Orit Mutznik
Head of SEO at SilkFred.com
Orit recalls how she got her dream SEO role in her dream location. Her recommendations: Burst through the door, use the element of surprise and outwork everyone else. Yes - all of that as part of your job application.
About Orit
Orit jumped into SEO over 11 years ago, and has been leading SEO teams since 2011. After leading eToro’s SEO department for two years, she made the jump from Tel Aviv to London in 2018 to head up SilkFred’s SEO efforts. Her other skills include ASO, Content Marketing and Digital Marketing.
The Overkill Approach To Scoring Your Dream SEO Role
“…If you want a job as a senior SEO, a site audit is one way to show you will go above and beyond. But you may worry that if you give away too much, the company can use your report without hiring you. However, I think you should always look to do something like this for two reasons:
1. Highlighting potential problems is only half the story; they still need the “how to fix”, which is where your real value lies.
2. When the stakes are high, you show you are more willing to put in extra work to set yourself apart from the crowd.”
Q&A with Orit Mutznik
What was your first ever job?
My 1st ever job was actually quite cool, I was freelance translator from my teens for many years (Spanish-English-Hebrew) and I continued with this during my university studies and full time jobs over the years until my eldest son was born almost 10 years ago.
How did you get into SEO?
I started my career as a freelance content writer and translator and then I started doing this full time in an online company. I kept getting these SEO requirements as a part of my writing tasks and, as a curious person by nature, I wanted to know the reasons behind these so I started to learn SEO on my own free time (later on enrolled in an SEO course). Then there was a Junior SEO opening at that same company to which I applied, this was 12 years ago, and I’ve been in in-house SEO ever since. What is your favourite SEO task to do? On-page SEO & audits. I always say it makes me feel like a website’s doctor, and there’s nothing more rewarding than seeing these implementations having a direct impact on the website’s organic performance.
What inspired you to choose the topic of your chapter? Why is it important to you?
I think that the combination of confidence, people skills and professional skills is critical to advance in this industry and nailing your dream job. The reason why I chose this topic is because not enough people are aware of the fact that the combination of these 3 increases your odds of getting that job dramatically. Many people are quite wary of “giving away” everything they know on an interview and take the opposite path that might actually hurt their chances. It is in fact the opposite approach that has helped me and I wanted to share my experience.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Never stop until you get to where you want to be (my mum)
What one tip would you give someone who would like to get into SEO as a career?
Start by reading guides or a virtual course on SEO and how do search engines work (my go to are Moz, SEMRush & the SEO course by BlueArray of course - don’t go crazy with too many sources or you’ll get lost) - take those certifications and cover the basics. After that it’s following the SEOs on Twitter, joining their communities on FB/Slack and constantly follow new publications and go to conferences constantly. I learn something new every day.
What is your favourite SEO / marketing related resource or book? (other than Mastering In-House SEO of course!)
Moz, DeepCrawl & following JohnMu on Twitter!
How do you relax when you aren’t working?
I bake, probably too much :) And I enjoy discovering castles in Britain (as I’ve only been here for 1.5 years)