, for a truly insightful interview!
You can learn more about Maggie on her website and connect with her on LinkedIn.
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! 🙌🏽