Native New Orleanian, Gabrielle Benedetto has been working on the Search Influence account management team for over a year and a half. When she isn’t at the office, you can probably catch her running around New Orleans training for her next big race or enjoying time with friends and family.
As an Account Manager what do you find yourself doing on an average day?
As all members of the account management team, my goal everyday is to make sure my clients are happy! Regardless of how simple a client’s question may be, my job is to make sure they feel confident about their SEO campaign and they understand what our team is doing to improve their online presence.
Many of the accounts I work on have very niche markets. I make it a point to spend quality time with each client so I can get a better understanding of their marketing goals to insure we are running a great campaign.
What would you say is your specialty and what do you enjoy most about it?
I’m one of the few members of the account management team who works on site audits. This is basically a report run on an entire site that analyzes everything from internal links, HTML coding, optimized content, site navigation, and even off-site marketing. I really enjoy working on these as it provides me with a pretty deep understanding of how the site is currently optimized and shines light on opportunities to improve.
Many client come to me saying “I have a user friendly site and provide visitors with unique content about my business, but I just can’t seem to increase my rankings.” In presenting a site audit, this allows me to spend time with the client and not only show them what areas of their site need improvement but how my team can address each issue.
You’ve had a great deal of experience working with a wide range of clients, from local business to some national companies. After working with and analyzing their websites, you’ve discovered some funky stuff along the way. Any easy tips out there for an average Joe looking to improve their site?
Ah great question! I have three rules: make it natural, make it pretty, make it search engine friendly. This may be a little easier said than done, but that’s where Search Influence comes into play.
When optimizing or looking for ways to improve your site, you can’t go wrong if you follow these three rules.
1) Make it natural: Although sites with all the bells and whistles can be really nice to look at, they don’t always work properly. When optimizing a site, do what comes natural. This applies to something simple like making sure the content on your site reads naturally and is well optimized for your keywords. You could even take a more technical approach with this in making sure that you’re setting up an easy-to-use navigation and structure for your site.
2) Make it pretty: I think we have all visited a site that wasn’t organized well and looked unattractive. Having a site that isn’t organized properly or comes across as ugly or outdated is immediately going to make you think of the “s” word… spammy. Having an updated, attractive, and welcoming site allows for a better user experience and also allows for your site to be seen as a little more trustworthy when compared to some of your competitors.
3) Make it search-engine friendly: So you now have a site that just looks stunning! Your site is organized properly, attractive to visitors, and reads and functions naturally to the human eye. Regardless of how good it looks, if the search engine spiders can’t access your site’s information, no one will be able to visit your site. Make sure all content, pictures, pages, and URLs (just to name a few) are accessible to the search engines.
If you could give advice to a new client starting up their first SEO campaign, what would you say?
SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. I have many clients who come to me with larger-than-life goals for their campaign. While the competitive streak in me is eager to accept a challenge, I always want to make sure realistic goals and expectations are set properly. If you want to rank on page one tomorrow, launch a paid search campaign. If you want to build strength, trust, and authority to your site, run a properly optimized SEO campaign. Results traditionally aren’t immediate, but SEO is a great way to naturally increase your search presence. Once we lay the foundation and the campaign starts to pick up speed, we can see the rankings “increase to infinity and beyond” as one of my clients put it.
What’s your favorite thing about working at Search Influence? Anything in particular you could live without?
Something that makes Search Influence different than other companies is our staff and work space. Our office is full of monitors, MacBooks Airs, and extremely talented young professionals plugged in and focused on their work. Our staff is not only talented, but energetic and brings so much personality to this company. The team is constantly looking for ways to improve day-to-day internal processes, deliverables to increase the success of our clients’ campaigns, as well as our overall brand.
SI has a finite amount of candy at the office. There is a love/hate relationship between the team members and the candy supply. I’m trying to quit, but candy is always in the office taunting me. There are brief periods when the candy supply is low. I secretly enjoy this time without candy, but everyone else in the office starts shaking and needs their candy fix. I think I could live without the candy in the office, but I might miss the constant battle to cut down the candy. Strange enough, this bonds us a little. But let’s quickly move on to the next question before someone yells at me for speaking out against our candy supply.
Tell us a little more about your life growing up around The Big Easy. In your free time, what do you do for fun?
I am New Orleans through and through. Although we may be called the “Big Easy” there are always events going on in this town. Between races, social events, restaurant openings, or fundraisers there’s always something to do down here.
In a perfect world, left to your own devices, what would you be doing all day?
When I’m not at the office I’m probably at one of the events mentioned above. Yet, subconsciously I’m still working, networking, and meeting new people. Since a lot of people aren’t extremely familiar with SEO or Internet marketing for that matter, I’m always explaining how Search Influence helps companies all over the country promote their business and increase their search presence. I never leave the house without a stack of business cards.
One last hard hitting question —- If you could identify yourself with one designer brand what would it be and why?
That’s easy, DVF (Dianne Von Furstenburg)! Her line is classic, professional, and fashion forward. She’s been rocking it for decades and still vogue — just one of my own aspirations!
After growing up in New Orleans and graduating from McGehee, Sarah Lustberg got her degree in Public Communication from American University in Washington, DC, and promptly moved to NYC to pursue a career in PR – along with just about every other twenty-something in the world. After working for the Time Inc. Lifestyle Group (think Southern Living, Real Simple and Cooking Light), Sarah moved back home to New Orleans with her husband Casey and her dog Mario.
Rebekah Durel has been hired as a Junior Account Associate. New to New Orleans, Rebekah graduated from McNeese State University located in Lake Charles, but is originally from Texas. While completing her degree, she interned at a chemical plant and worked at L’auberge Du Lac Casino.
Thibodaux where she graduated from Nicholls State University with a bachelor’s degree in English. After receiving her degree, she did some substitute teaching.
He worked as a reporter/editor/page designer for the Orlando Sentinel and Rocky Mountain News before switching exclusively to freelance writing in 2008. Over the past few years he’s lived in Chicago and San Juan, Puerto Rico. He still loves to travel and discover new places, but thinks New Orleans might be a long-term home for him.
