Shanta Narang
My digital marketing journey began way back in 2004 when I was in high school. Being a small-town girl from Hastinapur (Meerut, UP), I was pretty shy and reserved since my childhood. I have always desired to do something big in life and I am still aspiring to make it larger than life. This is my motivation mantra.
Just like every other kid at age of 16, I felt like starting my own business independently and running it like a pro. At that time, being nobody with a fresh business mind I learned the term “solopreneur”, a person who sets up and runs all aspects of their business on their own. To even run a solopreneur you need little information and that was my cue to join the web development and designing course at Meerut. This helped me hit the cage and fly high.
I loved to learn and attended a lot of educational seminars. One such seminar introduced me to the word “PPC”. The speaker said that “Aapko Ghar baithe Kisi aur company ke ads chalane hai aur aap acha khasa kama sakte ho” (you just have to run ads for a few companies and you will earn a decent amount i.e paid per click “PPC”).
I was fascinated with this idea and started exploring more about PPC. I came to know about SEO and I started learning about it. I was already aware of how the web works as I did a course in web development. I rigorously started learning more about digital marketing. It was a very nascent stage for digital marketing in India and there were very few opportunities in my town.
Lost the way and the struggle
When I was 18, I started to work as an educational counsellor in a nearby institute with the hope that this institute which offers programming courses (C, C++) will also be offering digital marketing courses and by being a part of the institute I would be able to learn it for free. I was too innocent at that age. But, then I realized that being a counsellor in an institute providing just programming courses, I will not be able to follow my passion for digital marketing.
After my 12th, I moved to Delhi to work in a call centre and self-sponsored my graduation. My passion to learn new things made me do an animation course too. I was not having the entire fees for the course so I gave an entrance that facilitated my learning by allowing me to pay in EMIs.
In this chaos of life and desire to learn, my passion for digital marketing was alive but I was not able to follow it.
Dreams Rejuvenated
Working for a year in the call centre realization hit me that this will not help me achieve my dreams. With all this hit and miss phase I did come across a turning point. I got a call from a faculty member who used to work at Meerut.com (Remember? I did a web development course there)
The faculty stated that he is seeking an SEO person for his startup and insisted that I do SEO for his venture. I was so excited and I asked him “Kab se start kare?”. He said “Aaj hi aa jao”. This embarked on my professional journey in the field of digital marketing.
When you work, you learn new things and evolve, so did I. For around 6 years I did SEO for his company and learned a lot while working. He is still a great mentor. His company “Web Page Boom” helped me leave a mark in this industry.
In 2012, Google rolled out the Panda update which shattered many dreams and careers. Many people switched to other professions, many companies were highly affected but it didn’t affect me much as I always kept updating myself and following Google’s best practices. I was successfully handling 100+ blogs. I was also working for many international companies and helping them rank online.
In 2015, after spending 6 years with Web Page Boom, I got an offer from Arbro Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd. I joined this organization and worked on several in-house projects. A few of the best projects on which I worked were Foodsafetyhelpline.com, Testing-lab.com, Lab-training.com, and Snec30.com
My selection of keywords and approach of following the guidelines laid by Google helped in ensuring that the websites ranked higher on the first page of the search engine results page. Also, it helped in increasing the domain authority of the websites.
Hard work never goes in vain
After spending around 3.5 years, I left Arbro Pharma and joined Takshila Learning. At Takshila I got an opportunity to become an SEO consultant and SEO Trainer. I never thought that I would be a teacher. But, I realized that many people in the industry are misguided and I could relate this to my story. 10 years ago, I was a small kid with dreams but no proper guidance.
There was no one to guide me in my journey, but I wanted to help people who aspire to be digital marketers. Hence, I embarked on a new challenging journey of teaching.
Also, Takshila Learning is an institute that follows the new-age learning methodology. I record video lectures for my students, helping and assisting them one-on-one, hosting free webinars to help students understand how digital marketing works, and much more.
I have written an SEO book that will help people to learn digital marketing from scratch.
My book “Complete Guide of Search Engine Optimization and Blogging” was launched on 23rd October 2019. You can buy it from Takshila Learning’s official website.
On 27th January 2020, I joined one of the coolest startups of India – Bewakoof.com as Assistant Manager – SEO. At present, I am working with e-commerce, healthcare brands. Also, this opportunity made me shift to the city of dreams – Mumbai. The city & my new company are treating me well. Mumbai allowed me to work with Bewakoof. To know my SEO work at Bewakoof you can simply search me and it will be self-explanatory. Currently, I am improving SEO for True Meds and the SEO work is self-explanatory as well.
Shanta Narang – The Way Ahead
One of my favourite quotes is “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that count”. I have big dreams and I still dream like a child. Because it is my dream which helps me motivate myself to work hard every day.
I want to grow much more in digital marketing. I have worked for many companies ranging from startups to international organizations, but a lot is yet to come.
Indeed, I got an opportunity to speak in front of people at IIM Udaipur. It was my first public speaking and I am looking forward to doing it more often which will help me learn and evolve and become the best SEO expert.
Taking a step in becoming an expert in digital marketing consultant in Mumbai and slowly want to reach my expertise to the global level and be part of the top SEO expert list.
Few Tips to live a simple and successful life
- Keep learning at every phase of your life
- Never give up
- Love & follow your passion
- Never say “NO” to hard work
- Give your heart and soul to your work
I am always ready to help.
Thank you for being a patient reader.
@seowithshanta ask an SEO expert about your queries. Also, If you want me to help you with the SEO related work, you can contact me for SEO consulting services.
Being an SEO website consultant, freelancer SEO expert, I will surely do freelance SEO services.
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