Interview with Radosław Rubiński – SEO Senior Specialist

What is your experience in SEO? Tell us briefly about yourself. How did you start and who is Radosław Rubiński today?

Today, Radek is a specialist – a senior at the unconventional agency, Vestigio, where he works with amazing specialists, well established in the SEO sector. He also gained his project experience with Eactive, where he reached the final of the European Search Awards. The Calisia agency is where he was more extensively engaged in marketing. His journey with SEO began for good in 2016, when Radosław Korzeniewski pulled him into on and off-site related topics, becoming a kind of mentor.

Where did you get the idea to get into this industry?

I had a head full of ideas and enthusiasm, but I didn’t know where to start. So, by getting my first small project I was able to learn a lot and structure my knowledge.

Can you tell what areas besides SEO you considered and why you picked this particular sector?

It happened quite naturally. The first day I read SEO dictionaries, and two months later all the groups on FB. I knew the Internet was where my future was and I’m very happy to be here.

Do you remember what tools you used back then? Do you currently have favorite ones that make your job significantly easier?

Straight away it was Senuto, Ahrefs, Majestic and my inseparable companion, Screaming Frog. Along the way, I used Xenu, Clusteric and Deepcrawl. I also often use Surfer SEO or SF Log File Analyser.

Quite a variety of tools, and what does your day-to-day work look like now?

I try to plan my week so that in addition to routine tasks, I get to do some conceptual work. I love quick-wins and the recently trendy SXO. At the same time, to deliver results you need to execute on your plans – collaborate with DEV Teams, execute link building and work on the content. There is no room for boredom in our line of work.

There is no room for boredom, so creativity is certainly important in this sector? What other character traits should an SEO specialist have?

Obviously, we need to think outside the box. Each website deserves a customized approach. It is creativity that allows us to build our competitive advantage. Every SEO specialist should also be consistent in completing their tasks and patient – we may be discouraged by some of the volumes of data we deal with.

And what is your advice for someone new to the trade?

For anyone starting their career in SEO, I suggest building your own website from scratch. It might be WordPress. This won’t work without getting started with HTML and CSS, so that’s also worth learning. It’s about understanding the core mechanisms so you won’t expect the impossible in the future. Then you also need to read, read and read some more, preferably also in English, to explore ideas and strategies that will be applicable at some point in the future. I also recommend keeping an eye on leaders in particular sectors. Unfortunately, it’s not something you can do over a weekend. It takes commitment and focus, but offers a lot of satisfaction in your future career.

What do you find most interesting about the day-to-day work in SEO?

Most definitely, it’s the real impact on the development of clients’ projects. The outcomes drive you to move forward.

And what do you find most boring?

I stopped considering tasks in terms of being boring/interesting. I approach these less appealing tasks as part of achieving a goal. It took a lot of mental work, but it definitely improved job satisfaction.

Has 2020 and 2021 changed the way you work and your approach to it? Did the virus have an effect on it?

Certainly. Working from home requires self-discipline. Fortunately, I had worked remotely before and was able to quickly switch over. I think everyone is/was missing coworkers, a structured daily routine.

Looking back, what do you prefer: remote or onsite work?

I appreciate the benefits of remote work, however, I really enjoy working onsite.

Why? Is it because of live contact with other people?

This is definitely important to me.

What should we focus on first when we start working on optimizing a website? Is it keyword analysis, defining internal linking, creating a site structure, or something else?

At first, I always try to get to know the client’s project and the specifics of the industry. I think that would be impossible without keyword and competitor analysis. Next is GSC and crawl, which is what bears like best 🙂

Link building or “content is King”?

Fortunately, you can work with interesting content while expanding your link profile. This seems like a reasonable course of action.

And what do you think the biggest problem with SEO is?

Google updates 🙂 , and more seriously – this is a very difficult question. For me, the challenge, rather than the problem, lies in the need for professionals to continually improve in a rapidly changing environment.

You’ve mentioned updates – so how has SEO evolved over the years? Is it the case that certain aspects that once produced positive results have now become irrelevant, or is it the other way around?

Today, a website needs to perform like a well-oiled machine. So many components were added, and it is not worth focusing on a single positioning aspect, but rather on the big picture. It is only such a comprehensive approach that yields results. Google keeps changing – just look at how long the fight against spam has been going on.

So what is SEO to you? A constant struggle with the algorithm?

More like an attempt to live in harmony. A well-crafted SEO strategy should defend itself.

Where do you think the value of local positioning is?

You shouldn’t underestimate local positioning. If a client’s project involves locations, I view that as one of the important directions for the website.

Over the time you’ve been in SEO, have you been able to forge proven methods for optimization (not just a local one), or does SEO keep presenting new challenges without a “Golden Grail”?

I think we all have our own best practices that translate into growth. However, I consider it reasonable to keep searching for better ones, for this “golden grail”, because competitor’s projects are also executed by specialists who are in the race for TOP1.

White hat or black hat SEO?

Every SEO specialist should have an understanding of black hat techniques in order to avoid them. We do not use Cloaking or SWLow because we are responsible for the projects and we do not risk the visibility of the websites we are responsible for.

What do you think 2022 has in store for SEO? Will we see many changes in search engine algorithms? This past year, Google introduced a great deal of updates. Can we expect that to continue this year?

I wish, for myself and everyone, that there were as few of these as possible, but we should be prepared for a similar, if not greater, intensity of action on Google’s part.

Lastly, I would like to know how you optimize your work time – do you use any tools to help you with this?

Yes, I plan the whole week in advance, and this is where Monday comes in handy. Clockify can go a long way when it comes to time optimization.

And in terms of SEO activities, do you think that our Boostsite tool is able to effectively reduce your work time?

Me and Boostsite became friends right off the bat. I like the clear interface and the fact that I have a lot of data in a single place, and that translates into time savings.

And which Boostsite features do you find most valuable? Perhaps it has already managed to help you with something?

To really get to know a website, you have to dive into the details. This is where the ”details” function comes to the rescue, where a lot of information about the URL is gathered, plus my favorite screenshot that allows you to see the page at the beginning of loading. Further on, there’s performance information and clear redirects or missing lazy loading.

Did it help me? Sure. I prefer not to talk about Clients’ projects, but by launching Boostsite we have the ability to take a fresh look at the site, and such fresh findings are incredibly important and very interesting, to say the least.

Thanks so much for your time and hope to see you soon!

It was my pleasure and I’m keeping my fingers crossed. See you around!