Welcome to a new
Introducing
How did you get into SEO?
My start in SEO was quite accidental - my background is in journalism and having moved out of London to Essex, I fell into a copywriter position at Absolute Digital Media. I IMMEDIATELY fell in love with the whole idea of SEO and digital marketing, and with so much to learn, I naturally progressed over to account management!
Since then, I've worked with clients on a huge number of campaigns across every industry imaginable (if you ever want to know anything about hair transplants or FCA compliant copy, then I'm your girl), juggling content creation, tech SEO and offsite.
What is your favourite SEO task?
Deep diving into analytics and performance. SO MUCH DATA.
Unlike PPC where you can make tweaks and changes for immediate impact, SEO is a much slower burner (as we all know). So when it comes to the data collection and analysis side of things, you can get a really good understanding of how a campaign is performing, before it may be completely obvious to the client. Reporting is your chance to turn around and say 'look at how fantastic this campaign has been'.
What is your go-to tool or resource that you can't live without?
My go-to tool has to be SEMRush - there's almost nothing it can't do!
In terms of a resource, that has to be Twitter. The amount of communication and resource sharing and insights that I obtain from Twitter on a day-to-day basis from all of the wonderful people in the industry is crazy. For me, Twitter isn't a doom-scrolling situation. It's all about information gathering, learning and interacting. Social media might be a bit of a dire one at times, but the community in this industry really does shine a bright light on it.
What is something you learned in SEO that made you have an 'AHA' moment?
Doing the 'right' things in a checklist fashion doesn't always work. There's always going to be a foundation that you should build and follow, but SEO needs to be very bespoke for every single website - even if it's in the exact same industry as another campaign which is performing amazingly well.
What is your proudest industry achievement?
Booking my first speaking slot at a virtual conference then booking in a slot to speak at BrightonSEO within a few months of each other. I'm quite a confident person but when it comes to public speaking, it's always a bit of a nightmare. But putting together my deck, doing the run-throughs, it really does give you that 'you know what, I can do this' feeling. And just throwing myself out there and doing them, that's my proudest achievement.
What advice would you give women who are starting out in SEO?
Don't be afraid to let your voice be heard. As someone who is relatively young (and also 5ft 1 so looks about 12 years old!), it's so easy to feel quite intimidated when you're walking into a boardroom of corporate people to do a pitch or hold a meeting.
Quite often, you might feel out of your depth. But own it. Be confident in yourself and your knowledge and your ability and you'll very quickly make that first impression be one of 'Well, she really knows her stuff'.
Give a shout out to a woman in the industry who inspires you and tell us why
Aleyda Solis - the energy, the knowledge, the commitment to the industry, her need to share her knowledge. There's so much to learn from her!
Kirsty Hulse - Even in the short period of time that I've worked closely with Kirsty, she has given me so much more confidence in myself and my abilities. She makes me excited to see what I can do moving forward and without her, I'd probably still be tapping away in the background rather than pushing myself forward!
Finally, what empowers you to be the brilliant woman you are?
The motto: "Own the room!"
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Thanks Sophie for a truly insightful interview, you can connect with Sophie on Twitter and LinkedIn.
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