Search Marketing Specialist @ CAA with Rihanna Hosseini

In her Year 1ne, Rihanna works as a Search Marketing Specialist, primarily focusing on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) at Canadian Automobile Association (CAA), a not-for-profit made up of eight regional automobile clubs serving over 6 million members in Canada. She’s an in-house SEO expert for two automobile clubs—CAA South Central Ontario and CAA Manitoba–doing in page optimization for multiple websites to ensure search results (in Google and other search engines such as Bing) are relevant and create a positive user experience. 🚘
Some of the highlights from Rihanna and Blair’s chat include how being an SEO is the most mysterious job in marketing, the practice of turning an unsuccessful job interview into a moment of reflection; and, the importance of using simple words in marketing.
In This Episode 🗣️
Rihanna’s Year 1ne @ CAA
1:47 | Introduction from Rihanna
2:35 | Overview of CAA
4:50 | Working as a Search Marketing Specialist
9:35 | SEO is detective work
13:20 | Essential human skills
15:10 | Essential software and tools
16:50 | Changing careers from polymer engineering into SEO
22:15 | What’s on your mind in marketing right now?
Getting to Day 1ne: The Job Search
24:50 | Getting hired at CAA
28:00 | Preparing for the interview process
28:40 | Hardest part of the job search
30:40 | The “What’s your favourite brand?” question
33:15 | How to balance user attention span vs. right amount of information for the user
Thing’s I’ve Learned in Year 1ne
36:10 | Rookie mistake of using acronyms and jargon
38:50 | Lesson learned to practice patience
41:55 | Pro tip to share your ideas
The Hottest of Links and Resources 🔥
Connect with Reyhaneh (“Rihanna”) Hosseini: LinkedIn
Brands/organizations: Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) | CAA South Central Ontario | CAA Manitoba | TD Insurance
Marketing and media tools: Microsoft Excel | Google Analytics 4 (GA4) | Google Search Console | BrightEdge
Connect with The Year 1ne’s host Blair Smith: LinkedIn
Check out The Year 1ne’s show website for past episodes, show notes and more goodness