The short answer is that Jim made me QualityGal. After he offered me the job, I asked a quick “What’s my job title?” before he left the room. He didn’t know and said he’d think about it. On my first day, my name tag said “Qualitygirl.” The handle was already taken in the email service we were using at the time, so Jim changed it to “QualityGal.” And it stuck. (As a side note, QualityGal sounds a lot less like a hooker name than QualityGirl. I’m comfortable voicing this because NinjaJen talked so openly about the SEO equivalent of call girls in her blog post.)

I’ve been blogging for Jim since July, when he hired me. I had never done SEO before, but it seemed like everything I’d done before then was leading me to this place. Things I didn’t even mention in my interview ended up being part of what made me a valuable addition to the We Build Pages team.

The thing Jim did know, which was initially kept on the down low - until he outed me - was that I was a Google Quality Rater.  I had some initial misgivings about the ethics of going from Quality Rater to SEO gal; as an INFP, my personality is notable for “an ethical nature, a devotion to ideals, a commitment to harmonious interaction.” I did a lot of soul searching… and some Google searching to find out what was publicly available about the job that swore me to secrecy.

A surprising amount of “secrets” were available on page one of the SERP for “Google Quality Rater.”  I told Jim that I would never discuss that stuff, and he’s never pressed me for it.  Besides, the details are always changing.  Google’s guidelines and algorithms are quite dynamic, and I doubt that the last information I had is still correct.  What the job did give me, which can’t be neatly packaged and covered by an NDA, is perspective.  I started looking at everything online (even before I’d learn about WBP) from the perspective of its utility for people like me.  “Regular” people who may have never even heard of SEO.  Even for subjects in which I have no interest, I can put myself in the shoes of someone who is interested in it, and that makes me a pretty good resource for user intent.

(As a side note, I will never understand why Google limits the length of time a person can spend as a Quality Rater.  With all of that proprietary information, you’d think they’d want to keep people on board so they wouldn’t have any ethical dilemmas involving future employment. Not everyone has the moral compass I do, as evidenced by the “confidential information” that was leaked online before my time was up.)

On top of being a Quality Rater, I was a pretty awesome mystery shopper for several years.  I was very reliable and completed amazingly detailed reports on my shops.  I had several dozen NDAs going on, one for each of the companies I shopped for, to maintain confidentiality of both client relationships and my identity as a shopper. The incognito thing is second nature to me, as is helping companies evaluate the objective experience of their customers or users.

At the same time as my mystery shopping gigs, I was a moderator for a popular teen forum.  I honed my analytical skills by catching and removing inappropriate posts that were either too mature for the board or presented safety issues by containing personally identifiable information (PII).  There was a fair amount of research involved to discover whether or not posts were inappropriate, so my Google-fu was strong even before I worked for the Goog.  And did I mention the NDA that precludes me from disclosing the name of the company or forum?  Yeah, 4 years later, and my lips are still sealed.  That ethics thing.

I’ve done my share of customer service as well.  I was the front desk supervisor at a hotel for two years, and I worked as a grocery store cashier as a college student.  So while I’ve spent a good amount of my work history advocating for the best of the customer, I’ve also worked the other side of the desk, and I know why sometimes things don’t work as well as they should.  And I can smile when I want to tear your head off.  That sort of diplomacy is helpful when working with clients and managing a team of writers…

Speaking of writers, I am one.  That’s why Jim has had me blogging, and why he hired me to build and manage our elite team of writing ninjas.  (They don’t know they’re ninjas.  They think they’re merely “writers.”  But I know better.)  What I forgot to tell him was the added bonus; I was the Editor-in-Chief of my college newspaper.  I’d managed writers before.  Deadline crunches are no stranger to me.  Thankfully, I’ve never had to live at the WBP office for a weekend, ordering pizza and fried chicken at 2:00 am with the only other person on the team dedicated enough to stick it out with me. (I’m a mommy now, so I’m pretty useless at 2:00 am.)  Writer and editor in one - with more than a dash of perfectionism mixed in - I was well suited to reshaping the writing team to create quality content. The time for thousands of crappy keyword dense articles passing as valid SEO content has passed, so my job was to find people who could write stuff that users actually want to read. Quality content that meets user intent, which makes the Internet a better place.

The perfect storm of experience has come together.

Why should you care about any of this?

My job responsibilities have grown and changed in the four months I’ve been with We Build Pages.  I don’t just manage a writing team anymore - although I have auditioned over 230 writers to fill about 90 spots on the team so far - I provide a unique service for our client sites.

I’ve been working on a very unique sort of report for our new clients.  It’s more than just a usability report, although I do provide a sort of “mystery shop” evaluation detailing the user experience on client websites.  I spend an hour (or more) looking at a site page by page to determine value to users, effectiveness of on-page keyword use, quality of content, and more that I probably shouldn’t get into here.  (Don’t want to give it all away for free, you see.)

I’m not violating any Quality Rater trade secrets with any of my recommendations; I make sure to stick to what Google makes publicly available in their Webmaster Guidelines when I explain my reasoning for suggested improvements, as well as some “common sense” suggestions. But as common sense goes, it’s not always common.  And when it comes to this industry, it can be hard for both clients and SEO gurus to take off their business hats to look at things through the user’s eyes.  My eyes.

So We Build Pages has something special that no other SEO company (that we know of) can offer: reporting from the perspective of someone who Google molded to view the Internet in the different way, someone who has zero tolerance for spam and will call BS on shady stuff.  That shady stuff may not even be against the Google guidelines right now, but if I see wiggle room where a website has gone from serving the user to instead trying to game the system, I’ll call it as I see it.  And I won’t be surprised if Google puts the kibosh on the shady practice in the future.  Of course, not all site owners are willing to take preventative measures when something isn’t currently frowned upon, but they’ll have words of warning if (when?) their rankings ever take a nosedive.

Have I piqued your interest?  I hope so.  Because in addition to having this unique perspective that makes me competent to create these reports, I have a great time doing them.  It goes back to that INFP thing, and the whole bit about meticulous perfectionism. When I see something wrong with a website, I want to fix it.  I’m doing my part to make the Internet a better place.

Want me to take a look at your website to get my perspective?  Use our contact page to let us know.

And that whole incognito thing?

Oh yeah.  You now know what I look like… well, with sunglasses and a hat on.  (Which have nothing to do with my premature white hairs and dark circles under my eyes. *cough*)  I even have my real name on my shiny new We Build Pages business cards.  I may meet you in person, or you may find me online elsewhere and connect the dots.  I’m trying to keep my personal life and my professional life separate online - because I had my own online presence before I ever met Jim.  (Although I doubt anyone in this field has ever “met” me before.)  So will you do me a favor and not connect those dots in public online?  Much obliged.  Consider this your NDA.