A case study of self
This is how I think.
Rayhaan Joseph · Lead SEO & content strategist
◤ Principles
◥ Pattern
◣ Craft
◢ Proof
The pattern behind my career
How I got here.
2008 – 2016
Visual Storytelling
Photographer since 2008, then Motion Graphic Designer at Guardian Media Limited, making television commercials and promotional animation. This is where I learned that attention is earned in the first few seconds.
2017 – Present
Brand, Positioning & Messaging
Founded Studio 19 Ltd, a branding and SEO consultancy for clients in education, insurance, lifestyle, and gaming. Positioning, content strategy, and freelance SEO, owned end to end.
Client engagement +18% YoY
"Strategy only works when there's measurement behind it."
2021 – 2023
Community, Content & Audience
Content & Community Manager at Hit Factor Inc., an indie game studio with no launch date, no ad budget, and no playbook.
Community 10,000+ · engagement +50% · zero paid ads
"We built the audience before we had anything to sell them."
2021 – 2024
Teaching & Facilitation
Led content creation workshops for business professionals, turning my own planning, storytelling, and video process into frameworks other people could run on their own.
2025 – Present
Search Strategy & AI Visibility
Lead SEO Strategist at Lazarus Digital (official title: SEO & Marketing Specialist). I set keyword, content, and local-search strategy for 25+ client accounts across 15+ industries, and built the team's AI-visibility (AEO/GEO) practice.
20/20 tracked accounts improved · median +12.9 positions · page-one accounts 0 → 6
"What I built here mattered as much as the results themselves."
So what's the pattern?
Every place I've worked, I've built a measurement layer that didn't exist before. Then I've turned what it shows into a story the team can act on. Here's the clearest example
Case Study · Lazarus Pulse
We didn't need more dashboards. We needed a system.
I lead SEO strategy for 25+ client accounts at Lazarus Digital, across 15+ industries from pool construction to physical therapy, finance, and travel. Each property kept its Search Console data in a separate silo, month by month, impossible to compare.
No cross-client view. No benchmarking. No way to tell a site issue from an algorithm shift. We were flying without instruments.
So I built Pulse.
What it is+
A shared intelligence layer holding 17+ months of GSC data across every property in the portfolio, pulled on a regular cycle by Python scripts I wrote against the Search Console and SEMrush APIs. Ask it anything in plain English:
Which clients have strong impressions but low clicks?
Who's winning organic right now?
What it changed+
Client conversations became data-backed: "Accounts in your category see 15-20% position lift in six months. You're at month four, and here's your curve." It also compounds. Every pull makes the dataset more useful.
It's how I can say with confidence that every one of the 20 accounts tracked since May 2025 improved in average position, with a median gain of 12.9 positions, and that accounts averaging page one went from 0 to 6.
Where it lives+
Pulse sits inside a shared AI workspace I set up for the team, alongside 10+ AI-assisted workflows, including a keyword-to-outline content pipeline with human approval gates and a monthly reporting workflow. Nobody starts from zero, and the analytics are one question away.
Where search is going+
Search doesn't end at Google anymore. I built Lazarus's AI-visibility (AEO/GEO) practice the same way: measure first. That meant reporting on whether clients show up in AI answer engines, a tracking cadence and budget plan for leadership, and llms.txt files for client sites.
Nobody asked me to build this. I saw the gap and went looking for a solution. That's the habit I bring to any team: find where growth is happening blind, then build something that lets everyone see it.
Portfolio organic clicks
17 mo · cumulative
0
Organic clicks across the portfolio
0
Impressions tracked
0
Active client accounts
0
Months of data
0/20
Tracked accounts improved in average position since May 2025 (median +12.9)
Client result · Pool design-build
Avg. position40.8 → 10.7in 8 months
Primary market term#1
Qualified leads149in 12 months
GBP calls+250%year over year
System Architecture
GSC + SEMrush API+
Raw clicks, impressions, CTR and position pulled from Google Search Console and SEMrush for every client property.
Python Scripts+
Custom pull scripts, developed with AI assistance, normalize each property's export, tag it with the month it covers, and append it to the master file.
gsc_master.csv+
One consolidated dataset: 17+ months of every metric, every client, in a single source of truth.
Pulse Claude Project+
A Claude project loaded with the master file and the context to reason across the whole portfolio at once. It's the layer that lets the rest of the team use the data without touching a script or a raw export.
NL Queries + Reports+
Ask in plain English; get analysis, trend breakdowns and visual summaries back in seconds.
The other side of how I think
Author · Luna's Colour Quest
The same mind, pointed at a story.
Writing as Rayhaan Jay, I wrote and published Luna's Colour Quest, a picture book for children ages 3 to 7 about curiosity, colour, and learning to notice the everyday. It draws on the photographer in me as much as the writer.
It's here because a book is a long project with no manager, no deadline, and nobody checking the work. Finishing one well takes what growth work takes: a clear reader, a structure that holds, and the patience to revise until it lands.
My training started in media and design (BA, Media and Communications; HND, Graphic Design) before business (MSc, Business Development and Innovation). That's why I still care how a thing reads and looks, not only what it measures.
◆ Literary Titan Gold Book Award
◆ Maxy Awards 2026 · Picture Book Finalist
See the book →
How I work
Operating principles
What stays the same, whatever the role
How I work.
A media house, a consultancy, a game studio, an agency, a classroom, and a book. Across all of them, a few rules have held. These are the ones I'd bring to your team on day one.
01
Diagnose before prescribing
+
Before I write a strategy, I want every number I can get: the funnel end to end, channel performance, activation, retention, churn. The first deliverable is a diagnosis, not a plan. Where's the biggest leak?
02
Build the system, then run the campaign
+
A campaign ends. A repeatable engine with clear inputs, outputs, and attribution keeps paying back. Pulse, the Hit Factor content system, and my workshop frameworks all came from the same instinct. If it only works when I'm in the room, it isn't finished.
03
Earn the signal before paying for it
+
Organic has to produce signal before paid can amplify it. Spending budget to learn what content could have told us first is the wrong order of operations. Set the success criteria before launch, run it, read the data, then decide.
04
Make the numbers make sense
+
Data nobody understands doesn't change decisions. The brand strategist in me cares as much about how a finding is framed as about the finding itself. A good report reads like a clear story with evidence attached.
05
Ship it instead of describing it
+
This page started as a job application. Rather than write another paragraph about how I think, I built something you can move through. I'd rather show you the work.
The bigger thesis is personal. I want to be present with my daughter, have room to travel, and live enough of life to keep having something honest to write about. I'm looking for work that lets me build something real without disappearing from the rest of my life while I do it.
Rayhaan Joseph
Open to Lead SEO, SEO strategy, and content strategy roles. Based in Trinidad and Tobago (UTC-4), working remotely, and open to relocating for the right role.
Designed and written by me, built with AI as a working partner · Updated September 2026