I still remember sitting in my flat in the UK in 2022, scrolling through job listings and feeling this weird mix of excitement and absolute terror. I’d just moved here on a dependent visa, leaving behind everything I knew in India, my career as an Assistant Professor, my MBA credentials that felt so solid back home but somehow lighter here. Less relevant, maybe? I had this sales and marketing background, I’d qualified for UGC NET, I’d been a subject matter expert analysing content (which, honestly, I didn’t realise at the time would become so important later). But none of that seemed to matter in the UK job market. It was like starting completely over again.
And that’s when I decided – well, actually, it felt less like a decision and more like survival mode kicking in – that I needed to upskill. Digital marketing kept coming up in my research. SEO was this term I’d heard thrown around but didn’t really understand. I mean, I got the basics—search engines, rankings, keywords, but the depth of it? No clue.
So I started learning. Anywhere I could. Free courses from Google, paid platforms like Mycaptain and WSCube Tech, and YouTube videos at 2 AM when I couldn’t sleep because my brain wouldn’t shut off about whether I was making the right choices. I was piecing together this new career path from scraps of information, hoping it would somehow come together into something cohesive.
The first role I landed was unpaid. An internship with Web2Attract. And look, I know the whole unpaid work thing is controversial, and I have thoughts about that (mostly that it shouldn’t be the norm and that it keeps people who can’t afford to work for free out of opportunities). But for me, in that moment, it was a door that was actually open. So I walked through it.
I worked my ass off in that internship. Like, genuinely gave it everything because I was terrified of failing, of proving right that little voice in my head that kept saying I didn’t belong in tech, that I was too old to be starting over, that my accent was too thick, that my experience wasn’t the “right” kind. The imposter syndrome was real. It still is, honestly. I’m not going to pretend I’ve conquered that beast completely.
Eventually, I landed my first job in the UK at Core Marketing Solutions. Small victory, but it felt massive. I started working with UK clients in 2024, diving into Meta Ads, Social Media Marketing, SEO, Website Optimization. Everything was new and overwhelming and exhilarating all at once. I was learning the UK market, which operates so differently from India, the consumer behaviour, the search patterns, even the way people phrase their queries. It was like learning a new language while already speaking in my second language.
Then the agency ran out of funding. Start-up life, right? I got made redundant. And that hurt! not gonna lie about that. I’d finally felt like I was gaining some ground, building some momentum, and then… nothing. Back to square one, or so it felt.
But here’s what surprised me most: by that point, I had completely fallen in love with SEO. Not in a casual way, but in that head-over-heels, can’t-stop-thinking-about-it kind of way.
The research side of SEO spoke deeply to my academic background, that structured, methodical way of understanding problems. Keyword analysis felt like detective work, and learning how algorithms evaluate user intent and decide what content deserves to rank felt like solving a complex, fascinating puzzle. It combined everything I loved about teaching, analysing, and creating.
Around this time, I also started experimenting on my own website, GrowwDigitaly. It became my testing ground. A space where I tested what I was learning and shared real, practical insights through my blogs. Working on my own site helped bridge the gap between theory and real-world execution.
That’s also when I began to truly understand that technical optimisation and content aren’t separate disciplines. They’re two sides of the same coin. You can write the most thoughtful, user-focused content in the world, but if your site speed is poor or your schema markup is broken, you’re fighting an uphill battle. And on the flip side, a technically flawless site with thin, unhelpful content simply won’t succeed either.
So I kept going. Found another role. Then got to work across industries, aesthetics, beauty, travel, and e-commerce. Each sector taught me something different about search behaviour, about what users actually need versus what they type into a search box. (Those two things are often wildly different, by the way.)
What I love most about SEO, and I mean genuinely love, not in that corporate “passionate about synergy” kind of way—is that it forces you to think from the user’s perspective. You can’t just stuff keywords and hope for the best anymore. You have to understand intent. You have to ask: what is this person really looking for? What problem are they trying to solve at 11 PM on a Tuesday? What would actually help them?
There’s this creative element to it that I didn’t expect. Sure, there’s data and analytics and technical audits (which, okay, can be tedious when you’re crawling through a 500-page site looking for redirect chains). But there’s also this art to crafting content that serves both the algorithm and the human. Finding that sweet spot where technical optimisation meets genuine helpfulness, that’s where the magic happens.
