Introducing our new initiative, Beyond Rankings that celebrates SEOTalker Of The Month and we start with one of our oldest supporter and the go-getter of our SEO Industry – Divya Mistry.
This is our way of shining the light on individuals who are testing, breaking, and rebuilding what works in search.
Interview With Divya Mistry
Q1. What does your current SEO work look like — role, company type, what you’re focused on?
I currently work as a Manager – SEO & Website Development at iVIPANAN. I oversee SEO strategy and execution, guide the team, and make sure everything aligns with business goals. I stay closely involved in the work, while also handling Google Ads and building SEO-friendly websites from scratch.
Q2. What’s a win you’re most proud of in the last year? (Doesn’t have to be a huge number, any breakthrough counts.)
One of the biggest wins in the last few months isn’t a metric — it’s a mindset shift we’re seeing in the market. As SEOs, we’ve lived through multiple algorithm changes, but this feels like one of the biggest shifts in how business owners think.
Earlier, it felt like constantly climbing a mountain, trying to convince businesses why SEO matters. Now, it feels like we’ve reached the top and are on the way down — business owners are proactively leaning toward SEO and often prioritizing it over other channels.
Seeing this shift happen so quickly within a year feels like a real win. The conversation has clearly moved from “Why SEO?” to “How fast can we scale it?”
Q3. One SEO thing you used to believe that you’ve since changed your mind on?
We’re seeing legacy metrics like link volume and exact-match ranking expectations slowly fade. For years, the industry believed that more links automatically meant more authority. But with the rise of AIO (AI Overviews) and GEO, link volume has become more of a vanity metric that can hide weak strategy.
Today, the focus has shifted to citation quality and information gain. The goal isn’t to get 1,000 links — it’s to get your brand cited by the authoritative “hubs” that AI models trust most. In a way, we’ve moved from a “click economy” to a “trust economy.”
Q4. A tool, resource, or habit that’s genuinely made your work better recently?
Lately, experimenting with Claude has made work easier by around 30–40%. But more than the tool itself, it’s the habit of consistently testing AI within workflows that really makes the difference — especially for faster analysis and content direction.
At the same time, we make sure the fundamentals stay strong, because that’s what keeps the output practical and reliable.
Q5. One piece of advice you’d give a mid-level SEO who wants to get to the next level?
Stop being an optimizer and start being an authority.
Mid-level SEOs need to shift their focus from “hacking” results to training the entire search ecosystem — including AI models and search engines — to see their brand as the most trusted and indispensable source in a specific category.
Our Thoughts
This conversation with Divya Mistry shows how much the craft of SEO has evolved beyond keywords and links. By focusing on authority, information gain, and genuine usefulness, SEOs have a chance not just to keep up with AI-era search, but to lead it from the front.