Search for Women in SEO Marketing

14.08.07

OK..my recent Google news post was somewhat dull, I realized that when being kicked awake from under the office desk this morning.

I was thinking– (I know sometimes this isn’t a regular thing)- where are all the women in SEO? Surely this can’t be just a male dominated profession?

It’s OK this post is not a search for the love of my life, I’m happily married. It is however a search to find all women in SEO..

What got me thinking about this was Dave’s post about recruitment and a comment pointing out a potentially ageist flaw in the post, what I’m saying is the SEO industry must be filled with talented people of both sexes, but I guess it’s not PC to mention that…

Another thing that got me thinking about this was Dave’s meet and greet invite, will it be an all male thing?

Things are kept well in order at the Bronco team by,,,well yes you guessed it Dave’s wife Becky.

Personally, I’m pretty hopeless at organising myself without female intuition, financial management etc etc…

So if you are indeed of the female variety speak up now! Or please name your favourite Woman in SEO.

Dan Horton

ps.. if this post attracts less than 30 comments then you all know no women at all.. ;0)

56 Comments

  • 1

    There are plenty of us. Where’ve you been? :)

    DazzlinDonna
    http://www.dazzlindonna.com/blog/

    14th August 2007 @ 14:51

  • 2

    Donna I keeping right out of this one..

    DaveN

    DaveN

    14th August 2007 @ 14:54

  • 3

    Dan, I wonder what your Katherine would say if she saw you looking for women on the Internet…

    Rob Haswell

    14th August 2007 @ 14:55

  • 4

    I am a woman SEO. How rare are they? I am interested…

    Cara Ferguson
    http://www.dognabbit.blogspot.com

    14th August 2007 @ 14:59

  • 5

    Prepared a post on Babes of Search (Calendar Style) a while back, struggled to find many women in the industry but did get 12 worthy of the title! didn’t have the balls to post it at the time incase it was considered sexist as i wasn’t going to do a blokes of SEO as well lol

    B10G
    http://www.b10g.co.uk

    14th August 2007 @ 15:01

  • 6

    I was going to nominate Donna, but she beat me to it.

    Dave Dugdale
    http://www.rentvine.com/

    14th August 2007 @ 15:04

  • 7

    Yes aside from you of course Donna :) Off the top of my head - Jill Whalen/Rae Hoffman/Heather (Grnidone) /Kim Krause/Rebecca Kelley and of course the irrepressible Gurtie :)
    There’s enough women in this business that my wife feels she ought to accompany me to conferences, that’s saying something.

    Nick Wilsdon
    http://www.e3internet.com/greenhouse/nick

    14th August 2007 @ 15:06

  • 8

    Don’t forget that Li Evans does her Women of Internet Marketing series over on http://searchmarketinggurus.com.

    Simon Heseltine
    http://searchenginetigers.com

    14th August 2007 @ 15:10

  • 9

    I’m a woman in SEO since 1998. I always get the impression that a lot of women are in SEM but very few in SEO.

    Susan
    http://blog.superzu.com

    14th August 2007 @ 15:17

  • 10

    Thanks for all your comments so far.. I should also mention that Becky is also an SEO

    Dan Horton
    http://www.bronco.co.uk

    14th August 2007 @ 15:22

  • 11

    dont forget the girls over at http://www.seo-chicks.com/

    Nathan Hall
    http://www.click-discount.co.uk

    14th August 2007 @ 16:13

  • 12

    I’m one of the only women in my whole company, so I’m used to being outnumbered. :-P I usually just lurk here, but thought I’d add my name to the roll call. Rae Hoffman sort of addressed this topic in a recent blog of hers, by the way. Would be interesting to see other perspectives.

    Kate McGuire

    14th August 2007 @ 16:18

  • 13

    There is a massive amount of Female SEO’s where I work. Even have female Teccies too

    ShaneJones
    http://www.shanedj.com

    14th August 2007 @ 16:37

  • 14

    I have a feeling that Rae is not going to appreciate this blog post. :P

    Tamar Weinberg
    http://www.techipedia.com

    14th August 2007 @ 16:49

  • 15

    Hmmm… are we seriously still on this?

    Attend an SEO conference sometime. Or maybe just read through search blogs. Doesn’t seem to be any shortage of women to me. (And that’s on the organic side AND on the paid search side.)

    Jennifer Laycock
    http://www.searchengineguide.com

    14th August 2007 @ 16:59

  • 16

    Hey Jen, Remember it was Dan not me that wrote this, It’s not my fault that we are pretty much all men in this office, But I can think of more women SEO’s or women in this industry today than at any other time, we just don’t attract them at this office .. dunno why maybe cause Dan works here

    although the 2 people i work with most in the industry are Marcela De Vivo or Jennifer Slegg

    DaveN

    DaveN

    14th August 2007 @ 17:10

  • 17

    Before the heckles rise and dust starts stirring I am asking this as an SEO Trainee - I remember Dave asking me in interview can you tell me some names of the blogs you read, you know people you know..I Stumbled..

