Leading SEO Teams & Programs During Uncertain Times
episode
Voices of Search // A Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Content Marketing Podcast
24 min
3 speakers
6 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the overall focus of the episode on leading SEO teams during uncertain times?
The Voices of Search Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast? I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth, and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit IHear Everything.com. Welcome to the Voices of Search Podcast, a member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Ready to expedite your company's organic growth efforts? Sit back, relax, and get ready for your daily dose of search engine optimization wisdom. Here's today's host of the Voices of Search Podcast, Jordan Cooney.
Hello SEOs and marketers. My name is Jordan Cooney from Previsible. Joining me today is Divya Hillier, who is the Director of SEO in Strategic Content at Coursera. Coursera partners with leading universities and organizations to offer online courses, providing learners with access to high quality education around the world. Today, Divi and I are going to discuss leading SEO teams and programs during uncertain times. Okay, here's my conversation with Divya Hillier, the Director of SEO in strategic content at Coursera. Diviya, welcome to the Voice to Search Podcast.
Hi Jordan. Thank you for having me.
I'm pumped. First of all, I get to talk SEO with a friend, which I don't always get to do on the pod. I mean sometimes, but not always. But also someone that I've known for a very long time and you've been in, in, out of SEO career. You SEO isn't always what you've done, right?
That's true.
Which is great because it gives perspective to our listeners in terms of like how you can grow in an SEO career. But um to start, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, the team that you have at at Coursera, and just uh give us a little bit of background on your SEO career.
Yeah. So as you said, I didn't start in SEO. I originally was in online gaming as a producer in online games. So I used to work on a first person shooter and an MMO. I worked for a company called Nexon and they made beautiful games, mostly, you know, for children, except for initially the first person shooter, children above the age of 13. And, you know, it was a free-to-play. games when it was that was not a darling. And I managed a website and I managed all the content and comms on it. And I managed all of the engagement activities that we did for our players. And then When I and I did this, I lived in LA. I was in grad school when I graduated. Um, I graduated from USC and I wanted to kind of move home closer to my family and I was looking for game job that was similar in the Bay Area, and it was really a time of mobile games.
And I just the life cycle shorter. I only ever worked in games where you care about the people that are in there. very deeply for a long time. Like your relationship with them is long. And it was times of Farmville and I just could not it was not for me. And I ended up Stumbling into a role at eBay. where I met you. Uh and basically they were it was at a time where everyone was saying content was king and the eBay classifieds team were kind of feeling like, we know this is important, but we don't know how to quantify so that we can actually say there's ROI from this content. Like content's expensive and how do we get money back from it after we put money into it? And um I said, look, I don't know what this job is, but I
No content. And I how about we try this out? And like if I can find a methodology that's repeatable. To prove ROI from content, then you know, I'll say. And the more I learned about I prepped for that interview too, and nobody asked me any questions about SEO. Nobody asked me a single SEO question. I was so disappointed. And I joined this job. And what I thought was amazing about the industry was that one, SEO, the more you know about it, the more of a level playing field there is, right? Everybody deserves to know and deserves to benefit from the principles that come with working in this industry in theory, right? Like Google comes to you and says, Hey, advocate for the searcher.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the overall focus of the episode on leading SEO teams during uncertain times?
0:00–4:42
2
How does Divya Hillier describe her career path and the composition of her SEO team at Coursera?
4:42–11:15
3
Why does Divya say SEO is inherently uncertain and how does that affect leadership?
11:15–16:39
4
What are the main macro forces (e.g., recession, talent shortages) that create uncertainty for SEO leaders?
16:39–20:33
5
How does Divya identify and manage cross‑functional dependencies (engineering, product, marketing) in SEO projects?
20:33–22:54
6
What is the difference between confidence and conviction in decision‑making, and how does she communicate each to her team?
22:54–24:42