Hayden Schuster
I'm a Senior SEO Manager at Optimal in Austin, Texas. I grew up near Portland. On nights and weekends I build my own sites so I can put ideas to a real test and show what happened.
- Works at
- Optimal, a OneMagnify company, as Senior SEO Manager, since May 2026
- Lives in
- Austin, Texas, since June 2026
- Grew up in
- The Portland area, Oregon
- Studied at
- University of Oregon, 2013 to 2017
- Builds
- 10 sites of my own, on nights and weekends
Where I'm from, and where I live now
I'm proud of Portland, where I grew up. It's obviously a massive part of who I am. I'm in Austin now, I'm excited about being here and I love it, but I do miss home still, and it means a ton to me.
Growing up in Portland
I was going to Autzen Stadium before I could walk. I grew up on it. Saturday afternoons in the fall were non-negotiable. Constant drives from Portland.
Then four years at the University of Oregon in Eugene. After college my marketing career started and grew around Portland, from 2018 until this year. The Blazers, the Timbers and the Ducks all came with me to Texas.
Austin, where I live now
In June 2026 I moved to Austin, Texas, for a new chapter. How I put it on LinkedIn at the time: Ducks fly south for the... summer?!🔥😎 Starting a new chapter in Austin...
I'm from Portland, OR, and recently moved to Austin, Texas, where I'm currently melting in the sun. And from a September post: I know i'm deep in Longhorn territory now, so I'll be wearing even more green and yellow around town. 😏🦆🏈
How I ended up working in SEO
From a student IT job to SEO for enterprise brands, in five stops. The resume has every title and date in one place.
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20132017
University of Oregon
Four years at Oregon, working as an IT student technician from September 2013 to September 2017. I went to college during the Marcus Mariota era. A season like that turns you into
a person who builds entire websites about it.
That website is The Quack Report. -
20182020
Clark County Event Center
My first marketing job: Marketing Assistant from January 2018, then Digital Marketing Specialist from September 2018 to August 2020. My farewell line from that job:
So, very simply, to everyone who let me fly before I could run, Thank You.
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2020now
Rose City Marketing
I started Rose City Marketing in May 2020.
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20212026
Adpearance
Almost five years, from June 2021 to May 2026: Digital Marketing SEO Specialist first, then Senior Digital Marketing SEO Specialist from July 2023. SEO went from part of my work to the title on it.
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2026now
Optimal, a OneMagnify company
I joined in May 2026 as a Senior SEO Manager. The work is SEO and AI visibility for enterprise brands, or as I put it on LinkedIn,
building programs for enterprise brands navigating the shift from search engines to answer engines.
What I do for a living
I help brands get found, understood and chosen, in Google's results and in the answers AI tools give. At Optimal that means enterprise brands across many industries.
As I put it in a July post: To win the recommendation, content must be visible enough to find (found), verifiable enough to trust (understood), and quotable enough to use (chosen).
What that means in plain English How I work at my full-time job
The work I know best
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Technical SEO
- AI search visibility
- Structured data
- Site architecture and internal linking
- Search intent
- Programmatic SEO
- Site migrations
- Automated build checks for content accuracy
The sites I build on nights and weekends
10 sites of my own so far. Two of them started as fan projects: These exist because I’m a fan first and an SEO second, and sometimes those two things collide.
Both started as “I’ll just make a quick page” and became full sites. That’s usually how it goes. The rest, including the ones that didn't work, are in the portfolio, and how each one is doing month over month is on the dashboard.
How I think about the work
Because my brain is always looking for the underlying system, even when something could just be left alone. Once I notice a pattern, it’s hard to unsee it, and my default response is to keep pulling the thread.
Clear structure and consistency beat clever one-off ideas every time. In SEO, in work, and honestly in most parts of life. Structure compounds. Life swings.
The short version: data finds the opportunity, creative thinking makes something worth finding, and data tells me whether it worked.
How I think about SEO, AI search and the people it takes
I'm an SEO, not a developer by training. For years I could audit structured data but couldn't fix the JSON-LD template myself. Now AI speeds up the building, so I spend my time on what the site should do and how it should read. I direct every change and check it, and the build refuses to publish a page that fails a check. I have made so many mistakes. The checks, and the mistakes behind them. I also write up what I learn.