    This is a genuine question- I read the blogs I look at the posts and the web all the time-

    So yes it’s me that’s interested– so man, woman, child or beast declare your SEO presence.

    Its simply a question, no more no less who are the women in seo, who as a beginner should I know about - thank you in advance

    Dan Horton

    Dan Horton
    http://www.bronco.co.uk

    14th August 2007 @ 17:25

  • 18

    How about Carolyn Shelby?

    suresh
    http://foxadv.blogspot.com

    14th August 2007 @ 19:57

  • 19

    A few more off the top of my head…

    Jennifer Slegg (Jensense)
    Jennifer Laycock (SearchEngineGuide)
    Marie Howell (Bruce Clay Europe)
    Lisa Ditlefsen (the Norwegian!)
    Judith Lewis (DeCabitt)
    Elizabeth Osmeloski and Rebecca Lieb
    Christine Churchill (KeyRelevance)
    Rebecca Kelley (SEOmoz)
    Karen Thackston
    Anne Kennedy (KeyRelevance)
    Shari Thurow (Grantastic)
    Heather Lloyd-Martin (SuccessWorks)

    Dunno how many will own up to reading your blog though…

    g1smd

    14th August 2007 @ 20:30

  • 20

    second post has spelling corrected.

    g1smd

    14th August 2007 @ 20:30

  • 21

    Its not a sin to read the blog is it lol

    Dan Horton
    http://www.bronco.co.uk

    14th August 2007 @ 21:23

  • 22

    I think that like the tech industry in general, you’ll find more men than women. There are quite a few ladies in search though, and I’m happy to be one of them. :)

    Rebecca Kelley
    http://www.seomoz.org

    14th August 2007 @ 21:32

  • 23

    I admit I didn’t notice who wrote the blog post at first. I thought maybe Dave was hallucinating or had taken some memory-reducing drug. But now that I know it was just a newbie question, it makes all the sense in the world. And now that you’ve gotten some great answers, Dan, you need to start reading the blogs of many of those women listed. You might learn a thing or two. ;)

    DazzlinDonna
    http://www.dazzlindonna.com/blog/

    14th August 2007 @ 21:32

  • 24

    Oh, and Susan, I’m definitely on the organic side of things. Not sure who does what really, but there’s at least some of us who love the organic side. The paid side bores me. :)

    DazzlinDonna
    http://www.dazzlindonna.com/blog/

    14th August 2007 @ 21:35

  • 25

    Hi, Dave and Dan.

    Jane
    http://www.seomoz.org/team/jane

    14th August 2007 @ 21:36

  • 26

    Hi to all.

    See this is great, more blogs to read people to learn from- Dazzlin im reading ;)

    Dan Horton
    http://www.bronco.co.uk

    14th August 2007 @ 21:40

  • 27

    Well - how about all of these women I’ve interviewed so far?

    Had to break for the summer with everyone’s scheduled vacations, but due to start up again this September! :)
    Check oug - Women of Internet Marketing - http://www.searchmarketinggurus.com/WoIM/smg-women-of-internet-marketing.html

    ~Li
    and btw.. I’m a woman too :P

    Li Evans
    http://www.searchmarketinggurus.com

    14th August 2007 @ 22:04

  • 28

    Another SEO woman - Me :)

    Anne Haynes
    http://www.annehaynes.com

    14th August 2007 @ 23:09

  • 29

    My friends sometimes affectionately refer to me as a “big girl”… does that count? :)

    SiteMost
    http://blog.sitemost.com.au

    15th August 2007 @ 01:31

  • 30

    If it brings the clicks in then I can be whatever you want Dan ;) 19/F/UK yeah sure hun lets sign up to a dating site together. LOL

    Esrun
    http://www.esrun.co.uk

    15th August 2007 @ 11:09

  • 31

    Sara Andersson - The Swede from Global Strategies - And I’ll be touring with the Spice Girls soon too!

    MelC
    http://adcenterblog.spaces.live.com

    15th August 2007 @ 13:38

  • 32

    Michelle MacPhearson writes a nice social marketing blog..

    but what about all those “women” who show up as new forum members and want to learn all the secrets? Syndk8 gets a lot of this. You can tell they are men because every other sentence is a ridiculous double entendre. If you want to feel like a fool, try to allude to sex through SEO lingo..

    joe schmoe
    http://www.syndk8.net

    15th August 2007 @ 15:20

  • 33

    If you’re looking to add more interviews to that list Li, then there are also all the female editors over at http://www.multilingual-search.com. Motoko hunt, Marina Zaliznyak, Sara Andersson and Ebina Cho

    Nick Wilsdon
    http://www.e3internet.com/greenhouse/nick

    15th August 2007 @ 16:44

  • 34

    [...] have been fun from what I have heard…. a little discriminatory but maybe an invite for DaveN will show him there are a lot of women in our [...]

