From building affiliate projects for fun to leading the search practice at a global agency.
Published in Search Engine Watch
How I got here
My early work included a movie-review site in 2012 and affiliate websites. In 2016, I joined a global media agency group as an SEO Coordinator. I went on to head the search practice at the global agency group, leading teams and building services for clients.
I also enjoy building tools and consulting work. What I learned from my own projects and from leading an agency practice goes into the work we can do together: understanding what needs to change, deciding where to start, giving your team the tools to act, and doing the hands-on work with them.
Follow the full career pathMy path throughout different search eras
Follow the spider, or swipe through the eras at your own pace.
1994
Search engines helped people find pages by the words they contained.
1998
PageRank used links between pages to help assess their importance.
2004
Link building became a major part of competing for visibility.
2011–2012
Panda targeted low-quality content. Penguin targeted link spam.
2012I built my first movie-review site, then affiliate websites.
2015
RankBrain helped connect search terms with the concepts behind them.
2016I joined a global media agency group as an SEO Coordinator.
2022
Google introduced a system to reward content made for people.
2022I became Head of SEO, leading the practice and its teams.
2024
AI summaries added another way to discover information alongside website links.
2025I helped build and launch our GEO product.
What that has delivered
People I’ve worked with
During my time at OMG when I started the SEO practice — one of the best decisions I made was hiring Dima. By the time I left, I was proud to see Dima grow into the leader of the team, making big decisions and driving client outcomes independently.
His technical expertise and sense of where SEO product evolution was heading showed me the way, and made him a go-to thought leader across divisions, helping keep our SEO offering at or ahead of the market.
Dima was my manager at Omnicom Media Group, where he led the SEO team as Head of SEO, and he’s the kind of leader people remember years later. He set high standards, but always equipped us with the guidance and resources to meet them.
I appreciated his knowledge of the industry and rapidly evolving SEO/GEO/AEO space, and his resourcefulness in finding innovative and new approaches to solving client problems, turning data into clear and manageable insights.
Dima is exactly what you want in an SEO lead. He is technical, analytical, and data driven. More importantly, he is constantly learning, growing, and staying in the know around the latest trends in the industry. His subject knowledge is second to none.
Dima pairs sharp technical expertise with remarkable persistence. In a domain where algorithms and best practices change overnight, he remains ahead of the curve. Any organization needing a steady, highly technical SEO lead would be lucky to have him.
Dima is a thorough professional with a caring & empathetic side. I worked closely with him on setting up the SEO practice at Rogers, and value his approach, candidness & his keen eye for detail. An asset to any organization.
During my three years at Omnicom Media Group, Dima was more than just a manager; he was a true leader who consistently supported my professional development. Thanks to his mentorship, I was able to effectively manage and improve the performance of even our largest clients.
Dima was a remarkable professor and leader that I’d always admired to become. As an SEO professor, he provided great insight in various perspectives of looking at the marketing field. Anyone would be lucky to be mentored by Dima.
I had the pleasure of working closely with Dima on an integrated account, where he led SEO. Beyond his strong SEO expertise, Dima brought great thinking to the table, whether brainstorming with teams, tackling challenges, or working through broader client business problems.
Engagements
I find what stops search engines reaching your best pages, from crawling and indexation to schema and server logs, and I protect visibility when the platform changes.
I look at how people search, where your content answers them, and where it competes with itself. Then I plan the digital PR and link building that gives it authority.
I study how ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude cite content, then find where your expertise is missing from the answers your customers already read.
I help leaders decide where search can create value and what to measure, then give their teams the view and the confidence to act without waiting for me.
Beyond the client work
I taught marketing at Seneca Polytechnic from 2019 to 2021: two cohorts and 70 students. My teaching is rated 4.7 out of 5 from 10 reviews.
The curriculumI host Moments in Marketing, conversations with operators across search, e-commerce and agency leadership.
The episodesSearch Engine Watch published my DALL-E 2 piece on how AI-generated images change image SEO.
Read it on Search Engine WatchEnquiries
Tell me what you’re building, what you want to improve, and where you need a second perspective. We can explore how my experience fits your next step.
