Jill Whalen

This article is about the SEO consultant. For the actress, see Jill Whelan.

Jill Whalen is an Ashland, Massachusetts based former search engine optimization consultant (SEO), speaker and writer.

Jill Whalen
Born	Framingham, Massachusetts
Alma mater	University of Massachusetts Amherst
Website	http://jill.consulting/

Whalen was the CEO of High Rankings, and co-founded Search Engine Marketing New England. She was a regular speaker at Search Engine Strategies Conferences. High Rankings included a top-rated SEO discussion forum.^[1]

Whalen has been quoted as an authority by major publications including The Wall Street Journal,^[2] and Inc.^[3] She has also written search engine optimization articles for business websites including ClickZ^[4] and Search Engine Land,^[5] and her work on search engines is shared in marketing programs focused on attracting new clients.^[6]

Early life and education

Whalen grew up in Framingham, Massachusetts and graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a degree in sociology.^[7]

Career

Whalen started a chat room for parents when her three children were young, and the chat room became popular with other parents. As more people joined in her forum, they sought her help in developing websites for other forums. Whalen taught herself how to set up websites that would be found with search engines based on the keywords on the website.^[7] In 1998, she talked about her company Web Whiz, which provided guidance on making web sites early in the period of internet browsing.^[8] By 2007, the company was providing services helping companies improve their websites and website rankings, and she was running an online newsletter,^[9] a free forum,^[7] and sharing tips in magazines^[10] all with the goal of helping people with websites.

She was interviewed for the 2017 movie on search engine optimization: SEO: The Movie, where she described optimizing search as a means to improve marketing for a company.^[11]

She founded the search engine optimisation company High Rankings, serving clients including the Discovery Channel Proctor & Gamble, and Geico.^[12][13] In 2003, she described how she was able to negotiate the terms she wanted in contracts with companies seeking the services of her company,^[14] and discussed how her company improves websites to maximize web traffic and search engine hits.^[2]

Retirement and family life

Whalen announced her retirement from search engine optimization in 2013.^[11] She lives in Ashland, Massachusetts with her husband and three children.^[15]

References

1. Wendy Boswell. . about.com. Archived from the original on 2007-09-22. Retrieved 2007-09-11.
2. Mangalindan, Mylene (June 16, 2003). "Playing the Search-Engine Game". The Wall Street Journal. pp. R1. Retrieved 2007-09-11.
3. "When Sales Hit a Wall". inc.com. August 1, 2004. Retrieved 2007-09-11.
4. "Writing and Ranking for the Search Engines". clickz.com. March 7, 2001. Retrieved 2007-09-11.
5. "Duplicate Content Penalty Myth". searchengineland.com. March 15, 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-11.
6. Hayden, C. J. (2007). Get clients now! : a 28-day marketing program for professionals, consultants, and coaches. Internet Archive. New York : American Management Association. p. 133. ISBN 978-0-8144-7374-0.
7. Susan Chaityn Lebovits (September 23, 2007). "Finding keys to the Web". The Boston Globe.
8. Johnson, Dave (27 July 1998). "Keep your Web site sleek, easy to download". The Gazette; Colorado Springs, Colo. [Colorado Springs, Colo]. pp. IB7 – via ProQuest.
9. Lipe, Jay B. (2006). Stand out from the crowd : secrets to crafting a winning company identity. Internet Archive. Chicago, IL : Kaplan Pub. p. 254. ISBN 978-1-4195-2300-7.
10. Pethokoukis, James (2005-10-24). Searching for the perfect word can pay. Vol. 139. Internet Archive. U.S. News & World Report.
11. Yong, Alex (21 July 2017). "Juicy Industry Gossip and Practical Search Advice From 'SEO: The Movie'". The New York Observer; New York, N.Y. – via ProQuest.
12. Ledford, Jerri L. (2009). Search engine optimization bible. Internet Archive. Indianapolis, Ind. : Wiley Pub. pp. 447–449. ISBN 978-0-470-49680-0.
13. Miller, Michael (2008). "Jill Whalen: High Rankings". Online marketing heroes : interviews with 25 successful online marketing gurus. Internet Archive. Indianapolis, IN : Wiley Pub. pp. 197–206. ISBN 978-0-470-24204-9.
14. Neuborne, Ellen (October 2003). "Small business, big client". Sales and Marketing Management; New York. Vol. 55, no. 10. p. 20 – via ProQuest.
15. Whalen, Jill. "The Video Game of Parenting" 2011-09-08 at the Wayback Machine. Parentsroom.org, accessed October 28, 2011.