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 Sarah Fitzpatrick! Sarah is an SEO and organic growth consultant with more than 11 years of experience across agency, in-house, start-up and now as an independent SEO consultant. Her expertise spans SEO strategy, technical SEO, content, AI search and organic discovery. She believes the future of search is not just about ranking on Google, but about helping brands become visible, trusted and chosen wherever their audiences are searching. Sarah helps businesses turn complex search challenges into clear, practical strategies that drive sustainable growth.

How did you get into SEO?

Via sports journalism. I had to research what people were currently interested in searching about a specific sport and then I had to write articles about that area which led me into SEO and how it all works.

What is your favourite SEO task?

My favourite SEO task is taking a complex website or business challenge and turning it into a clear, prioritised SEO strategy. I enjoy digging into technical performance, content, search behaviour and organic performance data to understand what is holding a brand back and where the biggest growth opportunities are. The most satisfying part is connecting all of those insights into a practical roadmap that teams can understand, implement and measure.

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

Google Search Console

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

One of my biggest “AHA” moments was realising that SEO does not work in isolation. It is connected to content, UX, brand, PR, product, development and almost every other part of the customer journey.

Strong, accessible technical SEO foundations are critical. You can have a stunning website, but if search engines cannot properly crawl, understand or index it, it will struggle to be found. From there, driving traffic is only valuable when you understand the intent behind the search and create an experience that helps the user take the next step.

That is why I see CRO & UX as an important part of SEO. Rankings and clicks might get someone through the door, but relevance, trust, accessibility and a clear path to conversion are so important to your SEO driving real business impact.

What is your proudest industry achievement?

I could say my proudest achievement was:

• Building an organic growth function from scratch and helping make ChatGPT a top-three organic revenue channel.
• Reviving SEO across eight languages and increasing the acquisition conversion rate from 5.9% to 9.1%.
• Making organic search responsible for 50% of web bookings across a group of Irish hotels.
• Increasing US organic revenue by 500% for an international retailer.
• Supporting an electronics retailer as it grew from €1.8 million to €3 million in revenue, while completing two website migrations without losing rankings.

However, my proudest achievement was backing myself and launching my own independent SEO consultancy and launching sarahfitzseo.com

Building my own brand, defining my services and winning clients through my reputation, network and outreach has meant more to me than any individual traffic or revenue figure.

It proved that the knowledge and experience I have built over more than 11 years can stand on its own, and that I can use it to create something that is entirely mine.

What advice would you give those starting out in SEO?

My advice would be to work at a marketing agency early in your career, if you get the opportunity. It exposes you to SEO across a wide range of industries, websites and business models, which helps you build strong problem-solving skills very quickly.

You also learn how SEO connects with content, paid media, social, PR, development and the wider marketing strategy. Managing different clients, priorities and challenges teaches you how to communicate clearly, adapt your approach and focus on what will create the most impact.

Agency life can be fast-paced, but that is exactly why you learn so much. It gave me a broad foundation that I have carried throughout my career.

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

I do not have one particular person in the industry I could honestly name as a singular personal inspiration. What has inspired me more has been the collective support I have seen from people of marginalised genders in SEO, particularly those who share opportunities, recommend each other and create space for others to succeed.

Since going out on my own, much of the encouragement, collaboration and paid work I have received has come from this group in the industry, and that sense of community has been incredibly meaningful to me.

What empowers you to be the brilliant person you are?

“Keep your face towards the sunshine and the shadows will fall behind you.”

That is the mindset I try to carry with me, especially now that I am self-employed. Building something of your own can be exciting, but it can also be uncertain, unpredictable and occasionally terrifying. Not every opportunity works out, not every week looks successful and sometimes progress feels much slower than you hoped.

What empowers me is choosing to keep moving forward anyway. I focus on what I can control, celebrate the small wins, learn from the difficult moments and trust that consistent effort will eventually lead somewhere worthwhile. For me, positivity is not pretending everything is easy. It is believing that the hard days do not get to decide where you are going.

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

I am new here but already I have had multiple calls, intro and messages from people here which has been super helpful to expanding my network.

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Thanks, Sarah, for a truly insightful interview!

You can learn more about Sarah 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! 🙌🏽