SEO Engineer CV

Personal Profile

I am an experienced Technically biased SEO with over a decade  of experience in the Full range of Organic SEO. As an experienced internet professional having been one of the pioneers of the web in BT, I can quickly pick up new skills and technologies and apply them to new areas of work. I work well as team member and can work well with people, at all levels and am confident in presenting research and findings to both small groups and larger ones.

Skills

• SEO Strategy
  1. Structured SEO analysis including keyword analysis, link profile analysis, site structure and any problems caused by the developers.
  2. Designed and implemented suitable SEO strategies for a large number of SEO clients.
  3. Planned and managed major URL changes/site restructuring involving 301 redirections, htaccess and any required coding changes.
  4. Helped build a team of 4.5 people into a profitable cost centre.
  5. Devised strategies for a client who had penalties to recover their rankings.
  6. Devised international strategies for ecommerce site that wanted to target different countries around the world.
  7. Analysing competitors.
  8. Tactical SEO for time critical events (for example the launch of the iphone or the Google Phone).
  9. Long term planning for seasonal peaks in search and for anticipated product launches, (the new Audi A7 and A1 being two examples).
  10. Researching site taxonomy and any consequential changes to site and code.

• SEO Technical
  1. On page SEO (Title and description tags, headings, page size/speed, content, importance of external linking, Image Alt tags, Link Title tags,, page freshness, duplicate content)
  2. Url structure and canonical tags/issues url rewriting technologies (.htaccess and isapi filters)
  3. Off page factors (Link quality, link relevance, link quantity, anchor text, link relevance, link location (country)
  4. Domain, Gelocation and multi country site strategies.
  5. Web server configuration and setup.
  6. Produced detailed reports on problems and fixes required for third party developers to implement.
  7. SEO for Flash based sites.
  8. PR Sculpting and internal link structure.

• SEO Management/General
  1. Mentored team members to improve their knowledge of SEO.
  2. Managed expectations of clients and agreed long and short-term strategies with them.
  3. Represented THUK at tradeshows, Pitch meetings and in SEO client meetings.
  4. Utilised continuous improvement to refine our SEO offering and to make the team more cost effective primarily by better planning and automating tasks where possible.

• Web/Internet Skills
  1. HTML (hand coding), XML/RSS, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, CSS, ASP, PERL, Posgress, Oracle, SQLSERVER, Pl/SQL and TSQL.
  2. Built bespoke content management systems in PHP / MySQL, ASP/SQLSERVER, and Perl /Oracle.
  3. Supervised developers building sites.
  4. SMS integration.
  5. Good knowledge of the Internet protocols.
  6. Coached THUK developers in best way to build sites for SEO.
  7. Analysis of problems and developing solutions SMS integration and experimenting with Asynchronous queues for high traffic/availability sites.
  8. Experience in audio production (Cubase and Live) for podcasts.
  9. Experienced in a wide range of agile methodologies as well as formal ISO 9000 based waterfall methodology’s.

• Social Media & Link Development
  1. Facebook pages, groups and other similar sites.
  2. Twitter and SMS integration (we pitched integrating SMS and Twitter to our Audi Client).
  3. Management and coaching of content writers and rewriting client provided press releases.
  4. Use of niche specific forums/social bookmarking sites.
  5. Analyses of target sector to find high quality link candidates.
  6. Use of Video/Rich Media Content (youtube etc).
  7. Local link building strategies using Google Local and niche local sites.
  8. Use of Wiki’s to provide links.
  9. Use of news sites like Digg Reddit and so on for promoting a particular event/blog post.

• Reporting & Analysis
  1. Google Analytics and analysing raw HTML Logs.
  2. Analysing data to produce accurate projections into the future.
  3. Developed in house tool to analyse raw logs for BT Worldwide’s Intranet.

• Research & Learning
  1. Regularly read the main SEO Blogs , Matt Cutts, Daven, StuntDbl, Sphinn, Search engine land and listen to SEO related Podcasts TWIG for example.
  2. Work on in house projects and testbeds to try out new techniques and proof of concept sites.
  3. Lead informal seminars on SEO topics for team.
  4. Trained junior members to undertake more advanced tasks (e.g. simple URL rewrites).
  5. Built my own blog to develop blogging skills.

Employment History:

Aug 2010 – Current

SEO Engineer in the Central SEO team at Reed Business Information

Sep 05 – Aug 09
THUK – Lead SEO
(www.thuk.co.uk)

Remit:
• Learn organic SEO to replace out going SEO
• Help Build the SEO part of THUK to be a bigger revenue producing part of the company

Key Achievements:
• Help grow SEO clients from 6 to 25 plus 3 due to start and the team from 1 to 4.5 FTE based in two countries
• Developed and refined a project planing system to make sure all work and reports are delivered on time.
• Trained and mentored staff in SEO.
• Developed Rich Media stratergy for Local News Tv (www.local-news.tv).

2003 – 2005 Freelance

After leaving Poptel (due to the collapse of the company), I worked as a self-employed contractor for a period.
I have did a variety of programming short term contracts for example I worked on http://www.healthfarms.co.uk developing the administrative back end to allow the client to update the large amount of database driven data on the site room data special offers and types of treatment.
I passed the full 4 semester Cisco Networking Academy to systemize and expand my networking skills – with an eventual view to possibly taking the advanced design CISCO certifications and I have recently passed the Comptia Security+ exam.

