Hello Kalena

I’ve recently learned very quickly that SEO is a very male dominated industry.

As a female who has just begun in the SEO industry I was wondering if you would be able to tell me how you have dealt with working in a male dominated industry so well for all these years and what kind of challenges/obstacles have come your way? This would be great to know so that other female seo can prepare themselves if they should ever come to terms with them. More importantly how have you dealt with them?

Another question I was wondering – in your expert opinion – what do you feel that women bring to the SEO table? Anything new? Perhaps a different perspective?

Any advice that you could offer on this topic would be awesome and extremely appreciated.

Thanks for your time.

Monica

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Hi Monica

To answer your question, I no longer work in a traditional *office* so I’m no longer exposed to the same male/female office politics that I once was. However, when I was starting out, there was a very obvious male bias in the industry, particularly at search-related conferences I would attend.

We used to see around 5-10% female attendees at such conferences, whereas now it tends to be 35-40% or higher. Not sure if this spread is because SEO is kind of a geeky/programmer industry which has traditionally attracted more males, but it has definitely evolved to become more mainstream and marketing-focused. With that shift has come more females interested in the industry and thriving in the field.

In terms of the female perspective on SEO, I definitely think there are points of difference that females can bring to SEO roles. One in particular is our insight into emotional purchasing and shopping trends. It is well documented that females respond differently to advertisements and also search differently from men in general – with emotional response being key in the decision-making process. Plus women tend to be the key gift purchasers in a large majority of households. These factors can give female SEOs added insight when it comes to keyword research and copywriting for web sites aimed at females in particular.

Same goes for pay per click advertising – ad copy, headlines and images/videos used can influence purchasing decisions so using both male and female SEOs/SEMs in the ad creation process is going to ensure a more successful campaign.

Hope this helps!

Kalena

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