Allen Zhang was a marketing intern at SEMGeeks and worked with the SEO team. He was a senior at High Tech High School. See his thoughts on his SEMGeeks experience below!
For the past five months, I have worked as an intern on the SEO team at Semgeeks. I’m currently a senior at High Technology High School, a magnet public high school that focuses on STEM. While I always had an interest in STEM, my passion for business lead me to pursue a marketing internship at Semgeeks. My experience here has completely changed my perspective on digital marketing and business in general.
At the beginning of my internship, I had almost no experience with marketing, let alone digital marketing. I only vaguely knew about Search Engine Optimization and digital marketing. My high school prepared me for the technical side of things, but the concepts of SEO were foreign to me. I entered as a stranger, but thanks to Tayllor, Kyle, and Lyndsay, I will be leaving as an experienced member of the SEO team. I learned about different techniques for increasing a client’s SEO: relevant keywords, high quality refreshing content, metadata, linkworthy sites, and alt-tags, just to name a few. I spent most of my time creating new high quality content for clients in the form of blogs and infographics. I researched clients and their respective industries, coming up with relevant blog topics containing important keywords. I brainstormed infographic ideas as well as researching information for them. Working with Kyle, I also created Outbrain ads for the months of November and December. In a few meetings with Lyndsay, I was taught the process behind the keyword research that I based my blog topics off of.
While the learning experience at Semgeeks is one of a kind, the relationships I formed with my team members are just as important to me. Whenever I had a problem, question, or needed someone to review my work, I never hesitated to ask my team. I knew that I would always get a response within minutes, and that my team was always happy to help me. This type of coordination was especially important to me when I was just starting out. I believe that one of the reasons I picked up SEO so easily was because my team members were always there to help. The friendly atmosphere at SEMGeeks makes it the highlight of my school week to come here and work. Every Friday morning when I come into the office, I don’t see people hunched at their computers silently. Everyone is in a jovial mood and talking about the latest TV shows or sports games.
One of the key takeaways from this experience is the importance of client communication. The SEO team works with several clients, and in order to be successful it is important to keep clients in the loop. Sometimes the SEO team will plan a solution in a certain way while the client might disagree. It is important to find common ground and use reasoning to reach a decision that pleases both parties. Understanding how clients operate with us is an important lesson for the future, regardless of my career path.
As someone who is seriously considering a future in business, especially marketing, I’m glad for such a positive experience. My time at Semgeeks has only strengthened my belief that marketing is the right career choice for me. I have applied to many business schools during my college application process, and I’m planning on majoring in some type of business degree.
I would recommend to any students in high school or college with an interest in marketing to apply for an internship with Semgeeks. For any students interested in coding or design, I would recommend applying for an internship with the Web Design and Development team. Regardless of which department you choose, the atmosphere at Semgeeks promises a unique experience.
In today’s technology era, it is more important than ever to understand digital trends. The ecommerce market is booming, and as people spend more of their time online, it is vital to capitalize on these new consumer audiences. Semgeeks has shown me a way to apply my interest in business in the field of digital marketing, a field that holds an incredibly promising future.