Cristiana Cantomelo
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Cristiana Cantomelo

Senior SEO Manager / SEO Lead

Focus: Off-Page SEO · Digital PR · Publisher partnerships

Crawl complete. Found: 10+ years in digital marketing, 7+ of them in SEO, publisher partnerships in some of the most competitive markets online and the occasional unconventional solution.

Based in Portugal. Open to international remote roles and selected contracts.

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Cristiana Cantomelo, smiling, in a black blazer against a sage-green wall

Experience

Main employment

iGaming.com

– · 2 years · Full-time · Remote

Senior Off-Page SEO Manager

  • Owned off-page strategy for Portugal and Brazil.
  • Researched and negotiated with publishers, including national news titles; evaluated subfolder, branded-channel and sponsored formats.
  • Worked with on-page, technical, content, analytics and finance teams on localisation, QA and indexation.

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KaFe Rocks (now Time2Play)

– · 4.5 years · Full-time · Remote

About four and a half years with one company, progressing from Senior Online Marketing Manager to Off-Page SEO Lead.

  1. Off-Page SEO Lead promoted –

    • Formalised the off-page leadership I already held: strategy for five Brazilian affiliate sites, plus casinocontaatras.com.
    What I did (2 more)
    • Recruited and directly managed one team member; managed agencies and writers.
    • Publisher research and link-building coordination for two Japanese-language sites (ankaji.com, ikasaman.com).

  2. Senior Online Marketing Manager –

    • Built Brazilian publisher relationships and link programmes for five affiliate sites.
    What I did (1 more)
    • Negotiated portal partnerships, including site-wide placements on iG's main navigation and in the footers of Gazeta do Povo and Tribuna do Paraná (2021–2022).

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Selected freelance engagements

Ran alongside my main employment.

North Star Network freelance

– · 11 months

Off-Page SEO Lead

  • Owned link-building strategy for the network's Brazilian and Portuguese sites and publisher-hosted betting sections.
What I did (1 more)
  • Managed a six-figure link-acquisition budget across Brazil and Portugal: agencies, direct publisher relationships, delivery checks and invoice reconciliation.

Read the story

Earlier career

  1. Affiliate Manager iDigitalMedia · Portugal –
  2. Media Buyer and Account Manager Clever Advertising Group · Porto, Portugal –
  3. Regional Commercial Manager Dermofarm · Lisbon, Portugal –

Case studies

What colleagues say

Cristiana is a one-of-a-kind online marketer, who understands how to lead teams, and has 360° knowledge of SEO (on-page, off-page and AI powered SEO). Any team would be lucky to have her!

Tim TepassFounder and CEO, KaFe Rocks (now Time2Play) · senior to Cristiana

Cristiana was a key asset to the team as well as the business. She is reliable, dedicated, professional and has an impressive knowledge of her field. She is a great team leader and teammate, and it was a pleasure working with her.

Toke Møller TheiladeManaged Cristiana directly

I had an amazing experience working with Cristiana as my manager. She possesses extensive knowledge of SEO and the iGaming market, consistently offering creative and effective solutions that played a crucial role in achieving our OKRs. Beyond her expertise, Cristiana stood out as an active, kind, and supportive manager. …

Daniel MonteiroReported to Cristiana directly

Cristiana's understanding of the Brazilian market landscape was impressive. She consistently demonstrated the ability to analyze trends, identify opportunities, and develop effective link-building strategies that targeted the right audience. Her proactive approach and strategic thinking were key to our success in achieving sustainable growth in the region. …

Viviane WirthmannWorked with Cristiana on a different team

… Just as personable as she is effective, Cristiana has an aura of expertise and excels at directing link-building activities. She stands out in coordinating outreach activities and leading a high-performance team with a strong focus on growth, and always promotes team collaboration. …

Sonia Letycia SantamariaWorked with Cristiana on a different team

Recommendations given while we worked together at Time2Play Media, December 2023. See them on LinkedIn.

My career hasn't followed a straight line. That's probably why I don't approach SEO with a fixed playbook.

I've worked across some of the most competitive markets online, built off-page strategies, negotiated publisher partnerships, coordinated international campaigns and turned complicated workflows into processes teams can actually use.

I like clear priorities, useful data and strategies that can change direction when the evidence does. I'm not here to fill a spreadsheet with links. The work has to serve the business.

Markets I've worked in

  • Brazil iGaming and sports · Owned off-page strategy for affiliate sites, then link acquisition for sports-media brands and publisher-hosted betting sections.
  • Portugal iGaming and sports · Publisher partnerships in a smaller, fiercely competitive media market.
  • United Kingdom Finance · Publisher outreach for a UK trading-platform comparison site.
  • Japan iGaming · Publisher research and link-building coordination for two Japanese-language sites.

