Maria Holmberg

SEO starts long before launch 

In her role as SEO/AIO Lead, Maria works at the intersection of SEO, content and structure. Organic visibility, content strategy and information architecture are central to her work – but equally important is when SEO enters the process. 

– I want SEO to be part of web projects from an early stage, before the structure and content have already been locked in. Ideally, SEO shouldn’t be something you try to fix afterwards, once a website has already launched. 

For Maria, SEO is therefore about much more than keywords, rankings and technical optimisation. To make a real impact, you need to understand the bigger picture: what users are trying to achieve, what information they need and how those needs align with the organisation’s goals. 

– I always try to put SEO into a broader context. What are people searching for? What do they need to know? How do we organise information so that it’s clear and useful? And how can we create value for the organisation at the same time? 

An important part of her role is therefore making SEO understandable to people who don’t work with it every day. 

– SEO works best when it isn’t treated as an isolated discipline. It needs to be a natural part of the work across UX, content, development and communications. 

When the search engine starts providing the answer 

Right now, much of Maria’s work centres on one of the biggest changes to search in years: generative AI. 

As users increasingly get answers without having to click through to a website, the conditions for organic visibility are changing too. AI Overviews, AIO and GEO have therefore become an increasingly important part of her work. 

– The question I keep coming back to is: Are we visible in AI search – and why are we, or why aren’t we? 

For companies and organisations, this development raises new questions. It is no longer enough to understand how to become visible in a traditional search engine. You also need to understand what makes your content get used, mentioned or cited as a source in AI-generated answers. 

Maria is particularly interested in the next step: making that visibility understandable and measurable. 

At the same time, she believes it is easy to become too focused on the new technology itself. Beneath all the new terminology and tools are questions that the SEO industry has been working with for a long time. 

– Technology is changing rapidly, but the fundamental questions remain surprisingly similar. What are people searching for? What information do they need? How is that information structured? And why should anyone trust this particular source? 

From archaeologist to SEO strategist 

Maria’s path into SEO was far from obvious. She trained as an archaeologist, and when she began working with SEO in 2007, the field was still relatively young. The established educational paths available today didn’t exist in the same way, so she has built her expertise through almost two decades of hands-on experience. 

At first, Maria didn’t see the connection between archaeology and SEO herself. A mentor did. 

– I’m actually a trained archaeologist. At its core, it’s about the same thing – finding patterns in how people behave. The tools are just different. 

Over the years, the similarities have become increasingly clear. An archaeological find tells you relatively little when viewed in isolation. To understand what it means, you need to know where it was found, what surrounded it and how it fits into a broader context. 

Maria approaches SEO in much the same way. 

– An archaeologist doesn’t just look for finds – you try to understand the context they are part of. I think I do much the same thing in SEO. 

A single search query, page or data point rarely tells the whole story. It is only when you start looking at the relationships between them that the patterns begin to emerge. 

– I always try to zoom out when I get stuck. Sometimes you need to stop focusing on the individual page or search query and instead try to understand the bigger picture. 

Never really finished 

Maria doesn’t see the fact that SEO has changed so much since she started in 2007 as a problem. Quite the opposite. 

New platforms, changing search behaviours and now generative AI mean that the landscape is constantly being reshaped. For Maria, that is a big part of what makes the field so interesting. 

– I like the fact that the industry changes quickly. You’re never really finished – you have to stay curious and keep learning. 

That curiosity follows her outside work too, although often in more tangible forms. Family, music, home renovation and gardening provide a contrast to a working life filled with data, analysis and abstract connections. 

– I enjoy practical things where you can actually see the result of what you’ve done. I think it’s a good counterbalance to a job where so much of the work involves analysing things that aren’t always tangible. 

Perhaps there is a common thread after all. Whether Maria is trying to understand an archaeological find, a search behaviour or why something is – or isn’t – growing in the garden, the curiosity to discover what lies beneath the surface remains.