Daniel K Cheung is an enterprise SEO professional.

I never planned to be an SEO.

For nine years, I was behind the camera, capturing moments, building a business—until burnout changed everything.

What followed was an unexpected journey, one that took me from wedding photography to digital marketing, from financial strain to a career I’d never imagined. Here’s how I found my way in SEO—and why I’m passionate about helping others do the same.

From Burnout to Breakthrough: My SEO Journey

For nine years, I poured everything into my wedding photography business—until burnout hit. In my early 30s, I found myself at a crossroads. Newly married, I was struggling financially, relying on my wife’s income to cover nearly all our living expenses. We even spent nine tough months living with my parents to save money. But the stress was taking a toll on us. Moving out was essential, but it intensified my drive to make a change.

On December 3, 2018, I took a part-time SEO role. It was humble work, but it marked the start of a journey that would redefine my life.

Learning, Adapting, and Leading

In SEO, I dove headfirst into learning and experimenting—discovering firsthand the difference between theory and practice. The work was challenging, but within a few years, I rose to Team Leader. Then came a new level of learning: transitioning in-house at Optus, where I had to navigate corporate priorities and communicate the value of SEO to stakeholders. Patience, influence, and strategy became as important as technical skills.

His insights have been featured:

  1. ‘What An Enterprise Client Wants From Their SEO Agency’—Search Engine Journal
  2. ‘The One Thing SEO Agencies Need To Know About Winning Enterprise Clients’—Search Engine Journal
  3. ‘Schema Markup 101: Boost Your SEO & Improve Search’—Backlinko
  4. ‘Advanced Structured Data Tips’—Edge Of The Web
  5. ‘Schema Markup’—SEO Unplugged
  6. ‘Semantic SEO & Schema’—SEO Podcast by Olga Zarr
  7. ‘Building An SEO Personal Brand’—SEO Video Show
  8. ‘What Has Empathy Got To Do With Technical SEO?’—Search With Candour Podcast

Level-up your ‘hard’ skills, from schema markup to technical SEO—so that you can ask for more with confidence.

Search marketers, learn how to better:

  • research, plan, write publish content that Google will understand and reward
  • ensure the content can be found by search engines
  • verify that Google can see the content
  • mirror important content with schema markup
  • diagnose issues with ranking.
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