This is part of the say something nice about an SEO/SEM series - feel free to nominate someone over here.
Topher Kohan is 49 years old and lives with his wife Amy and puppy Serra near Atlanta, Georgia. He has some vast experience working at some really large companies, with really large sites, doing their SEO on a daily basis. So dealing with not just big site problems, the technical issues, the red tape, etc, but also all the politics you'd expect in a big company.
Topher is a good guy, not just because his Twitter bio says so, but also because he has proven to be that way over the years in the industry. He is sharing, giving, kind, gracious and a caring person. He loves to help others succeed and teach people about new tidbits he discovered on his own or through his peers.
He speaks at many of the industry marketing events, writes articles and shares on social.
He currently works at The Weather Company, an IBM company but also was at CNN, Rockfish and other places.
Simon Heseltine, another good guy, wrote about Topher:
Topher is one of the smartest SEOs I know. When you listen to him speak, you always hear something new and actionable (so go listen to him speak somewhere).I've know Topher since he was the in-house SEO at CNN, he spent some time on the agency side, but now he's back in-house at Weather.com. In-house SEOs tend not to get a lot of industry recognition... we don't sponsor events, we don't (generally) have expense accounts, we don't have fun swag to give away at conferences, but what we have is the institutional knowledge, the ownership of the site(s) that we work with, and hopefully internal recognition within the organization. I've spent a day at Topher's office in Atlanta, and have witnessed the respect that his team, and the internal teams he interfaces with, have for him, because he helps them to deliver results. He's someone who's always willing to jump in and help out when asked, so feel free to call him 24 hours a day at -phone number redacted - ;)
Topher Kohan Bio: Topher Kohan serves as senior product manager for search engine optimization (SEO), app store optimization (ASO) and Growth for The Weather Company, an IBM Business part of the Watson Content and IOT team. In this role, Topher oversees Internet search tactics and marketing strategy to affect the organic visibility of Weather’s digital properties, which include The Weather Channel and Weather Underground apps and sites on web and mobile.
Before joining Weather, Topher previously worked in search strategy at Rockfish Interactive and as the in-house SEO coordinator at CNN.com, a division of Turner broadcasting and a Time Warner company, as well as performed site maintenance and SEO at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As the SEO coordinator for CNN's digital news properties (including CNN, CNN International, HLN, CNN Mexico and iReport), he realized a 25 percent increase in traffic from search year to year and oversaw the two largest volume search traffic days in CNN's history in the days leading up to the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. He also managed the technical design and SEO for the fall 2009 re-launch of CNN.com as well as the design, implementation and migration to the current Content Management Systems. He managed and monitored the largest percentage of search referrals to CNN.com for the 2012 Presidential election, launched HLNtv.com, and managed the migration of iReport to the CNN.com platform during his tenure.
Active in the industry, Topher served two years on the board of the Atlanta chapter for the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO). He is currently on the Advisory Board for Kennesaw State University Coles College of Business.
He has served as a featured speaker at multiple Search Marketing Expo (SMX), Search Engine Strategies (SES), PubCon and Digital Summit conferences, including a keynote address at the 2011 PubCon Vegas conference.
A proud Eagle Scout, Topher graduated from the Art Institute of Atlanta with a degree in web development and interactive media design with an emphasis on SEO/SEM.
Favorite thing about the SEO community? As a whole they are a giving group of people that have no issue helping you out even if your sites may be competitors. That level of giving and caring extends beyond just SEO and to a person will be there if you ask.
One piece of advice to the SEOs out there? Don’t chase the algorithm and take EVERYTHING that Google says with a grain of salt…..EVERYTHING!
Favorite things in general? Color: Blue Food: Good food is the best food Movie: Empire Strikes Back Book: toss up between Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner.
What you want to be known for in the SEO space? I want to be the person that always has time to help and I try, not always getting there, to give back. So may folks helped me when I came to SEO that I want to pay it forward and help folks as they start on their journey.
You can learn more about Topher by following him on Twitter or connecting with him on LinkedIn.
This is part of the say something nice about an SEO/SEM series - feel free to nominate someone over here.