    Women of SEO Luncheon Monday August 20 - internalmi6.com - technology news xbox 360 ps3 software hardware unix windows

    15th August 2007 @ 17:19

  • 35

    Well, in the SEM department that I work for there are 3 women SEOs - myself included - and 1 female SEM.

    Natasha Robinson
    http://www.thatgirlfrommarketing.com

    15th August 2007 @ 20:03

  • 36

    wow. thanks to each and everyone of you for your posts, the list keeps getting bigger and bigger. It’s great to see just how many people are out there!

    Dan Horton
    http://www.bronco.co.uk

    15th August 2007 @ 20:40

  • 37

    Hmm, how did I ever miss “That Girl From Marketing” off my mini-list?

    Must do better next time.

    g1smd

    15th August 2007 @ 21:43

  • 38

    @g1smd - LOL, yes you must do better ;)

    Natasha Robinson
    http://www.thatgirlfrommarketing.com

    15th August 2007 @ 22:48

  • 39

    Last time I checked I was a woman but its been a rough day.

    Fionn
    http://www.elixirsystems.com

    16th August 2007 @ 00:07

  • 40

    Like Becky, been around the other half seven years now, so getting there, like the idea of the calendar too as Ive done the model thing too.

    Kim Lewis
    http://www.freshtraffic.co.uk

    16th August 2007 @ 13:11

  • 41

    And still the list goes on! Great all of you thanks!
    My list of reading has almost tripled

    Dan Horton
    http://www.bronco.co.uk

    16th August 2007 @ 22:32

  • 42

    I’m parked on this feed and am of the female variety, but I’m too busy working to blog for myself.
    Its not like I need clients or anything ;)

    Lea de Groot
    http://elysiansystems.com/blog/

    17th August 2007 @ 03:12

  • 43

    I am a woman working in SEO in Guernsey. Hello from a little Island.

    invisable-drummer
    http://www.invisable-drummerblogspot.com

    17th August 2007 @ 14:10

  • 44

    Hello- goodness so many so so many.
    I’m glad I asked the question, you don’t learn if you don’t ask. Right? Have a great weekend all.

    Dan Horton
    http://www.bronco.co.uk

    17th August 2007 @ 17:25

  • 45

    SEOmoz is owned by a woman - my mom - Gillian. Jane & Rebecca are both women. MysteryGuest (who’s not technically in search) is a woman. Vanessa, Natala, Jessie, Kelli, Kelly, Jill, Anne, Jenn, Sara H, Sara W, Jessica, Laura L, way too many to list.

    randfish
    http://www.seomoz.org

    18th August 2007 @ 08:47

  • 46

    Present, and currently ranking in the 50’s for “SEO” and 20’s for “SEO Company”… I’ve dropped because i have been too busy working on others sites. I was actually in front of you Dave for “SEO” before i dropped, not bad for a female freelancer :-D

    Carly
    http://www.tareeinternet.com

    19th August 2007 @ 10:49

  • 47

    I have been in natural search since 2003, and currently the only woman within my SEO group at work. We are looking to hire a few good (SEO) women!
    There aren’t a lot of female seo applications coming through the door though - hope that changes soon!

    janet r

    20th August 2007 @ 18:51

  • 48

    I’m also a woman in SEO

    Carmen
    http://www.ponsherrera.com

    21st August 2007 @ 11:21

  • 49

    Still going strong at 48 comments! Great. It’s good to know so many people are out there

    Dan Horton
    http://www.bronco.co.uk

    22nd August 2007 @ 17:26

  • 50

    Woman, Italian and SEO ;)

    larav
    http://widoweb.wordpress.com

    28th August 2007 @ 16:31

  • 51

    All Female ;)

    Affiliate Woman :)
    http://www.webaffiliatecreators.com

    4th September 2007 @ 18:43

  • 52

    Hi,
    I am also a women, working in SEO field for past one year.In our SEO team there are sixteen women employees out of twenty.So here is the women domination.

    Aelizia
    http://www.brouchuremonster.com

    15th November 2007 @ 06:28

  • 53

    The greatest seo person I know has already spoken here. Carly (comment #45). She could stomp any man in seo that I know.

    :O)

    george
    http://duilawslawyers.com/dui-lawyers/

    20th February 2008 @ 07:11

  • 54

    Hi everyone

    I am female and have my own seo company so get in touch would love to hear from you xx

    tarnia
    http://www.sexyseo.co.uk

    7th June 2008 @ 15:54

  • 55

    Not only am I perfectly female, I’m blonde too.. Go figure!! Only 16 months late, better late then never!
    Sx

    Sandy
    http://www.webeventseurope.com/

    26th November 2008 @ 12:17

  • 56

    German SEOwoman :-)

    SEOwoman
    http://www.seo-woman.de

    15th January 2009 @ 12:29

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