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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 Tianna Mamalick! Tianna Mamalick is an SEO strategist and founder of SMB Marketing, known for her signature approach to uncovering keyword opportunities she focuses on high-impact phrases with strong intent and low competition that actually drive conversions, not just traffic. With over 11 years of experience, Tianna helps small business owners cut through the noise of AI-generated content by using data-backed storytelling and smart keyword strategy to get found by the right audience at the right time.
I actually started my career in finance (and hated it). It felt disconnected from the kind of work I wanted to do. Then I took a market research course in college and everything clicked. I loved understanding how people think, make decisions, and search for information. I started writing blogs and quickly realized there was this entire world of SEO where you could study how people search the internet and use that to help businesses get found. That’s when it all came together for me. I leaned into helping small businesses show up online for services people are actually looking for, and built my entire approach around identifying keyword opportunities that drive real results.
I will always love looking for keywords and understanding topic clusters the most. It is so interesting to be able to test and track how people actually search the internet and what will trigger different pieces of information to show up.
I started my own agency just to be able to use SEMRush. I love how robust the tool is. I do also have a soft spot for Ubersuggest it’s not as robust but the keyword idea tool has always been my go too and still outperforms any other tool.
When creating SEO focused content (as I take a very content and conversion focused approach to SEO) I realized that people struggle to figure out what keywords have the best opportunity cost. Meaning which keywords have high volume and low difficulty. I started adding a value column to my keyword lists. I divide volume by difficulty to give me an organized list that outlines what keywords have the highest opportunity for a business. Really just organizing by what keywords have best volume with the lowest difficulty and it has been a game changer for how I approach and create strategies.
This will be almost silly as I have many great client achievements but my proudest moment was when I was doing a presentation to a smaller group of business owners and after making a statement about the importance of category pages (which I believe still work!) someone looked it up and said “oh she’s right ChatGPT agreed”. True genuine validation that I can trust my own knowledge. My second largest achievement is supporting a client that has been with me for 8 years now. They started as a business of 2 lawyers and now run a successful business with over 14 employees. They get on average 15 leads a month organically. They trusted me and while they are hyper local it has been great to see them grow especially since they are a niche service.
The SEO industry is changing fast but it is important to learn while staying true to your values and using the knowledge you have tested. While I believe firmly in being ahead of the tech curve it’s also ok to keep doing what works. I also feel like it’s important not to fear AI. Our roles may change but the internet will always need people to help (especially small businesses) navigate tech to accomplish their goals and people will always be searching (it just may not be with what we are using now).
Britney Muller past Moz SEO scientist. I love how she speaks about SEO, has this amazing passion, but also has other passions and has so much well rounded experience in the industry. Also major shout out to Areej AbuAli who created Women in Tech SEO, finally someone who made a space for people who love SEO as much as I do.
I believe in the power of passion. I love what I do and when I talk about it people see that (then they let me do it for their companies) it is an amazing and beautiful gift. My goal is to keep sharing my passion and hopefully it will rub off on others!
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Thanks Tianna, for such an insightful interview!
You can learn more about Tianna on her website and connect with her on Linkedin too!
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! 🙌🏽