Podcast Summary
Language skills in marketing: Fluency in a language can open doors to marketing opportunities and broaden your career path, especially in multilingual industries. Gaining diverse experiences can also lead to valuable skills and knowledge.
Areej Abu Ali, the founder of Women in Tech SEO, discovered marketing through a combination of her computer engineering background and her fluency in Arabic. She started her career in a marketing agency due to her language skills but was soon moved to the technical SEO team because of her strong interest. After working in the industry for several years, she transitioned to in-house roles at Zoopla and Papier, gaining valuable experience in stakeholder management and e-commerce SEO. Eventually, she decided to start her own consulting business. This episode highlights the importance of language skills and the opportunities they can provide in marketing, as well as the value of gaining diverse experiences in the industry. Additionally, it showcases the journey of a successful marketing professional and the importance of being open to new opportunities.
SEO Roles: Passion for SEO can lead to opportunities in agencies or in-house roles, each with unique challenges and benefits. Technical SEO is crucial for website success and involves optimizing the website's technical aspects for search engines.
Having a passion for digital marketing, specifically SEO, can lead to various opportunities, whether it's working in an agency or in-house. Both roles have their unique challenges and benefits. In an agency setting, flexibility and time management skills are crucial due to working on multiple clients and projects simultaneously. In contrast, working in-house often means being more embedded in the marketing team and learning various aspects of marketing, including PR, content, and design. However, there's also a need for stakeholder management and collaboration with different teams like tech and engineering. The size and organization of the company can significantly impact the role and learning experience. SEO, in general, is about improving a website's ranking on search engines, while technical SEO focuses on the foundational aspects, ensuring the website functions correctly for search engines to crawl, index, and rank it. Tech SEO is essential as it forms the backbone of SEO and a website's overall success. It's important to understand that SEO involves more than just writing content; the website's technical aspects must be optimized for search engines to access and rank it effectively.
Website priorities and optimization: Understanding a website's structure and priorities is essential for effective tech SEO. Prioritize important pages for crawling and indexing, optimize main templates, and ensure Google can understand and rank for various filters and long-tail keywords.
Effective tech SEO requires a clear understanding of a website's structure and priorities. This was illustrated in the discussion about working on large websites like Zoopla and Papier. For Zoopla, a property aggregator site with millions of pages, the focus was on prioritizing important pages for Google to crawl and index. With Papier, an ecommerce site, the goal was to ensure Google could understand and rank for various filters and long-tail keywords. Older websites, like Zoopla, have advantages from a branding perspective but can present challenges due to legacy code. Newer websites require a different approach, starting with understanding the main templates and optimizing them. Regardless of the website's age, processes and prioritization are crucial for successful SEO strategies.
Project Prioritization: Effective marketing, including SEO, requires prioritizing projects based on impact and effort. Personal values and interests should guide consultant's client and project choices for successful collaborations.
Prioritizing projects based on their impact and effort is crucial for effective marketing, including SEO. The speaker shared their experience transitioning from agency work to consulting, emphasizing the importance of choosing clients and projects that align with personal values and interests. This transition can be scary, but also rewarding as consultants have the freedom to decide what they work on. When working with businesses, the consultant's preference is to embed themselves within a team and have a clear project scope with defined deliverables and check-ins throughout the project duration. This approach ensures a successful collaboration between the consultant and the team.
Building relationships, Inclusivity: Building strong relationships and fostering inclusive communities can lead to personal growth and business success in freelance work and beyond
Building strong relationships and communication are key to success in freelance work and in creating inclusive communities, such as Women in Tech SEO. The speaker shared her experience of feeling demotivated and unrepresented in the tech industry, particularly in technical SEO, leading her to start Women in Tech SEO to connect with and empower women in the industry. The community started as a small local meetup in London and has grown into a full-time business with thousands of members and international conferences. The importance of inclusivity and breaking down exclusivity in communities was emphasized, as it allows for individuals at all stages of their careers to learn and grow together. The speaker's passion project evolved into a successful business through dedication, hard work, and the power of building relationships and fostering a supportive community.
Community building for women in tech SEO: Building a community can lead to valuable support, connections, and growth for its members. Fostering connections, mentorship, and a solid code of conduct are essential for a positive and inclusive environment.
Building a community can lead to invaluable support, connections, and growth for its members. The speaker shared their personal experience of starting a community for women in tech SEO and the significant impact it had on their own journey as well as the lives of others. They emphasized the importance of fostering connections within the community and the role of mentorship and advice from more experienced members. The speaker also highlighted the importance of having a solid code of conduct in place to ensure a positive and inclusive environment. They reflected on the learning process of implementing a code of conduct and the importance of seeking feedback from community members to continually improve it. Ultimately, the speaker emphasized that the idea of community is to facilitate connections and create a space for growth, not about the founder as an individual.
Creating a community from a problem: Identify a need, seek out existing communities, engage trusted individuals, foster quality conversations, personalize onboarding, offer opportunities for in-person interactions, and focus on quality engagement.
Creating a community from a problem starts with identifying a need and seeking out existing communities. If none exist, creating your own begins with engaging people you trust and fostering quality conversations. Personalization is crucial even as the community grows, and this can be achieved through onboarding processes, one-on-one conversations, and opportunities for in-person interactions. The ultimate goal is to create a community that becomes redundant as the wider industry addresses the underlying issues, making the community a safe space no longer necessary. The focus should always be on the quality of conversations and engagement, rather than the quantity of members.
Continued growth and learning: Keep engaging in conversations and learning to build stronger, more connected communities. Leave a review, share the podcast, and stay updated for more valuable content.
While the ultimate goal is to create a self-sustaining community where everyone feels motivated and supported enough for the community to no longer be necessary, the importance of continuing to grow and learn from each other cannot be overstated. The Girls in Marketing podcast serves as a platform for amazing conversations and connections between individuals. Until the community reaches its ultimate goal, it's crucial to keep engaging in these conversations and learning how to build stronger, more connected communities. So, if you enjoyed today's episode, please leave a review and rating, share it with others, and stay updated with Girls in Marketing on social media and their website for more valuable content.