Lachlan Hogben.
In this series, AdNews spotlights young talent in the Australian media, marketing and advertising sector. This time it's NP Digital's senior SEO manager Lachlan Hogben.
Time in current role / Time at the company
I have been a Senior SEO Manager at NP Digital for almost two years, joining in June 2024.
How long have you been in the industry?
Over four years. I began my SEO journey at the start of 2022.
How did you get here?
I finished my Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Marketing at the end of 2021 and was working part-time in events while figuring out my next move. My older brother, who was an SEO Specialist at the time and now runs his own agency, would come home talking about his work and the traction he was getting. We have always been competitive, so I thought if he was doing well at it, I should give it a shot. I started applying for SEO roles and landed my first position as a Junior SEO Specialist. After two years there I made the move to NP Digital.
Was this always the plan?
Not exactly. I didn’t have a clear direction coming out of uni, but once I found SEO I knew it was somewhere I wanted to build a career. Moving to a global agency was a deliberate step and NP Digital felt like the right environment to grow faster and work across bigger, more complex accounts.
Who is your right-hand person / Who guides you day-to-day?
Adam Kelly, our Head of Solutions and my direct manager. He is someone I can bounce ideas off without getting a textbook answer back. He challenges how I think about problems and is great at sharing what he is working on and the insights he picks up along the way, which means you are constantly picking things up without even realising it. Good person to report to.
What’s the best thing about the industry you work in?
The community. There are a lot of generous people sharing genuinely useful work online, and the discipline itself never sits still. The pace of change keeps you sharp.
And the biggest challenge?
It is a competitive space, but that is also what makes it interesting. The bar is always moving, which means there is always something worth solving.
Whose job have you set your sights on in the future?
No one specific, but I am drawn to roles that sit at the intersection of strategy, systems and people. Whether that is building out SEO frameworks, leading training and development, or working closer to the commercial side of a business, I want to be in a position where I am creating leverage, not just executing.
Where do you turn for inspiration?
A mix of sources. LinkedIn has a strong SEO community with people doing genuinely interesting work. The specialists I work alongside at NP Digital push my thinking day to day. Both my brother and my partner work in SEO, so there is no shortage of industry conversation outside of work hours either.
Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?
I have completed over 100 jigsaw puzzles and typically finish one a week. It is about as far from a screen as you can get, which is probably why it works.
In five years' time I'll be...
Maybe a role that sits closer to the systems and strategy side of SEO, whether that is building smarter workflows, leading training, or helping teams spend less time on repeatable work and more time on the stuff that actually moves the needle. I am not too fixated on the title, more interested in the problem.
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