Mastering SEO & Content: Q&A with Leading Women in the Industry

What does it take to overcome the toughest industry challenges in SEO and content marketing today?

Google data leaks. Algorithm updates. Career growth challenges. AI-generated answers in search. Inclusivity in tech. The spammification of search results. Gender pay inequality.

Many women in tech and digital marketing face a unique set of challenges across our industry—and therefore, have a unique set of knowledge and strengths that can help you powerfully climb the SERPs and the career ladder.

This panel digs in to share their strategies, experiences, and tips in a Q&A style event.

In this session, panelists cover:

• Significant challenges they or their clients encounter in SEO and content marketing today, and strategies to address them directly

• The most compelling metrics, data points, or resources they use when making a business case to clients or leadership

• Tools or resources that have been particularly effective in driving results or growth

• Best ways to build a strong career and professional authority in content marketing and SEO

• Unique challenges encountered as women in a traditionally male-dominated field and how all of us can best address those challenges

• What changes are needed most in the digital marketing industry

There were a TON of audience questions we ran out of time for in this session. Keep scrolling on this page to see some of the Q&A. 👇👇👇

Top 3 takeaways from this session

Watch the full discussion below for all the good stuff, but here are a few highlights:

1. In a highly competitive and volatile search landscape, international SEO presents competitive opportunities for teams that are willing to test and invest. Take risks, design and execute tests, and explore areas of SEO you haven’t before to stay competitive.

2. Creating strong business cases and solid forecasts is crucial for addressing challenges in resource management, gaining leadership support, and establishing professional credibility. Always document the results of your work!

3. If they can, I can. For career growth, do a little more flexing in professional spaces that feel intimidating. Respect goes both ways. And be open to opportunities that stretch you, use empathy to guide your marketing strategy, and recognize imposter syndrome can signal a strength in conscientiousness.

Watch the full webinar

Panelists include:

• Tory Gray, CEO and founder of the boutique digital marketing agency Gray Dot Co and passionate mentor in the Women in Tech SEO community

• Jess Joyce, accomplished SEO consultant and a front-end developer whose unique perspective blends technical expertise with strategic insight.

• Chima Mmeje, content marketer and strategist at Moz and the founder of The Freelance Coalition for Developing Countries, a UK nonprofit providing free resources and training for marketers.

• Amanda Natividad, VP of Marketing for SparkToro and content marketing educator with a successful newsletter of over 15K subscribers.

• Louise Persson, international SEO strategy specialist and Head of Marketing and Ops at Adriana Stein’s globally successful AS Marketing Agency

More details about the experts below. ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️

Live session FAQs

Q: How should we deal with cookie issues in European markets that make tracking sessions via GA4 harder?

Cookie consent for GA4 tracking is a tricky thing. First step? Test strategies to increase cookie consent across your site to determine which ones increase consent acceptance without frustrating organic visitors.

And while this doesn’t resolve attribution issues, in a pinch, you can use tools like SpyFu, Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz, etc., for organic traffic estimation by country.

For more information resolving this issue, connect with Louise Persson and her team over at AS Marketing — they do international SEO in 30 languages! That’s a lot to track and attribute while keeping varied international laws in mind.

Q: How could we reach potential international clients without resorting to cold calling or emails?

Digital global networking is a good start!

SEO-focused slack channels like Top of the Funnel, Women in Tech SEO, The SEO Community, etc., can help you connect with content and SEO professionals from all over the globe.

Many of these moderated Slack groups include discussion channels for jobs and freelancer needs from all over the world.

Q: How do you forecast how long it will take for your client to see results?

Many SEO and content marketing professionals typically tell their clients that it takes 6-12 months to start seeing results. But for clients in more competitive industries it may take up to 12 months or more to see significant results.

Ultimately? It depends.

The length of time it takes for a website to see results from implementing a new strategy will depend on several factors—like whether the client is investing in a comprehensive SEO strategy, if they have existing content already, the competitiveness of the client's industry, the primary goals of their SEO efforts, and more. Consider the following:

• Is your client’s primary goal to grow traffic and brand authority?

• Are they looking to increase leads ASAP?

• Do they want to acquire more customers from a specific locale?

Your client’s primary goal will influence their strategy—along with the results forecasting and time estimations you provide to those clients.

Q: When clients ask to forecast predictions on numbers for a specific period or project, what approach should we take to provide solid forecasts?

To provide a solid SEO forecast, start with historical data.

Next, determine the average month-over-month (MoM) growth rate for the prior year and use that information, along with any increase in resources into production, to influence your MoM growth rate for forecasting.

To forecast organic traffic conversions from SEO-focused pages, calculate the monthly conversions per organic visits for those pages. Then determine the average MoM conversion rate. Use that rate to inform your forecasted conversions.

