The Secret Life of Jenni

A huge part of my job is generally glossed over or not even mentioned when I’m introducing myself to people or being introduced by others. This is the SEO (search engine optimisation) part. It’s not like it’s a secret, but it’s definitely something I’m not a big fan of pushing offline. After thinking about why everyone (including me) takes this approach, I’ve boiled it down to two main reasons:

1. It’s difficult to explain what I do

When I went to Rome in July, I found myself having to explain what SEO is to a few Jamesian conference attendees. In that context, I tend to describe it in a way that a) helps people understand and b) presents it in a way that is understandable and interesting for them. Part of my explanation was that ‘I write to appeal to search engines like Google’. This seemed to interest them, as it was a type of writing they’d never considered before, and it was a field they were intrinsically more interested in (compared to say link building or keyword research). It’s tough to find that balance between not being too technical and not being condescending though.

My parents can’t remember my job title. Ever. I’ve pretty much given up with that one. It’s one thing explaining it to people, but to explain it to people who are then going to go on and explain it to other people…it’s not going to happen. I think they vaguely understand what I do, but not how I do it or what it’s called. The other part of my job, social media and blogging, is much easier to explain so that’s the bit I tend to focus on.

2. It brings in an element of competition

Sometimes there will be occasions where it makes more sense to not mention the SEO factor. A lot of the work, tactics, strategies and resources I use I like to keep hidden. I don’t want to invite questions about how I get sites ranking, not because there’s anything wrong/unethical with what I do, but because I don’t want to help a potential competitor or give too much away for free. If it sounds like I’m being paranoid, I probably am, but it’s not worth the risk. It takes hours to find decent resources for links, come up with ideas, contact people, write content and everything else I do. It’s never public in the way that the social media and blogging is, and I don’t even tend to write blog posts about SEO. If someone asks a question about SEO in relation to their site, I’m happy to answer where I can help. I just don’t want to give my own secrets away.

You’d think it would be weird, kind of like leading a double life, but it’s not. A lot of people think that social media is the better and more enjoyable half, but it’s not always true for me. I love doing backlink analysis and finding out more about sites and the people behind them; it’s kind of like rummaging through someone’s house, and I’m ridiculously nosey so I love that. SEO is also a bit like playing detective, hunting down what people have done and when, what their strategies are, what their sources are and so on. It can get frustrating with plateaux and sticking points in rankings sometimes, but that’s part of the job. The main thing is that my job is so varied with SEO, blogging and social media in addition to lots of other things like project managing, making sales, closing deals, customer service and many other business-y type things. I never get bored, and I love that.