Arnout Hellemans runs OnlineMarkethink, a one-person consultancy out of Amsterdam where he's been connecting SEO, CRO, and analytics since 2009. Most practitioners keep these in separate silos. Arnout treats them as one discipline. His motto is "Always Be Optimizing."
His client work spans enterprise brands and scale-ups across Europe and the US, including TheNextWeb, NatWest Group, and LeasePlan. He previously worked at Marktplaats (part of the eBay classifieds group) and mentors startups at WeWork Labs on growth, analytics, and Google Tag Manager. He judges the European Search Awards, Friends of Search Awards, and Experimentation Elite Awards, and speaks regularly at conferences like Friends of Search, SMX London, ConversionHotel, InOrbit, and the Belgrade SEO Conference.
His "Three Pillars of SEO" framework divides SEO into Technical (crawlability, indexation), Content (on-page optimization), and Popularity (links and branding). The model has become a widely referenced starting point for structuring SEO strategy, particularly for teams that struggle to prioritize across competing optimization opportunities.
On the podcast, Arnout made the case that every optimization project should start with understanding how the business makes money, then work backwards. More traffic is meaningless if it doesn't connect to the monetization mechanism. He also discussed how his ADHD diagnosis reframed the way he approaches work: the ability to process multiple information streams simultaneously, store seemingly unrelated details, and later connect dots that others miss. The same pattern recognition that makes him effective at technical SEO puzzles turns out to be how his brain is wired.
