Melanie Mitchell

Melanie Mitchell is Vice President of SEO/SEM at AOL, one of the most successful internet companies in history. Melanie has over nine years of experience in web site promotion and over seven years experience in search marketing for major sites across several industries including travel, local, entertainment, ecommerce, news and sports. She has managed SEO and PPC campaigns both in-house as well as from the agency side.

Melanie was recruited by AOL in 2004 to develop strategy, lay the foundation for success (processes, procedures, tracking technology, reporting) and manage the team tasked with increasing AOL.com's business via paid and organic search. Prior to AOL, Melanie worked at VeriSign/Network Solutions for over four years; managing direct response marketing campaigns through online, paid search, search engine optimization and strategic alliances for both Network Solutions and NameSecure.com. She has also consulted for media agencies, having planned, launched, tracked and managed their search engine marketing campaigns. In addition to her online, search marketing and advertising expertise, Melanie has a strong background in offline/print marketing and meeting planning, having spent 5 years working for a number of non-profit agencies in the DC area planning large scale meetings and conventions.

In early 2007, Melanie was named one of the "top in-house SEO's" by Natural Search Blog. She is also a speaker at Search Engine Strategies (SES), Pubcon, AdTech, Searchnomics, PRSA, and for such noted roundtables as Business Wire and the National Women's Business Center as well as a contributing writer to Search Engine Watch.

Melanie graduated from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA with a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in Marketing.