Carla dos Santos

My career has been a series of pivots driven by a simple truth: humans search, and search engines answer. From the dawn of online tourism to today’s AI-driven search, that fundamental principle holds true.

The early days of using live chat questions to optimise pages for tourists taught me a core lesson: SEO is about serving the user. My three incredible mentors guided me through my career, and my skills were forged by the talented teams I was fortunate enough to lead. I still learn from them every time we catch up.

The Journey: From C-Suite to Coach.

SEO chose me. In the late 90s, I saw how online tourism was taking over. I was managing overland safaris and discovered that if we had a webpage with the answer, we would get the booking. I was building information architectures and bringing order to chaos before SEO even had a name.

The Professional Pivot: Over the next decade, I travelled and worked across South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana, always handling SEO and website builds on the side. When a Dutch tour operator asked me to bring a series of country-specific websites online, I knew it was time to pivot. I became a Mar-Tech (Marketing Technologist).

Mastering Agency & Corporate SEO: I spent years in the agency world, where I led large teams and worked with enterprise clients. My three mentors trained me in on-site, technical, and off-site SEO. I mastered my skills in what felt like a warzone, navigating the complexities of agencies and C-suite management.

The Final Pivot: The SEO Coach: I knew my purpose was to teach. I stepped away from my C-suite career to focus on hands-on production and mentorship. I watched the world’s urgent need to come online during the pandemic, and my phone lit up with requests for corporate SEO training. I realised I could be of greater service as a teacher.

My Career is My Proof: My journey has allowed me to master multiple methodologies, from Agile to Prince2 and even the “Carla, it’s on fire!” method.

The SEO Coach: This Is Where I am Meant to Be
Today, I am the SEO Coach. My purpose is to teach my favourite thing to spend time on—SEO and everything it impacts. I don’t know what the future holds, but I’m deeply passionate about my craft. My drive is to take the individual, the small business, and the corporation on a journey through search, space, and time. I am here to fulfil my purpose.

My Stats (Just for Fun)
20+ years digital production professional – full stack, full service, full-on.
7 career pivots in building my own career.
Multi-industry and country SEO experience.
125+ direct reports across my career.
Proficient in Agile, Waterfall, Prince2, and “Carla, it’s on fire!” methodologies.

Media & Hobbies

The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine (the Stanford paper that started Google), Cosmos by Carl Sagan, and all things Marvels and dinosaurs.
Hobbies: Astronomy, cosmology, palaeontology, chess, puzzling, crosswords (good for the SEO brain), walking, hiking, running, gardening, and woodwork.