Skills and tools

strategy
SEO strategy · competitive analysis · market prioritisation · authority development · content-led outreach
authority
off-page SEO · digital PR · publisher partnerships · editorial link acquisition · brand mentions
operations
commercial negotiation · agency management · budget planning · team leadership · campaign QA · reporting
stack
  • Ahrefs
  • Semrush
  • Google Search Console
  • Majestic
  • Moz
  • BuzzStream
  • Hunter.io
  • Surfer SEO
  • Asana
ai
Claude Code · Claude · ChatGPT · Gemini (research, prototyping and workflow experimentation)
currently learning active learning
AI search visibility (GEO/AEO): active learning and experimentation

What's new

CHANGELOG: Cristiana v2.0

  • Allow: /strategy (SEO, authority, organic growth)
  • Disallow: /hope-this-email-finds-you-well (AI can research. I'll still write the email.)
  • Beta: /ai-search-visibility (learning, testing, questioning)
  • Refactored: /40-tab-spreadsheets (better processes, same respect for data)

7+ years: stable SEO experience

Education

  • Bachelor's degree (Licenciatura) in Public Relations

    Universidade da Maia (UMAIA), Portugal

    –

    • Erasmus: Universitatea din Oradea, Romania. Final academic year in International Relations, covering equivalent subjects.

Life outside the SERPs

Moments

  • The CN Tower seen from a stairway beside a glass buildingToronto, Canada
  • Niagara Falls
  • A black and white dog lying in long grass with a stickMiles at Douro, Portugal
  • A green crater lake among forested hillsSão Miguel, Azores, Portugal
  • Wadi, Oman
  • A sand-coloured tower with steps up to its door at duskSur, Oman
  • Sur, Oman
  • Salt flats, Oman
  • Cristiana sitting in the middle of an empty desert roadOpen road, Oman
  • A camel-crossing road sign against a blue skyCamel crossing, Oman
  • Cristiana on a white salt flat under a dark skySalt flats, Oman
  • Cristiana in a palm-frond majlis with coffee cups on the tableOmani coffee, Oman
  • Cristiana walking across rippled sand dunes at golden hourDesert, Oman
  • Cristiana on the crenellated walls of a fortFort walls, Oman
  • Jardin Majorelle, Marrakesh
  • Valdeprados, Spain
  • Cristiana nose to nose with a large black and white dogMoledo, Portugal
  • St Mark's Clock Tower with its blue clock faceVenice, Italy
  • Looking up at a stone tower of the Brooklyn Bridge through its cablesBrooklyn Bridge, New York, USA
  • Skyscrapers disappearing into fogNew York, USA
  • Glass skyscrapers disappearing into fogSkyscrapers, NY
  • Sarandë, Albania
  • Cristiana pretending to hold up the Leaning Tower of Pisa at nightPisa, Italy
  • Colourful cliffside houses above a turquoise coveCinque Terre, Italy
  • A cup of chocolate gelato in a narrow stone alleyPorto Venere, Italy
  • Portofino, Italy
  • A turquoise bay below a wooded headlandPortofino, Italy
  • Galleria, Milan, Italy
  • Santa Catarina, Brazil
  • The glass greenhouse of the Botanical Garden with flower beds in frontCuritiba, Brazil
  • An açaí cup held up in front of a camper vanBrazil
  • The Dancing House, a curved glass and concrete buildingPrague, Czechia
  • Rice terraces, Bali, Indonesia
  • A tarsier clinging to a branchTarsier, Bohol, Philippines
  • Chocolate Hills, Bohol, Philippines
  • A white sand beach lined with leaning palm treesPanglao, Philippines
  • Cristiana jumping in front of the Petronas Twin TowersKuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • The golden statue and rainbow staircase at Batu CavesBatu Caves, Malaysia
  • Brightly painted temple columns in red, green and goldBatu Caves, Malaysia
  • A macaque perched on a painted temple finialBatu Caves, Malaysia
  • A scuba diver swimming towards the camera in blue waterScuba diving with whale sharks
  • Boats on calm water under an orange and pink sunsetKoh Tao, Thailand

On repeat

My Discover Weekly, new every Monday. Loads Spotify's player, which uses its own cookies. Full tracks if you're signed in to Spotify, 30-second previews if not.

Listen to my Discover Weekly on Spotify

Let's talk.

Open to international remote SEO roles. Based in Portugal.

cantomello@gmail.com

Email me LinkedIn Download CV PDF

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