What I'm like outside work
Not everything needs a system.
This page is the one place on this site that isn’t about search, architecture, or frameworks. The big one: Play soccer. Obsessed with my indoor and outdoor leagues, even in my 30s. I also lift, walk a lot, read fiction that messes with time or reality, and jump from hobby to hobby every month or so. Oh, and I’m a huge traveler!
- Soccer Obsessed
- Corgi Parent
- Oregon Ducks
- Blazers
- Seahawks
- DCC Fan
- Fiction Reader
- Gym Regular
- Esports Watcher
- Traveler
- Austin, TX
SURPRISE: I am way too emotional about Oregon Ducks football.
The big one: Play soccer.
Dungeon Crawler Carl, on audiobook.
Questions nobody asked me
From my old About page: No one actually asked these. I made them up. That’s fine.
What’s the point of this site, really?
To think out loud in public. It’s a place to document how I approach SEO systems, what I’ve learned working on complex sites, and how my thinking keeps evolving. It’s not meant to sell anything aggressively. If it helps someone else think more clearly, that’s a win.
Do you build websites just for fun?
Yeah, constantly. I have a problem. The portfolio sites are one thing, but I also build stuff purely because I’m a fan of something and want it to exist. The Crawler's Cookbook is a Dungeon Crawler Carl fan site I built because the series needed a proper reference hub and nobody had made one yet. The Quack Report is an Oregon Ducks football site because apparently watching every game isn't enough, I also need to build an entire website about it. Both started as “I’ll just make a quick page” and became full sites. That’s usually how it goes.
What do you do when you’re not staring at search consoles?
The big one: Play soccer. The rest is up in what I'm like outside work.
What are you probably doing right now if it’s not work hours?
Probably walking my corgi and listening to Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobooks, or convincing myself I’ll only check one thing and then checking five, or doing something active to shut my brain off and failing slightly at that.
Why do you overthink way too much?
Awesome question, thanks for asking, wow! Because my brain is always looking for the underlying system, even when something could just be left alone. Once I notice a pattern, it’s hard to unsee it, and my default response is to keep pulling the thread.
What’s a hill you will absolutely die on?
Clear structure and consistency beat clever one-off ideas every time. In SEO, in work, and honestly in most parts of life. Structure compounds. Life swings.
What’s the most common SEO advice you disagree with?
That “SEO is dying, lol.” It isn’t. It’s just evolving, which is a very different thing. What’s dying are shortcuts, surface-level tactics, and the idea that you can outsmart search systems without understanding how they work. The fundamentals still matter. Structure still matters. Clear intent still matters. The people struggling are usually the ones doing SEO like it’s still 2015.
What’s something you refuse to optimize in your life?
Music listening. No algorithms, no efficiency, nada. I’ll replay the same song 20 times a day until I hate it. Pretty embarrassing.
What’s something you track obsessively that does not need tracking?
My entire health database, whether it’s steps, sleep, calories, workouts, heart rate, body fat %, LDL cholesterol, whatever, it’s insane. I gotta chill.
What’s something you do for fun that sounds fake when you say it?
Most embarrassing? Probably watching other people play professional video games. No need to elaborate, that’s already as nerdy as it gets.
What’s something you love that you’d never put on a resume?
Uhhh, well I’m an absolute sports fanatic, whether it’s NFL (Go Seahawks, Sam legit), College Football (Go Ducks, next year our year????), Premier League (Go Liverpool), MLS (Go Timbers, Thorns), NBA (Go Blazers, we’re winning another trophy in the next three years), and the list goes on. Even love watching and playing tennis and other stuff.
What’s a small thing that can instantly ruin your day?
There’s something personal with me and traffic. I just don’t have the patience.
What’s something you enjoy that surprises people?
Honestly, that I'm an introvert. Love my house, love being alone. My social battery dies so quickly, and if I’m not around the right people, it’s no fun.
Say hello
A question about a post, something on one of my sites that looks wrong, or just hi. It comes straight to me, and I read every one.
Prefer LinkedIn? Message me there.
The short version, with dates
That's the person. The resume is the record: every role, every date and what I own at work today.
Got one quick question instead? Ask Bella, my corgi. Every answer she gives links to the page that proves it.