Working across different industries showed me how versatile SEO skills are. Healthcare SEO taught me about E-E-A-T and the weight of medical accuracy. Beauty and aesthetics taught me about visual search and the importance of image optimisation. Travel showed me seasonal patterns and the complexity of local SEO. Ecommerce… well, ecommerce taught me that product descriptions are both the most important and most neglected aspect of online retail.
Each project was like adding another tool to my kit. Another perspective to draw from.
Then came the AI revolution. And honestly? It freaked me out a bit at first. There was this narrative floating around that AI would replace SEO professionals, that content creation would become completely automated, that our jobs were obsolete. I had moments where I wondered if I’d jumped into a sinking ship.
But as I dug deeper (because that’s what SEO people do; we dig), I realised AI wasn’t replacing SEO. It was transforming it. And that meant I needed to transform too.
So I started learning AI in digital marketing. Again, paid and unpaid platforms, wherever I could absorb information. And what I discovered was that the game has changed. It’s not just about ranking on SERPs anymore—it’s about showing up in LLM responses. Large Language Models like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity they’re becoming answer engines, not just search engines.
The difference is huge. Traditional keyword optimisation focuses on those 2-5 word phrases. But LLM prompts? They’re full sentences, sometimes paragraphs. People are asking questions conversationally, expecting comprehensive answers. The content that wins isn’t just optimised for keywords—it’s genuinely fresh and genuinely useful, covering angles that haven’t been rehashed a thousand times already.
I earned my certification as a Advanced Digital Marketing Associate from the Digital Marketing Institute in the UK. That felt good, like official validation. That I wasn’t just making this up as I went along (even though, let’s be real, we’re all kind of making it up as we go in this industry because it changes so damn fast).
Then I found AirOps and got into content engineering. Content engineering! Me, with my non-tech background, calling myself an engineer. That still makes me smile. Learning how workflows are built, how this platform scrapes and analyses content, how you can do keyword research and competitor analysis and generate content frameworks in bulk. It’s like a powerhouse for an SEO professional. This platform isn’t about replacing the human element; it’s about amplifying it, handling the repetitive stuff so we can focus on strategy and creativity.
I’m now a certified Content Engineer from AirOps. That’s my little AHA moment. My proof to myself that I can learn technical skills, that my career pivot wasn’t a mistake, that I belong here.
I need to talk about Women in Tech SEO because, honestly, I don’t know if I’d be writing this without that community. The mentor-mentee cohort I joined taught me things no certification ever could. Not just SEO tactics or industry trends. Though there was plenty of that. How to navigate this space as a woman, as someone from a different country, and as someone who doesn’t fit the traditional “tech bro” mold.
The guidance I received was beyond valuable. I became like a sponge (and I mean that in the most literal, slightly desperate way, just absorbing everything, asking probably too many questions, taking notes on napkins during networking events). The people I met were influential, accomplished, and genuinely impressive and also so incredibly down to earth. They shared their knowledge freely, their failures openly, and their strategies generously.
That networking aspect- being in rooms (physical and virtual) with people who get it, who understand the unique challenges we face. It’s been transformative. Not in some vague, motivational-poster way. In a real, tangible, “I-have-someone-to-ask-when-I’m-stuck” way.
So here I am. This is just the beginning of my SEO journey. I know that. I’ve got so much more to learn, so many more mistakes to make, and so many more algorithm updates to weather. The sky’s the limit, especially with AI reshaping everything we thought we knew about search and content.
I’m focused now on applying everything I’ve learnt practically. Experimenting, testing, seeing what works and what doesn’t. Helping businesses and clients grow – that’s the goal. Not just rankings for the sake of rankings, but real business impact. Real human impact.
If you’re reading this and you’re just starting out—maybe you’re in a different country trying to figure out a new job market, maybe you’re pivoting careers, maybe you’re wondering if you’re too old or too inexperienced or too different. I want you to know that messy starts are okay. More than okay. They’re kind of necessary.
You don’t need to have it all figured out. You just need to start. Learn from free resources, paid courses, YouTube, communities, mentors, and mistakes; wherever knowledge lives, grab it. Be a sponge. Ask questions even when you feel stupid asking them (especially then, actually). Find your people; communities like Women in Tech SEO exist because we need each other.
This journey isn’t a straight line. It’s more like… a very confused spiral that occasionally moves upward. And that’s exactly as it should be.
I’m still figuring it out. Still learning. Still occasionally wondering if I know what I’m doing. But I’m here, I’m growing, and I’m building something that feels authentically mine.