TESTIMONIALS
See what others have to say about working with me.
Sarah H.
GENERAL MANAGER
We struck gold when we hired Melissa in 2018. Prior to that SmarterTravel Media had no subject matter expertise in SEO. Melissa literally revolutionized our business, bringing her wealth of knowledge and expertise. She is experienced in both the technical aspects as well as content creation best practices and her work resulted in significant increases in organic traffic to our portfolio of sites. Melissa is an excellent collaborator having successfully partnered with various departments including engineering and editorial to infuse SEO best practices across our sites. She has represented the company as a speaker at various conferences and most recently, took on additional responsibility for social media content marketing. She’s a true SME and an all- round awesome human!
Byron W.
FOUNDER
To best summarize my respect and appreciation for Melissa's savvy and communication skills, consider this paraphrase from one of my favorite fashion movies—The Devil Wears Prada: "If you don't hire her, you're an idiot." Melissa surfaced in my world from the SEO jungle years ago, when seeking a trailblazer to help achieve top listings in the search engines. So impressed with Melissa's savvy, presentation, and performance on challenging goals, I quickly invited her to speak at our annual Content Marketing Conference. Based on reviews and engagement, she hit the ball out of Fenway Park, landing a spot on the speaker roster for years to come. Expect immediate impact for your business or agency if you move forward in any way with Melissa. And enjoy the fresh insights along the way!
Maya G.
HEAD OF PERFORMANCE MARKETING
Melissa is THE QUEEN of SEO. She is a sought-after presenter at conferences, and a subject matter expert on SEO podcasts. She is also an impactful team leader. At SmarterTravel, Melissa's team regularly beat budget numbers by orders of magnitude. She is also a thought leader and teacher, and educated dozens of her colleagues in generating key insights with SEO tools and tactics. She's a joyful presence, great coach, and an undisputed expert in her field - the full package.
Mat Y.
SENIOR DIRECTOR
I had the pleasure of working with Melissa for a number of months at Tripadvisor. While attempting to build a new content operation, Melissa quickly became a standout and a valued partner in all things content strategy.
Her expertise in SEO best practices is top notch. But what impressed me most about Melissa was her ability to channel the mindset of numerous other critical functions -- editorial, product, business strategy, and more -- to make holistic recommendations that drove the entire business forward.
Any company would be lucky to have Melissa. I can't wait to see what she accomplishes next.
Alexis C.
SENIOR CONTENT SPECIALIST
I've had the pleasure of working with Melissa at two different companies: 451 Agency (now Zozimus) and SmarterTravel Media (a Tripadvisor company). I first met Melissa at the agency while I was an intern, and she became my first manager after I accepted a full time position. I can confidently say that Melissa excels at teaching the concepts of SEO and content marketing. She has a gift for sharing her considerable knowledge without micromanaging, which helped me build my own skill set. Watching her confidently lead meetings and answer tough client questions on the spot inspired me to improve my own abilities. I felt comfortable coming to her for advice on how to manage clients, and her guidance helped me build my own confidence when I took over weekly calls. She made coming to work every day an absolute pleasure, which is the best you can ask for from a boss! I couldn't have grown my career as quickly as I did without her leadership and guidance. A couple of years later, I jumped at the opportunity to work with her again on the content marketing team at SmarterTravel. I'd heard about how she was able to grow the audience and increase traffic to SmarterTravel's portfolio of sites, and I knew that I still had more that I could learn from her. Although our time working together at ST was short, I enjoyed discussing content strategy with her and was continuously inspired by her ability to craft creative concepts and build out strategic campaign ideas. Melissa is a compassionate and intelligent expert in her field, and I'm grateful to have her as a mentor.
Sarah S.
EDITOR, WRITER, AND CONTENT STRATEGIST
Melissa is an absolute dynamo to work with -- smart, passionate, and full of new ideas. She is incredibly knowledgeable about all things SEO and explains things clearly to those who aren't in the field. She also seems to know the most efficient way to do just about everything, turning seemingly complicated requests around within the day. I learned a lot from Melissa during our time working together; her next company will be very lucky to have her.
Ashley R.
EDITOR, WRITER, AND CONTENT PRODUCER
Melissa was such an asset to SmarterTravel Media and is a huge reason for many of its successes in the past two years. She taught me everything, and I mean everything there is to know about optimizing content for SEO and making it feel natural. She is a gifted marketer, public speaker, leader, and is highly knowledgeable in her respective field, not to mention an Excel wiz.
Samantha G.
DIGITAL PERFORMANCE MARKETING MANAGER
Over the last few years, I've watched Mel stun clients with her work, land new business, and build Agency 451's SEO team. She is self-motivated and passionate, quick to offer assistance (even if her schedule is packed!), and has tremendously helped me grow my own knowledge of SEO.
Nick S.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Melissa presented on our "Best Practices in Marketing and Communications" panel at the New England Special Olympics Conference. She did a great job and we received a lot of positive feedback. She gave great insight on things we all can do to improve our online marketing, conversion, and SEO strategies. And she explained things in a way that was easy to digest for an audience with varying levels of expertise.
Lisa S.
VICE PRESIDENT
I can’t say enough about how well received, actionable, and incredibly insightful Melissa’s SEO session was for a recent Recruiters workshop . We’ve received very positive feedback and high marks…and much of that was due to Melissa’s portion of the workshop. Melissa adds great value and importance to our social media delivery, SEO, reporting and analytics. Her drive, thought leadership, commitment and overall approach are a true asset to me and my team.
Shavindrie C.
INFORMATION SYSTEMS PROFESSOR
Melissa was a guest speaker in my undergraduate web analytics class and gave my students valuable insight into SEO and web analytics. She is an articulate speaker who was able to explain explain complicated concepts in an easy to understand manner to the students. The students loved hearing her views and learned a lot.
Brendan V.
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, PERFORMANCE MEDIA
Mel is a force to be reckoned with. She provides award-winning SEO results for clients, killer ideas to agency-wide brainstorms, and a smile to everyone's face when entering the room. Mel is a pleasure to work with, and I would recommend her to any organization.
Ivy H.
DIGITAL ADVERTISING MANAGER
Mel was my supervisor during my Search Marketing internship. She taught me SEO from the basics and was willing to share her expertise and knowledge of digital marketing with me. Mel was really supportive; she always encouraged me to put myself out of my comfort zone and to accept challenges while providing me with 100% support. She is hardworking, passionate and open-minded. I admire Mel’s ability to multitask: being able to manage a team of interns while handling client work and projects with co-workers. I am inspired and motivated by her dedication. I learned so much from her and enjoyed my time during my internship very much!
Angela M.
MEDICAL RESOURCING LEAD
Mel can certainly be described as a subject matter expert. The knowledge and passion she demonstrates in this space is first rate. Always on hand to deal with queries in a timely and effective manner and continually looking at ways to make additional improvements and recommendations. A key skill is her ability to translate technical jargon into simple terms for those not familiar in this techy space.
Mel is always a pleasure to deal with and I thoroughly enjoy learning and working with her.