Interviewing Mandana Rafat

Welcome to a new WTSInterview edition, where we interview brilliant SEOs in our industry and share their stories with the world! WTS members are welcome to share their story by simply filling out this form; we encourage folks from all walks of life in our industry to do so.

Introducing Mandana Rafat! She is an independent Growth Advisor. Experienced in SEO, CRO, information architecture, content strategy, and product-led growth, she specializes in transforming challenges into opportunities for acquisition, engagement, retention, and revenue growth.

How did you get into SEO?

I actually started as an in-house marketer and quickly found my niche in paid marketing, PPC specifically. This took me to my time at an agency where I was brought in to round out their search marketing efforts. The SEO director quickly left and I ended up taking over our retainer services business and eventually all digital operations. Since SEO was the core focus I spent the majority of my time building and executing SEO plans.

This led me to information architecture and that's how I took over all operations. We were building websites that I needed to eventually optimize and investing in the IA early on was a game changer. From here I found myself knee deep in tech for the last 5 years where I've led organic growth and been responsible for bottom line impact.

What is your favourite SEO task?

I love building out the overall SEO strategy inclusive of forecasting and building annual and quarterly roadmaps. My work often involves creating IA strategy and building content taxonomies which I truly enjoy.

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

At it's core, SEO is about user psychology and intent. To be truly effective you have to understand what motivates users first and foremost. So as ridiculous as this sounds I would have to say the internet. The access to research and pop culture spaces is something we likely treat as a given but it's what I know I can't live without.

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

My aha moment came earlier this year when I realized how critical SEO is in our AI-driven world. There is not AI without IA and while IA is UX principle or at least known as such, it's equally a part of SEO and often overlooked. IA and structured data are going to become requirements as opposed to nice to haves.

What is your proudest industry achievement?

While at Skillshare, I completed all the product discovery and pitched an overhaul of our core product (class catalog) taxonomy system and metadata and establishing an information architecture strategy to unlock organic growth and unblock key SEO needs. I secured exec buy-in and this worked achieved number one company priority status.

This is notable because similar initiatives were pitched in the past and always turned down. This body of work was a full time job but I managed it like a project and had two months to deliver a massive undertaking. Post launch I increased the website conversion rate by 20%, return visits by 22%, averaged engagement time by 15% and decreased bounce rate by 13%. I've spoken at two conferences this year alone referencing this work.

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

Make sure to prioritize internal education and the art of getting buy-in. Far too often execs expect SEO to behave similar to paid marketing and therefore expect the same results in the same timeframe. Marketing attribution is directional tool for all channels to complement one another not compete for resources.

This is going to be a challenge so prioritize getting alignment from key stakeholders. This will alleviate a lot of potential future frustrations, remove unnecessary road blocks and make sure your work is being evaluated accurately and fairly.

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

There are so many amazing women in the industry that come to mind. I want to shout out Elena Verna. Her perspective on growth (SEO is one part of her focus) really highlights some of the advice I just shared above.

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

I'm a first generation immigrant, technically, more of a second generation immigrant. I have three older brothers. Being the youngest and growing up in a predominantly white community in Toronto I was different and always had to find a creative ways to get important messages across.

I recall a social post that talked about second generation immigrants having a specific kind of empathy as we have to relate to our life at home and the world around us. This all really resonated with me. I've always had a motto and in hindsight I think my background is how I came to crystallize it - I strive to be effective, not to be right. And it's served me quite well :)

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Thanks, Mandana, for a truly insightful interview!

You can learn more about Mandana on her website and connect with her on LinkedIn.

Check out our Interviews page for more interviews. If you've enjoyed reading this, 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! 🙌🏽