For detailed instructions, Louise Persson shared her AS Marketing template for international SEO forecasting for SaaS companies. Tap here to get it — and see the tab labeled “SEO Forecast (SaaS only),” which is second to last in the tab set.

You can also check out this Search Engine Land SEO Forecasting Template for additional examples.

Q: How can a UGC program help with rankings?

A UGC program can help consistently create helpful content that offers new perspectives and information gain, which can help your website rank better in Google search results and distinguish it from generic AI generated content.

For an in-depth look at how UGC can help you with SEO, check out Tory Gray’s Winning SGE with UGC Clearscope Webinar.

Q: We’ve been testing Bernard Huang’s Ranch-Style SEO technique as part of our strategy, and we have also reduced SEO keyword usage in our content. Can this help with rankings?

Keyword inclusion is still important—but old school spam-like keyword repetition can be problematic and even harmful to your rankings. So repairing that outdated practice of unnatural keyword repetition in your content is a smart move.

But what is even more important is producing high quality content that targets the correct search intent. Read more about Why search intent optimization beats keyword optimization here.

However, creating perspective-driven content based on a Ranch-Style SEO approach—while sharply targeting a core search intent in each individual content piece—will build a powerful content library that offers:

• A better user experience to your target audience, as they’re interacting with content that better meets their search needs in the moment

• A possible reduction in bounce rates and higher engagement rates, as a ranch-style SEO approach focuses on perspectives and the “next click” after that first organic visit

• More opportunities for robust internal linking practices

…All of which can signal to search engines that your content is valuable to searchers.

To learn more about Ranch-Style SEO, read How to implement Ranch-Style SEO: 7 Successful frameworks or check out Bernard’s webinar with Chima Mmeje over on the Practical Marketer Webinar Series from Moz.

More about the experts:

Tory Gray

Tory Gray is CEO and Founder of the boutique digital marketing agency Gray Dot Co, where she brings a fresh perspective (and a little levity!) to search marketing, market intelligence, and data. In her 15+ years in the industry, she’s become a dynamic SEO leader with a keen ability to spin up big-picture strategies backed by the numbers. Her knack for knowledge-sharing and human kindness shine as a business leader, senior SEO advisor, and passionate mentor in the Women in Tech SEO community.

Find Tory on LinkedIn or Twitter/X.

Jess Joyce

Jess Joyce is an accomplished SEO consultant with extensive experience across in-house, agency, and digital realms, complemented by her background as a front-end developer. With a career rooted in a deep understanding of the internet’s trajectory, Jess brings a unique perspective to her work, blending technical expertise with strategic insight. She remains at the forefront of industry trends, crafting innovative SEO strategies that drive tangible results for her clients. Passionate about the ever-evolving digital landscape, Jess is committed to staying ahead of the curve and leveraging emerging technologies to propel businesses toward success.

Follow Jess on LinkedIn or Twitter/X.

Chima Mmeje

Chima Mmeje is a content marketer and strategist at Moz, where she's aiming to position the company as the authoritative source of truth in the SEO industry. She's also the founder of The Freelance Coalition for Developing Countries, a UK nonprofit providing free resources and training for marketers of color.

Follow Chima on LinkedIn or Twitter/X.

Amanda Natividad

Amanda Natividad is VP of Marketing for audience research startup, SparkToro. In her spare time, she writes a marketing newsletter called the Menu (with over 15K subscribers) and teaches Content Marketing 201. She’s also a contributor for Adweek, a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef, and a former journalist. Amanda previously led marketing for Growth Machine, led marketing for Liftopia, built Fitbit’s B2B content program, and led content and communications for NatureBox.

Follow Amanda on Twitter/X or LinkedIn.

Louise Persson

Louise Persson is the Head of Marketing and Ops at AS Marketing, a digital marketing agency offering growth marketing in over 30 languages. With a specialty in international SEO strategies, Louise has successfully managed both B2B and B2C projects targeting markets throughout Europe and the US. She loves to zoom out and see the big picture as much as she appreciates a deep dive into the nitty gritty. From crafting holistic marketing strategies to selecting the perfect words, no aspect is too big or too small to be perfected.

Connect with Louise on LinkedIn.

About the in-house host:

Amanda Johnson

Amanda is the Sr. Marketing Manager at Clearscope—joining the team after years of being a big Clearscope fan. She's a seasoned content-led SEO strategist whose people-first approach to SEO has resulted in going from 3-figure organic clicks to 6-figure organic clicks in 18 months. She’s worked in content marketing for nearly a decade, both on in-house teams as well as a 5-year stint running her own business as a freelance content marketing consultant. She loves testing new tactics, exploring new ideas, and analyzing results, and jokingly refers to herself with her UX copywriting BFF as a "content scientist."

Follow Amanda on LinkedIn.