Katherine Zhu

About Katherine

Katherine (Kat) Zhu is a Senior SEO Specialist at Local Digital in Sydney. She joined the SEO team in May 2021 as an SEO executive, was promoted to SEO consultant in August 2022 and to senior SEO specialist in November 2023.

Kat is a psychology graduate who transitioned into digital marketing. She holds a Bachelor of Psychological Science from UNSW, where she majored in psychology with statistics, neuroscience and Mandarin, and worked as a research assistant on a project about the perception of eye gaze direction in people with trait social anxiety. Before Local Digital she spent almost four years as a child protection caseworker with the NSW Department of Communities and Justice.

That background shows in her work: she applies her understanding of human psychology to digital marketing projects, including conversion rate optimisation, alongside the technical SEO work she does for clients and the guides to canonical tags, robots.txt and XML sitemaps she has written for the Local Digital blog.

She appeared on The SEO Show in December 2022 for an “SEO takedown” episode, pulling apart the results of a campaign she ran for an online tile retailer and the work behind the lift in organic traffic and revenue.

Experience

1. Nov 2023 – Present
   Senior SEO Specialist Local Digital · Sydney

   Runs SEO campaigns for the agency's clients, from technical and onsite work to content and conversion optimisation.

2. Aug 2022 – Nov 2023
   SEO Consultant Local Digital · Sydney
3. May 2021 – Aug 2022
   SEO Executive Local Digital · Sydney

   First role in digital marketing.

4. Apr 2019 – Apr 2021
   Joint Child Protection Response Caseworker NSW Department of Communities and Justice · Sydney

   Interviewed children, young people, their families and other persons of interest to gather information for the investigation and assessment of safety and risk.

5. Jan 2019 – Apr 2019
   Joint Referral Unit Triage Caseworker NSW Department of Communities and Justice · Sydney

   Reviewed child protection and person-of-interest history to support management decisions.

6. Jul 2017 – Jan 2019
   Helpline Child Protection Caseworker NSW Department of Communities and Justice · Sydney

   First point of contact for reports of child protection matters, assessing risk to ensure the immediate and ongoing safety of children.

7. Jan 2014 – Dec 2014
   Research Assistant UNSW · Sydney

   Masters project on the perception of eye gaze direction in people with trait social anxiety.

Education

• Bachelor of Psychological Science (Psychology, Statistics, Neuroscience, Chinese (Mandarin))UNSW · 2014 – 2016
• Bachelor of Advanced Science (Psychology, Criminology, Biology)UNSW · 2013 – 2014

Podcast appearances

• SEO Takedown With Kat ZhuThe SEO Show · Episode 61 · Dec 2022

  A live “takedown” of an ecommerce SEO campaign: the results achieved for an online tile retailer and the work done to get them.

Awards & recognition

• Best Large Integrated AgencyAPAC Search Awards 2022 · Local Digital