Interviewing Siobhan Swainston

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edition where we interview brilliant women in our industry and share their stories with the world! Anyone is welcome to share their story by simply filling this form, we encourage women from all walks of life in our industry to do so.

Introducing

!Based in London, Siobhan is the Head of SEO at a fast-growing SEO agency working with some of the world's largest healthcare and pharma brands. Throughout her career, she's been fortunate to work with some of the UK's largest household brands and is passionate about driving results.

We asked her everything from how she first got into SEO to what empowers her to be the brilliant woman she is 💪🏽

How did you get into SEO?

Straight out of University I applied for an internship as a digital content specialist in West London, up until this point I hadn't heard the word SEO mentioned before, but it wasn't long before I was asking myself: "Is anyone reading my content/can anyone actually find it?" and Voila!

What is your favourite SEO task?

I'm very passionate about internal linking, I feel it gets overlooked sometimes but if done properly can be a very effective SEO tactic. It's been really encouraging to see the developments made to web crawlers over the years for site visualisations etc.

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

I'm a huge fan of the web developer toolbar extension, it has so many cool features that I can play around with when digging around in HTML.

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

We don't always need to bow down to Google when it rolls out a 'major' update. I remember years ago where every site owner panicked about creating a mobile-friendly website because of 'Mobilegeddon' the agency where I was at the time, we confirmed no *significant* shifts or movements after 18 months of speculation and scaremongering from Google.

What is your proudest industry achievement?

I spoke on the E-commerce stage at Brighton SEO when I only had a few years of experience in SEO, it was scary knowing I was surrounded by a lot of people with much more experience but I'm pleased I did it and I should really volunteer again with a few more grey hairs.

What advice would you give women who are starting out in SEO?

Use data to inform your recommendations and don't always rely on blog posts.

Give a shout out to a woman in the industry who inspires you and tell us why

Aleyda Solis has always been a big inspiration of mine and her eagerness to give back to the SEO community in the creation of helpful checklists/templates/workarounds.

And then of course huge shout out to Areej AbuAli for creating Women in Tech SEO! I've been following on Linkedin for the last year and it's so encouraging to see more and more names of old work colleagues/friends talking up through the forum she's tirelessly created.

Finally, what empowers you to be the brilliant woman you are?

Complacency and repetition scares me, I've learnt that if I'm ever struggling in a role or it's feeling uncomfortable for a while, often i'm developing and challenging myself.

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Thanks Siobhan for a truly insightful interview, you can learn more about her and connect with her on LinkedIn.

To view more interviews with brilliant women, check out our Interviews page. If you've enjoyed reading this interview, then we'd love for

to share your story with the world! Simply fill this form here, we welcome brilliant SEOs from all walks of life! 🙌🏽