
Director of Technical Marketing at Yahoo!
San Francisco Bay Area

Director of Technical Marketing at Yahoo!
San Francisco Bay Area
I have 8 years of experience, concentrated primarily in two areas:
1. Conducting a strategic approach to SEO (rather than just building to general SEO basics). This includes determining where search traffic opportunity is, how much of it there is and what its worth, competitive insights (what do we need to build into our product to have a chance at outranking our competitors), and prioritizing areas within a site to go after search traffic based on where the most opportunity is.
2. Building the process and system needed to support successful internal long term SEO programs. This primarily involves looking at the process, people and tools in place to make sure content management & publishing systems are optimized, people are trained, and the tools and resources they need are in place, including the right data in order to take actionable measures based on data (again, rather than just building to general SEO basics).
I have a web development and a marketing background, and have worked with all aspects of SEO (see keywords right below this). I have worked with small businesses, large corporations and venture capital investors. I have also trained individuals and teams around the globe, and I am a regular speaker at industry conferences.
I currently manage the only team of SEOs at Yahoo in the US, which requires getting buy-in from executives, prioritizing among dozens of Yahoo properties, setting strategy for finding and going after opportunities, and organized multitasking.
Here are some of the aspects of SEO I touch on at Yahoo:
SEO strategy
Competitive search insights
SEO tools
SEO data
SEO analytics
SEO analysis
SEO education
SEO recommendations
SEO implementation
SEO training
SEO automation
SEO analysis
Biz dev SEO
Design SEO
Engineering SEO
Web dev SEO
Development SEO
SEO bugs
SEO in QA process
SEO reporting & KPIs
SEO/SEM balance
Social media & SEO
Offline to Online campaigns
Strengths Finder 2008: 1. Futuristic, 2. Includer, 3. Competition, 4. Woo, 5. Positivity
Strengths Finder 2006: 1. Includer, 2. Self-Assurance, 3. Learner, 4. Acheiver, 5. Positivity
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; YHOO; Internet industry)
September 2008 — Present (11 months)
See Group Program Mgr, Search Strategy description
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; YHOO; Internet industry)
February 2008 — September 2008 (8 months)
Work with leads on 20+ Yahoo properties to set SEO direction and priorities around search traffic opportunity.
Integrate SEO into anything that might hit a page or its source code, working closely w/ Biz Dev, design, engineering, web dev, editorial, QA & marketing teams.
Educate, train, and provide SEO resources for all product teams.
Work with teams that create CMS & publishing tools to automate as much SEO as possible.
Work with PPC marketing, marketing strategy, and surfing teams to define, measure & collaborate on keyword driven efforts.
Our team also defines & delivers SEO reporting & analysis, writes & executes SEO test plans for QA, provides SEO insights into partner deals, creates & executes internal and external linking strategies, and builds SEO into product requirements documents, information architecture, wireframes, and product development.
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; YHOO; Internet industry)
January 2006 — February 2008 (2 years 2 months)
Build SEO program at Yahoo Media Group in the Business Intelligence Group & work w/ Yahoo on global SEO initiatives.
-Work with 100's of people on 18 of the highest trafficked properties in their verticals on the web + microsites
-Work w/ engineers on automating SEO tactics in a vast array of publishing & content tools
-Work w/ designers on creating search-friendly design modules for use across YMG sites
-Work w/ global data teams to spec & define globally utilized SEO tools, reporting & analytics
-Work w/ bus. intellignc. on providing fast answers to shifts in search-related data
-Work w/ data mining teams to identify & segregate/aggregate referral types
-Build extensive internal SEO resources for self reference & SEO how to's
-Hold education & training sessions for a variety of SEO topics
-Work w/ specialized teams to iron out tough SEO issues like AJAX opt. & tracking, video opt. & SEO process, Intl. geolocation issues, search engine related issues
(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; CNET; Consumer Electronics industry)
June 2005 — December 2005 (7 months)
Build in-house SEO program in order to get the SEO ball rolling. This included education and training, automating any possible site dev processes, creating SEO tracking/analytics, and actual SEO such as cleaning up URLs, linking strategies, on-page SEO, and working closely with the crew on individual development projects.
- Spec and work with engineers to create SEO analytics
- Determine where and how to automate parts of SEO through CMS
- Work with developers on SEO best practices & particular code implementations
- Work with designers on SEO best practices & particular design SEO tasks
- Work with editors on SEO best practices worksheets and processes
- Build internal SEO wiki for tools, reference, etc.
- Work with PPC team to determine how to balance SEO & PPC
(Sole Proprietorship; Myself Only; Internet industry)
January 2005 — June 2005 (6 months)
• Discovery: Uncover company website goals & search engine positioning situation, target market(s) and optimization possibilities
• Implementation: Architecture, wireframing, look & feel, beta testing, and site project management, all centered around target markets (personas), company goals, and search friendliness
• Website Data Analysis: Recommend & set up the most effective reporting system for each client and monitor data to discover areas of continual conversion and search positioning improvement
• Manage web design & development teams, search engine optimization consultants and pay-per-click service vendors
• Consulting, training and presentations for clients and web development teams
(Marketing and Advertising industry)
November 2001 — December 2004 (3 years 2 months)
• Assist in developing work processes
• Research and write a bimonthly marketing publication
• Plan and often partially or fully develop all interactive/media projects integrating SEO and usability
• Delegate work to, and work closely with vendors on client projects
• Interface with clients on all interactive/media projects
none , Project Management , 2001 — 2001
unfinished degree, due to getting too busy managing projects...
Associates , Multimedia , 1998 — 2000
4.0 GPA
none , Advertising Design , 1992 — 1994
unfinished, due to pursuing a skating career
SEO, group brainstorming/roundtables, social media strategies, widgets, statistics, smart people, futurists, etymology, thinking ahead, being organized, creativeness, funny things, traveling, racquetball, classic sports cars
SEMPO, San Francisco SEO get togethers, In-House SEO
Yahoo! You Rock Award