Singapore 
Singapore
Malaysia
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a big part of any digital marketing strategy. With its ability to generate high-quality traffic and help with lead generation, SEO often forms a powerful backbone behind any digital marketing initiative. SEO can get very technical, and many companies looking to benefit from its strategies often need guidance to ensure they get the most out of their initiatives. To this end, SEO is most often one of the things an agency gets called in for.
Luckily for us, 2Stallions’ SEO team is incredibly well equipped and highly qualified. In this issue of #2STeamStories, Vijay Mali, Senior SEO Specialist at 2Stallions, takes us through his career and current role at our agency.
Hi Vijay! Tell us a bit about yourself.
Hi, My Name is Vijay Mali, 27 years old and I’m from India. After completing my studies in Computer Science, I worked for several companies to figure out my area of interest. I started my career as a web designer, but unfortunately, I wasn’t really interested in design, so I looked for new opportunities. Eventually, I came across SEO – search engine optimization – through one of my old colleagues and went on to learn some basics.
Now, I’m an SEO Specialist backed by 6 years of experience. I’ve even started adding new skills and developing them in the digital marketing field like paid advertising.
What attracted you to 2Stallions? What is it like working at the agency?
On the 1st of August, it will have been three years since I joined 2Stallions. Honestly, what attracted me to the agency is the work culture. I haven’t worked at any company in my career that has a company culture like 2Stallions or offers learning opportunities the way they do here. I’ve learned a lot at 2Stallions, and continue to learn with the help of my colleagues. The bonus point of working at a marketing agency is that you have great experiences with clients, and so you learn through that too.
What made you settle on SEO as a career?
As I mentioned before, at the beginning of my career, I was trying to find my area of interest and came across SEO through a colleague. When I started as a web designer, I found it wasn’t as interesting as I had hoped. As a result, I sought to find out more about digital marketing, and eventually found myself in SEO.
What really drew me to SEO was that it lies at the core of digital marketing. I realized that the Internet is built on millions of websites, and all those websites want to rank higher on search engines. I realised that by deepening my knowledge of SEO, I could help millions of companies improve their ranking. That was the moment I found my interest in digital marketing and I finally chose my preferred speciality.
Can you share with us a little about what’s expected of the role of SEO specialist?
SEO is a long-term process and it is not done overnight, it takes time and you need to wait for good results. With a good foundation and patience, SEO can benefit you and it will help you in the long run.
The fundamental role of SEO is to improve a website’s presence in a search engine; to rank pre-specified keywords and drive quality traffic to websites and convert leads and eventually grow client business. Here are the key roles and responsibilities for any SEO Specialist:
- Initial Market or Product Research for Client Website.
- Initial Website Audit and Analysis.
- Initial Research About Competitor and Competition.
- Detail Website Audit, Product or Service Research, Competitor Analysis.
- Comprehensive List of Keywords Research That Lead to Improve Client ROI
- Develop SEO optimization strategies that increase the Clients website search engine results rankings
- Set measurable goals that improve in marketing efforts and ROI
- Monitoring search algorithms set by major search engines like google, Bing and Yahoo to keep up with changes in the SEO landscape.
- Stay Connected with other marketing experts to align goals
- Update Web content and website links for maximum optimization and search engine rankings.
- Prepare In Detail Content Requirement and Explain to Content Writer to make copy SEO Friendly and Search Engine Friendly.
- To Deal With SEO On Page, Off Page and Technical SEO Part.
- Analyzes, reviews and implements changes to websites so they are optimized for search engines.
- Search, Evaluate and Outreach Industry Specific Webmaster for Backlink Opportunity.
- Monitor Weekly performance metrics to understand SEO strategy performance
- Strong analytical skills and data-driven thinking
What excites you most about the industry?
Nowadays, digital marketing is a rapidly growing industry everywhere in the world. As most of the companies and reputed brands are in the process of upgrading their digital space. Many companies are undergoing digital transformations, shifting online, and as a result, often require expert digital marketers to help manage their website in such a way that can drive more targeted audiences for his or her business.
SEO is a big part of digital marketing and it is one of the best ways to drive organic traffic to your website and convert them to paying customers. SEO is an amazing way to draw customers through the business full, converting them into buying customers. So that excites me most about the Digital Marketing (SEO) industry and I want to help as many businesses as possible to build a strong organic presence.
What is the most challenging part of your job?
The most challenging part of my job is fulfilling client KPIs and improving their websites’ organic presence. At the same time, Google and other search engines are rapidly updating their algorithms to provide users with the finest search experience. SEO experts and site owners have to constantly upgrade their optimization strategies to the new online environment. Otherwise, if search engines review and revise their algorithms, website keywords ranking will be affected. That is the biggest challenge for SEO.
