Employee Spotlight

In the latest installment of our CanIRank employee spotlights, we’d like to introduce you to our world-traveling, Japanese speaking, basketball-lover and SEO enthusiast David. David’s experience is trickled across the marketing realm, with experience ranging from PPC, Content, to SEO. David is well-versed in digital strategy and is a great asset to our team. Plus, he’s a pretty nice guy too, so we kind of like him.

About David:

Location

Spokane, WA

Professional Background

After graduating from Gonzaga University with degrees in Applied Communications and Business, David worked in email marketing for an international travel agency and led community outreach initiatives for a regional mass transit agency. Then David moved to Japan for a three-year adventure teaching high school English and advising students on the study abroad process. After moving back stateside in 2018, David picked up where he left off in marketing and couldn’t be happier to be working at CanIRank as a content and promotions specialist.

Random Tidbit

David co-founded a charity bike ride in Washington State to raise funds and awareness for breast cancer research.

Lightning Round Q&A with David:

  • First off, tell us about your role here at CanIRank?
  • “I love the variety of the work I do on a daily basis at CanIRank. Some days, I’m writing content for clients’ blogs. Other days, I’m developing promotional outreach campaigns to help clients build up their domain authority. Still other days, I’m reviewing clients’ sites and helping them restructure their information architecture. One of my favorite parts of working at CanIRank is the opportunity to work with so many different types of clients with different needs and objectives. No two days ever look the same!”
  • How did you get started in SEO?
  • “After coming back from Japan, I knew I wanted to get back into digital marketing and expand my skillset. With an academic background in communications and previous experience in email marketing and community outreach, SEO was a natural progression for me to build upon my prior experience and diversify my marketing skills.
    ”
  • Can you tell us some of your favorite clients to work with here at CanIRank?
  • “It’s tough to choose favorites! I like working with clients who are willing to openly share their business’ stories with the world. Every business has an inspiring story behind it. The challenge is to package and deliver those stories in an engaging way that resonates with prospective customers. Marketing is a lot more fun (and successful!) when clients are eager to share their stories and willing to showcase their core values with clients and prospective clients.”
  • What is your favorite part of SEO?
  • “My favorite part might be a bit general, but I find witnessing how dramatically a well-executed SEO plan can transform a business and its bottom line to be really exciting. When a client comes in getting minimal traffic, it can sometimes take a while to build up their website so they rank for high-value keywords, but when they get there, the impact makes the original investment in SEO seem minuscule. So in short, my favorite part of SEO is seeing the concrete results that some small businesses achieve as a result of climbing the Google rankings — like going from 100 clicks per month to 500,000 or $10,000 of annual revenue to $1 million!”
  • What is your favorite part of your job right now?
  • “I can’t choose just one so here are two! First, I love having the opportunity to complete new tasks and learn new skills on a daily basis. CanIRank does a great job of encouraging consultants to try different tasks and work to become better marketers each day. Second, as a first-time remote employee, I love having the flexibility to work when, where and how I want! CanIRank encourages employees to maintain a healthy work-life balance and pursue our passions both in and outside of work.”
  • What is your all-time favorite dessert?
  • “My mom’s huckleberry cobbler (huckleberries are an Inland Pacific Northwest classic!). My mouth is salivating just thinking about it!”
  • What is one piece of work that you are extremely proud of?
  • “The first guest post I wrote for CanIRank. Just a few weeks into my CanIRank tenure, I was tasked with writing a guest post, editing it and pitching it to niche blogs that accept the particular type of guest posts. Being given complex multistep tasks early on allowed me to learn CanIRank processes, practice writing relevant content and cold pitching. Numerous successful articles and pitches later, I can look back on that first one and say that was the moment when I first started building momentum.”
  • What is the coolest thing you’ve ever done?
  • “Such a tough question! I’m not sure if it’s the “coolest,” but deciding to study abroad in Florence, Italy during college was a critical step in my development. As my first experience traveling and living abroad, it invigorated me in ways I had never experienced. Now 25 (and counting!) countries later, I’m grateful for the opportunity that I had to study abroad and the doors that my time in Florence opened.”
  • In what areas do you want to further your digital marketing skillset?
  • “All areas of digital marketing are constant works in progress, but I think promotions, particularly pitching, is an area where I have plenty of room to improve. There’s always a slightly better angle or a different approach to engage the recipient. It takes tons of reps to get to a point where you consistently recognize the right “in,” so I plan to keep refining my outreach skills.“
  • If you could ban one thing from existence, what would it be?
  • “Bumper-to-bumper traffic. Crawling along at 5mph on the freeway is miserable!“
  • What niche/specific industries do you excel at with regards to SEO?
  • “I’ve really enjoyed working with the several SaaS clients that I’ve worked with so far. There’s always a ton of opportunity for them to expand their businesses and rank higher. We’ve helped several SaaS clients jump onto page 1 for high-value keywords with 100,000+ searches per month! That type of traffic increase is a game-changer for them and I’m happy I could use my SEO knowledge to help them gain more traffic and convert more sales.“
  • What is something unique that we should know about you?
  • “I flew 5,762 miles from Japan to Phoenix, AZ just to watch my alma mater, Gonzaga University, play in the college basketball Final Four.“
  • If you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do today?
  • “Tell my family and friends that I love them (and probably ask my mom to make one final huckleberry cobbler…)!“

And… that’s a wrap!