Welcome to a new Weekly Interviews edition where we interview brilliant women in our industry and share their stories with the world! Anyone is welcome to share their story by simply filling this form, we encourage women from all walks of life in our industry to do so.
Introducing Dina Drakatou! Based in Malta, Dina is the SEO Lead at Betsson group, a multinational company that offers numerous online gaming products. She manages a small team of SEO specialists and together every day they try to conquer Google in different countries. She was born and raised in Greece, but she is half Portuguese, and she has spent many years in Rome working in the SEO industry. In her free time, she loves traveling and dancing.
We asked her everything from how she first got into SEO to what empowers her to be the brilliant woman she is 💪🏽
It was about 8 years ago, I had finished my studies in International Relations, I had completed a project in an NGO in Rome and I was looking for a job. A digital marketing company was looking for a Greek content writer with some SEO knowledge and that was it! I started working immediately, while I was pursuing a Master’s degree in Media and digital communication. I started getting more responsibilities and after some months I moved to the SEO department.
I love challenges therefore I like doing tech SEO audits! At the same time, I believe a lot in data, so I enjoy preparing reports and analyzing data.
When it comes to free tools, I find that Google Search Console gives so many useful insights, and sometimes it is underestimated as a tool! From paid tools, Semrush has been expanding tremendously and adding so many new features. But to be honest, I couldn’t live with my beloved Chrome extensions: Link Redirect Trace and Hreflang Tag checker.
When my previous SEO boss told me to use more common sense and start asking myself if what I was prioritizing would make a difference. I start questioning everything: when you start doing SEO and you are a junior you find so many errors and you feel overwhelmed! You want to start fixing everything, but there is always the need to prioritize and choose to proceed with actions that will make an impact on the business.
In the very competitive niche of online casinos, managed to get the site from 0 (it was not even indexed!) to 200,000 organic sessions in 12 months, ranking as well all the top 5 priority non-branded keywords on page 1.
Don't be shy to ask when you don't know something. Create your own website and experiment as much as possible. Be organized and don't panic when a Google Update happens!
Feel free to squeeze in more than one if you'd like! =)
Marta's Szmidt's dedication to SEO is amazing. She is truly inspiring and her talks are amazing. I adore also Aleyda Solis and Areej AbuAli for all their initiatives.
Great things never came from comfort zones!
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Thanks to Dina for a truly insightful interview. You can check out her travel website and connect with her via LinkedIn.
To view more interviews with brilliant women, check out our Interviews page. If you've enjoyed reading this interview, then we'd love for YOU to share your story with the world! Simply fill this form here, we welcome brilliant SEOs from all walks of life! 🙌🏽