Interviewing Erin Rooney Doland

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 Erin Rooney Doland! Erin is an SEO Strategist for Amsive Digital (formerly Path Interactive). She explains her job as 75 percent detective and 25 percent problem solver. She has been in marketing and communications in some form for more than 20 years. She's written a couple bestselling non-fiction books on organizing and productivity, writes fiction under a pen name, and is a minimalist and digital nomad who lives full time in an RV traveling North America.

We asked her everything from how she first got into SEO to what empowers her to be the brilliant woman she is 💪🏽

How did you get into SEO?

I ran an online media company for a decade and to stay at the top of our niche market, we had to compete against some very big names for those top spots in the search results. This was in the late 2000s and early 2010s, so my early focus was content SEO. Over time, it evolved into a much more technical scope. But the beginning was all about content SEO.

What is your favourite SEO task?

Performing audits and developing strategies. My brain loves puzzles and these two tasks are my brain's love language.

What is your go-to tool or resource that you can't live without?

Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time in Botify. When I’m laying eyes on a new project, it helps me to identify a number of problem areas I need to more deeply investigate.

What is something you learned in SEO that made you have an 'AHA' moment?

Not a specific moment, but every time I delve into Google patents I feel like I understand their search algorithm on some super secret level. If you want an insider's look, too, in what might be coming in the future, direct your browser to:

https://www.uspto.gov/patents-application-process/search-patents

What is your proudest industry achievement?

I have had a lot of moments in life that other people would assume would be at the top of my list—being a guest on The Today Show, being profiled in The New York Times, having a recurring column for years in a major national magazine. Okay, yeah, those are pinnacle moments, and they felt amazing. But I’m not sure they really helped anyone, and helping other people is what keeps me going in this industry.

So, this seems like such a small thing, but in the last year (in the depths of the pandemic) I helped a small, brick and mortar, local business fight to get control of their Google My Business profile. Someone who had no affiliation with the business had claimed and verified it, posted inaccurate information about the business, and was refusing to relinquish the account. After months of effort, I was able to convince Google of what was happening and the owner finally got control of the profile. I then worked to optimize the listing—and literally overnight the business started experiencing a significant increase in new customers and profits (on the scale of 400 percent growth the first month).

I don’t do a lot of work with small businesses, so I don’t usually get to see such a definitive and direct correlation between SEO efforts and profits. I’m most proud about work like this; knowing that I got to be part of keeping a business afloat during a horrible economic time.

What advice would you give women who are starting out in SEO?

Give a shout out to a woman in the industry who inspires you and tell us why

I'm a fan of so many women in SEO. The SEO team at Amsive Digital is packed with incredible women—Lily Ray, Lauren Welles, Sarah Gray, Dayna Lucio, Sarah Domingo, Bambi Frazier, Liz Backo, Mackenzie Gignac, Dakota Elliott and Ashleigh Hudzik—whom I learn from every day.

Then there are the generous and brilliant women across the globe whom I look up to: Areej AbuAli, Tory Gray, Joelle Irvine, Jasmita D’Souza, Diana Richardson, and so many more. The thing that connects them all is their willingness to support women in this industry, and I admire them greatly for it.

Finally, what empowers you to be the brilliant woman you are?

Carpe curiositatem, carpe vitam.
Seize curiosity, seize life.

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Thanks Erin for a truly insightful interview, you can connect with Erin on Twitter and 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! 🙌🏽