2001 – 2002
Poptel – Web Developer
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poptel)

• I worked on many projects mostly for the social enterprise/charity/trade union sector. I was also involved in evaluating external products and integrating them into our solutions. I also worked on productising a paperless direct debit system which was used by several major charities and which raised favourable comment from the then e-government minister.

• I also worked on award wining accessible sites and helped develop the betsie screen reader tool in conjunction with the BBC.

• I also chaired company meetings including one very fraught meeting about company restructuring.
”

1987 – 200
British Telecom
(www.bt.com) MPG2 (plus passed board for MPG4)

• Lead Programmer in DMS an in house digital design agency (now part of BT design)

The leading multimedia development group within BT, (at the time), as their lead programmer, I mainly worked on supporting and enhancing the Odeon website http://www.odeon.co.uk. I achieved a 400% increase in bookings and helped improve the previously poor relationship with Rank/Odeon.

• BT worldwide intranet team

As a key member of BT Worldwides inter/intranet development team (eventually I became the Chief programmer) – our customers were the global sales and marketing community in all the joint ventures around the world. I worked on several inter/intranet based websites (Global Partners Marketplace Showcase) from their earliest trails to the mature systems. I was involved in the creation of a global intranet environment for BT Global (www.intercom.bt.com & wwww.showcase.bt.com)

• SIROS
As one of three developers, I helped develop an Oracle Forms development in 10 weeks to replace a paper system that managed a large proportion of the UK Internet.

I also developed skills in www (in my own time) and I was involved in a high profile project for a BT board member, which produced a system in 1 month using RAD (agile) development methodology, which another part of BT had quoted as 2 years.

• X.400
X.400 Interconnect Testing and Third line support for UK ADMD

I completed systems acceptance testing following the delivery of a new version of the Messaging software from BTNA. I have experience of writing user guides and test specifications. I have also prepared and given technical training to Systems Administration and Customer Services personnel.

I was responsible for defining and installing a process for controlling the distribution of the BT Mailbox master discs. Additionally I helped support the BT Mailbox product including some visiting some customers to install and advise them on the product.

I was involved in X.400 ADMD interconnect testing, which required me to liaise with the corresponding service support personnel around the world and resolve problems.

• Telecom Gold/Dialog Billing development

I wrote several modules for this billing product and supported the service after it went live. I was responsible for the operation and support of the old billing system during the development of TGBS. During this time, I also worked on the testing of the BT EDI service.

I assisted in development of the extra TGBS modules for X.400 billing, for example writing an extension to handle a new service or coordinating changes required at short notice by the government (e.g. VAT changes).

I provided support, (and took a proactive role in correcting major problems) to the Finance department during the implementation of their MIS system that interfaced with BACS – with the chief accountant we recovered £750,000 in unpaid bills.

1984 – 1987
Dar Al Handasha Systems Programmer/Analyst
(www.dargroup.com)

• Consulting Engineers. (Ranked 4th in the world).

• I managed the company’s Mini and PC systems; additionally I was responsible for developing the system software and utilities used by the other application programmers. For example, new device drivers or a complex 3d model for bridge designs.

• I maintained the computer links between offices in London and started development on linking our offices overseas. Other areas I worked in at Dar Al-Handasah include Geographical Information Systems, bridge design and test analysis programs. I upgraded our in-house WP systems; this required a lot of customizing, training and installing of several products, including bi- and tri-lingual systems.

1979 – 1984
BHRA Research Assistant / Experimental Officer
(www.bhrgroup.co.uk)

o A world leading research association working in all fields of fluids, i.e. Pumps, Valves, Noise, AI, Pipelines, Fluids, Database, Nuclear, Technical Software and Computer Modelling.

o I developed technical programs for the research staff in the firm. Often these would be sampling and displaying experimental data graphically. Problems ranged from simple graphs, to complex problems involving digitizing data, from both still and high-speed film cameras.

o I was responsible for the management and support of most of the company’s computer resources, planning and allocating systems to projects. I also was responsible for consumable and upgrades, and was able to achieve large savings on disk drives, terminals, communications and plotters, etc.

o I also worked as part of a small team to take-over another part of firm that had got into problems, developing technical software for personal computers. This required fixing all outstanding bugs and setting up a full master backup system. In addition, I set up a system to produce copies of the software for sale and acted as both pre- and post- sales support.

Education / Training

(Bedford College)
Cisco CCNA, Security+ ,Cisco Wireless and a NVQ in audio production

BCHE
BTEC in General Mechanical Engineering (Thermo fluids Specialisation) plus an O level Equivalent in Technical Drawing

Hastingsbury Upper School
6 GCSEs at grade A-C, including Maths and English

Personal Achievements
• Junior Member of Mechanical Engineers.
• Co-opted member of council committee.
• Ran a raft race event (1000 participants and 200,000 spectators) at the Bedford river festival for a number of years.
• A dedication in booker prize listed author’s book about the early online scene in the UK.
• Help run national scale events for 18 Plus (a social organisation similar to rotoract).

Interests
• Military History
• Wargaming
• Reading