Hello!
I am Raffaella
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About Me

I was born in Northern Italy and lived there almost all my life. After my business studies I wanted to challenge myself. I desired to travel and learn about the world as well as improving my education and skillset. To follow my ambitions, in 2000 I moved to Ireland to work and study. I studied English at University College Dublin and obtained my Post Diploma qualifications in Strategic Marketing at the Dublin Business School. My favourite subject was E-Commerce. Internet marketing was at its early stages, but I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in that field, I just did not know exactly what role. At that time, Google was developing rapidly, reshaping the Search industry with its PageRank algorithm, which was a revolutionary way to retrieve information. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) specialties were still in their infancy.

While I loved Ireland, I knew there was more of the world I wanted explore and more opportunities to embrace.

In 2002 I moved to New Zealand and started working for the e-commerce store Line 7,  which was an international clothing supplier. The owner of the official online store was involved in the America’s Cup and I worked as an online marketing coordinator, using my multilingual abilities to deal with customers (English, French and Italian).

In 2003 I received a job offer in Sydney to work as an online marketing coordinator for the official Rugby World Cup Online Store Project.  When the project finished, while I could only obtain a three month working contract due to my visa restrictions. I  eventually managed to get  my first roles in the Search Marketing industry.

In 2006 I completed a Master’s Program in Information Technology majoring in E-Commerce at the Central Queensland University in Sydney. This, together with my previous experience, opened the doors to my career. I remember finishing my university studies on a Friday and starting my new job as a Search Engine Marketing (Paid Search) Executive on a Monday. I finally made it, I obtained a sponsor visa and gained the job in Search Marketing.

While I enjoyed my work I felt that SEM was not challenging me, and on examination, I found that learning the intricacies of the Google algorithm, was the skill and specialty I wanted to add to my skillset.

SEO Career Kickstart

In 2009 SEO was becoming more complex. Social Media was taking off,  SEO was not just for webmasters anymore. From that moment, journalists, web copywriters and even social community managers would have to optimise content for search engines.  I therefore moved into an SEO role in 2009, working on large enterprise projects. Since then, I have been working in the SEO industry, as a senior SEO consultant. 

In 2012 I became a mother and my life changed. I loved my work and I needed to make my work suit my new life situation.  I noticed a gap in industry for companies and agencies looking for skilled SEO people.  Consequently, I thought becoming a freelancer and contractor would help to fill that gap. I saw an opportunity and I took it.

In the last 10 years I have been collaborating with foremost reputable agencies, helping them during high workload. I also worked with large corporations and some small businesses, helping them fill the gap of internal knowledge. I became a reliable, adaptable, and cost-efficient solution for agencies and companies to outsource SEO and assist their strategic digital marketing activities.

My years of varied experiences have exponentially grown and developed with intensity, by collaborating with a wide range of people as well as by being exposed to a variety of projects, verticals, and scenarios. I embrace the challenge and enjoy working with people. Part of my own personal growth has involved discovering that I can still learn something from non-SEO persons with different backgrounds. I love working independently, and to have a work life balance, improves my efficiency and work performance.

What is Next in my Career?

SEO has evolved quite considerably in the past 12 years, becoming an extraordinarily complex considering  Google is using a different set of signals, a combination of algorithms and weights to rank every keyword query.

My goal is to move towards improving my technical skills in data science and python programming for SEO. My SEO mindset lends itself well to the data science ideal of munging data along with  using statistics as well as algorithms, in order to derive insights and tell stories.

I believe conventional SEO based on personal knowledge still has its place and value, however, using python and being able to apply data science principles for predictions of SEO efforts, is certainly a huge benefit to the quality of my services and to the value I bring to a business.

If you want to find out more about me, please get in touch, I would love to hear from you.

My Favourite Quote

“Be a fish swimming against the current and be a tree swaying against the breeze”

Places I lived!

I have been lucky to have lived in 4 amazing countries. Coming from Italy, I love everything from the view of snowy mountains to the beautiful water of our stunning lakes, without even mentioning our food! I loved Ireland for the warmth or their people and traditions, New Zealand for the beautiful sceneries and pristine conditions and of course Australia for its beautiful beaches and lifestyle.

Personal Skills

Attention to Detail, Quick Learner, and Self-Starter90%
Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving90%
Ability to Handle Multiple Projects, and work efficiently90%
Interpersonal and Communication skills95%
Mathematical and Analytics Skills90%

I am an enthusiastic, a fast learner, eager to continuously learn and improve my skills, with care and a real passion for people and SEO. I am a passionate communicator, always finding ways to educate, convince and align teams to commit to, and execute, SEO projects. I believe educating and communicating  the concepts and strategies of SEO, can inspire others to understand its value.

My analytical skills allow me to turn complex data sets into insights that drive strategies and solutions. Throughout the years I have learnt to develop resilience, critical thinking skills, initiative, confidence and emotional intelligence.

Education, Technical Abilities & Hobbies

Education
Masters in IT majoring E-Commerce (CQU Sydney), Diploma in Strategic Marketing – Ecommerce (DBU Dublin), Diploma and Post Diploma in Accounting & Business (Italy), Python Programming for Everybody (Coursera)

Programming
Working knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript development
and constraints. Basic knowledge of C++, MySQL, Python (currently enrolled to a Coursera Python course).

Analytics and Tools
Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools,
SEMrush, Ahrefs, Majestic, Moz, AWR, Screaming Frog and other tools.

Languages
English (Proficient), Italian (mother tongue), French (Basic to Intermediate), Spanish (Basic).

Hobbies
Cooking, organic gardening, beach volleyball, swimming.

Testimonials

WHAT PEOPLE THINK ABOUT ME

I have worked with Raffaella off and on for over 2 years. She has a great understanding of SEO and is always a trusted and reliable resource for strategic or business as usual deliverables.- Sam Murray Head of SEO Razorfish -
Raffaella has been a pleasure to work with. She is an expert in her field, very organised, her work has always been on time and to the highest quality standards. I very much enjoyed working with Raff and would highly recommend her to anyone who requires a skilled, professional SEO expert.- Kerstin Hoefner Head of SEO Group M -
Raffaella's SEO knowledge is impressive. Working closely with her on a large project I saw she was able to identify issues quickly and communicate them clearly to all levels of management. Her expertise was comprehensive, often highlighting the depth of collaboration needed across marketing teams to see the best SEO results possible. She is very reliable and a pleasure to work with- Amy Broadfoot Managing Director at This is Human -
Raffaella is great at search. Sometimes out-sourcing to an agency is the right model for a digital business, and sometimes it pays to “own” it - Raffaella came to news.com.au when we were looking to bring our search spend in-house, and her deep experience in both SEM placement and SEO expertise meant that we drove more traffic than previously at a much lower cost.<br /> Raffaella then introduced us to new sources of traffic in the search space to create incremental audience.<br /> Her up-to-date knowledge of SEO best practice reaped dividends in a period when Google was making large changes to its algorithms, and her ability to work through these changes with the product, content and analytics teams meant we were able to implement nimbly.- Thomas Taylor Director of Insights & Products at News.com.au -
Raffaella was a great asset to my team as we rolled out SEM campaigns across complex segments and markets onshore and offshore. We achieved strong ROI thanks to her data-driven approach, ongoing advice and responsive work style.- Joseph Alessi Head of International Marketing at TAFE NSW -
Raffaella is very knowledgeable about SEO. She is professional and extremely thorough in the presentation of her research and analysis. I have enjoyed working with Raffaella and would recommend her to any organisation looking for an SEO expert.- Susie Redfern Professional Editor at TAFE NSW -
Read My Testimonials

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