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 Helene Jelenc! Based in Slovenia, Helene is co-founder of Wallflower Studios and a trained anthropologist with an internet obsession. After a decade of travels abroad; this American settled down in Slovenia and is now helping businesses to do human-first SEO.
We asked her everything from how she first got into SEO to what empowers her to be the brilliant woman she is 💪🏽
I started blogging years ago as a hobby and one day I was curious, how do I get my website to appear in search results? This was about 7 years ago and I never stopped reading or learning about SEO. It wasn't until the pandemic when I was feeling that I needed a life change that I considered it as a career. It was the best decision I ever made.
I have so many SEO tasks that I enjoy doing, that narrowing it down is a bit difficult. I would have to say maybe auditing or research. Coming in and doing a full content and technical audit to help a business realign their content to their brand and goals is such a joy for me. I am a creative problem solver at my core and thrive in a challenge.
Research is a passion of mine so naturally, it is an SEO task I cherish. I love doing research around competitors, target audience, keywords, etc. and even creating original research projects for brands.
SEO Pro Extension for Chrome is one that gets a ton of use when I need a quick overview of a website. I've also become a bit of a Google Sheets fan over the past year and love the option to integrate custom spreadsheets into Google Data Studio.
On my travel blog, I once wrote an article about something I had an interest in and was produced not with SEO in mind. I did a lot of research around this topic, as well as cited respected sources.
The result became the most popular page on my website receiving over about 7000 pageviews a year. It received backlinks from .edu sites and is the main traffic driver to my blog.
This is when I realized SEO is not plugging in words or choosing the right search volumes. It is about creating engaging content that people are curious about in a way that is trustworthy.
Speaking at BrightonSEO last year was a huge moment for me and gave me the boost I needed to fully embrace and launch my career in SEO.
I also had the opportunity to work with BuzzSumo recently which was an incredible and surreal experience.
Network, network, network. Chances are you know your stuff, but no one else knows that yet. Join Women in Tech SEO, local meet up groups, attend conferences, choose a social media platform to use and engage with the community. All of these actions are the bits that provided me with references, jobs, and other opportunities.
This might be a bit non-traditional, but I'd love to shout out Natasha Woodford (from ClockworkTalent)for her support. When I first started out looking for work in the industry, she took the time to help me improve my CV. She saw my potential and taught me how to express my skills in a way that is appealing to businesses and I am so grateful for that.
Keep on swimming. I am serious. Keep on going, step by step, audit by audit, link by link. It is much more effective and kinder to take a steady pace than to burnout in a few months. Life is not and will never be a marathon, but it certainly is an experience.
I am also a HUGE supporter of letting everyone have a seat at the table. I have been a member of many groups and organizations over the years and I am always eager to share and help others when possible.
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Thanks Helene for a truly insightful interview. You can learn more about Helene through her website and connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.
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! 🙌🏽