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James Thompson

About James

Fifteen years of search strategy, and a genuine soft spot for how the web works.

James Thompson is a seasoned digital marketer and SEO/AiEO consultant in Guelph, Ontario, with 25 years working on the web and more than 15 years leading search.

He built SEO foundations from the ground up at World Vision Canada and owned search strategy for Flight Centre Canada's flagship travel site, moving extremely competitive terms from page 12 to page 1 and lifting non-branded traffic by 90% in a single year. He also built an in-house SEO team at Aviva Canada that grew organic traffic for insurance targets by 40%.

James is a Search Engine Academy Advanced SEO Mastery graduate and a certified Google Analytics professional. He provides consulting services in technical SEO, content strategy, and structured data so AI answer engines find it.

Portrait of James Thompson in a navy button-down shirt

Career highlights

Enterprise travel, national insurance, and one of Canada's largest non-profits — different sectors, same discipline.

  1. SEO Freelance Consultant — JT Digital Marketing

    2016 – Present

    SEO, content and digital strategy for small business and corporate clients across many industries. Market analysis aligned to business goals, plus SEO requirements that development teams can actually implement and measure.

  2. SEO Manager — Aviva Canada

    2015 – 2016

    Built and led an in-house SEO team spanning content, outreach and technical SEO. Grew organic search traffic 40% and social impact 80% through link building, content and usability work, with enterprise keyword research and reporting in GA, Semrush and Moz.

  3. Senior SEO Leader — Flight Centre Canada

    2010 – 2015

    Owned SEO strategy for the flagship site and multiple digital properties. Moved competitive travel terms from page 12 to page 1 using strictly white-hat technique, grew non-branded traffic 90% in a year, and ran local SEO and citation campaigns for retail locations. Winner of Flight Centre's Outstanding Employee Award.

  4. Senior SEO / Webmaster — World Vision Canada

    2000 – 2010

    Built the organization's SEO foundations from the ground up: sitemaps, metadata, on-page optimization, paid search, link building and content strategy — plus the audits and market research that kept competitive rankings intact for a decade.

Work that moved the numbers

A few outcomes from the last two decades of in-house and consulting work.

  • Grew Flight Centre's non-branded keyword traffic by 90% in a single year
  • Moved competitive travel keywords from page 12 to #1 on Google
  • Increased Aviva Canada's organic traffic 40% and social reach 80%
  • Established Flight Centre as a recognised authority voice in the travel sector
  • Built in-house SEO teams from scratch at Aviva Canada and Flight Centre
  • Recipient of Flight Centre's Outstanding Employee Award

Skills & technical proficiency

  • SEO project management & team leadership
  • Technical SEO audits and site architecture
  • Generative engine optimization (AiEO)
  • Content strategy & latent semantic topic modelling
  • Schema, rich snippets & structured data
  • Local SEO and citation building
  • PPC, Google Ads and paid/organic coordination
  • Behavioural trend and web analytics analysis
  • Conversion testing & A/B experiments (Visual Website Optimizer)
  • Online and email campaign management, creative direction
  • HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, WordPress, SharePoint
  • Semrush, Moz, Screaming Frog, GA4, Search Console, Webtrends, Wordtracker

Education & certifications

  • Search Engine Academy Toronto — Advanced SEO Mastery, SEO Certified Professional
  • Google Analytics Certified Professional
  • Webtrends Training Academy — Web Statistics & Reporting Certificate
  • SharePoint HQ Training Centre — SharePoint Designer
  • United Systems Solutions — Lotus Notes Developer, CLP Certification
  • Computer Technology Institute — Basic & Advanced Web Design and Layout

What colleagues and managers say

“James is an exceptional SEO expert and an absolute pleasure to work with. He is extremely passionate about the work that he does and is constantly looking for new ways to bring value to customers and create amazing online experiences. James is very dedicated to everything he's involved, great amount of experience and knowledge in SEO and all things digital — and to top it all off, he's such a wonderful person to get to know!”
Sally Al SaatyGrowth Marketing, PayPal (formerly Aviva)
“James is an amazing web developer and trainer; intelligent, experienced, dedicated and was always willing to work with my design team to produce superior online campaigns and ongoing web maintenance. He is fun and has such an amazing sense of humour — even the most stressful projects are enjoyable when James is on your team.”
Maria Di MarcoSenior Director, Business Development & Growth, PuroClean Canada (formerly World Vision Canada)
“I managed James for a number of years. He is a diligent and thorough person with a great understanding of tech and code and how things work online. It was common for James to approach our team with well thought-out presentations and business cases for new marketing projects integrating business needs with his understanding of the channel. I would recommend James as an excellent addition to any team that values results and entrepreneurship.”
Adam HadleySr. Manager, Global Media & Marketing Science, Scotiabank (formerly World Vision Canada)

Hiring a senior SEO — or looking for one to join the team?

I take on consulting engagements and I'm open to full-time senior SEO and digital marketing roles. Either way, the first step is a conversation about what you're trying to grow.

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