Erdal Gözüm

Senior SEO Specialist with 20+ years of hands-on experience across technical SEO, site architecture, content strategy, and organic growth. Spent 4 years as Senior SEO Specialist for an international financial services group (digital banking, payments, crypto, offshore banking), driving an 85% increase in organic traffic within 6 months through technical SEO and site-architecture fixes, with sustained month-over-month growth thereafter. Skilled at diagnosing the root causes limiting organic growth — not just listing symptoms — and translating findings into prioritized, actionable roadmaps.

Experienced working with distributed/remote teams across UK and international markets.

Independent SEO Consultant & Organic Growth Strategist at Self-Employed (2026-08 – Present)

• Provide independent SEO consulting for businesses seeking to diagnose stalled organic growth, covering technical SEO audits, site architecture review, and prioritized growth roadmaps.
• Translate complex technical and content findings into clear, sequenced action plans for non-technical stakeholders.

Senior SEO Specialist at Financial House (2022-08 – 2026-07)

• Owned organic search visibility and SEO strategy for an international financial services group spanning digital banking, online payments, cryptocurrency, and offshore banking products.
• Drove an 85% increase in organic traffic within 6 months through a full technical SEO overhaul, site-architecture fixes, and content restructuring; growth continued on a month-over-month upward trend for the remainder of the engagement.
• Conducted technical and strategic website analysis to identify indexing, crawlability, site-structure, and content issues affecting organic performance in a highly regulated, YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) content environment spanning multiple financial verticals.
• Collaborated with distributed teams across international markets to align SEO priorities with business and compliance requirements.

Independent SEO Projects & Freelance Work at Self-Employed (2021-08 – 2022-08)

• Continued hands-on SEO work through freelance and independent projects, focusing on technical SEO, site audits, and organic growth strategy between consultancy engagements.

Founder & SEO Strategist at Etkin SEO (2019-01 – 2021-08)

• Founded and ran an independent SEO consultancy, delivering technical SEO, content optimization, and organic growth strategy for clients across multiple industries.
• Identified SEO challenges and growth opportunities, and built practical, prioritized strategies for each client's site.

Software Specialist at Hyper Teknology (2015-10 – 2017-08)

• Worked with web technologies and software systems, building the technical foundation later applied to Technical SEO diagnostics and website architecture work.

Web Developer & SEO Specialist at Dore Ajans (2014-03 – 2015-06)

• Delivered web development and on-page SEO work, improving search visibility for client websites.

SEO Specialist at Süer Medya (2012-10 – 2014-08)

• Ran SEO analysis, on-page and technical SEO improvements for multiple corporate websites across different industries, improving Google visibility.

Founder & Web Development Consultant at Doğu Yazılım (2007-06 – 2012-08)

• Founded and ran a web development business delivering websites and digital solutions for clients; later continued as an independent freelance consultant, building the foundation for a long-term career in web technologies and SEO.

Associate Degree in Computer-Based Accounting (Bilgisayarlı Muhasebe) – Atatürk Üniversitesi (1991 – 1997)

Vocational High School in Computer-Based Accounting – Erzurum Ticaret Meslek Lisesi (1988 – 1991)