Rejoice Ojiaku and hasOptimization named 2021 winners of Search Engine Land Award for Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in Search Marketing

We’re elated to announce the winners of the 2021 Search Engine Land Award for Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in Search Marketing. This year we’ve chosen an individual and an organization as winners for exemplifying the very best in inclusion in the search community.

Rejoice Ojaiku: Individual

Rejoice Ojaiku received multiple nominations for her work in founding B-Digital, “a digital marketing platform aimed at showcasing and inspiring Black talent.” Her nominators lauded Rejoice for working tirelessly to help Black marketers break into SEO, find jobs, and be a part of the B-Digital community:

• “Rejoice is a brilliant SEO who has spent her time on creating BDigital… She is kind, helpful, talented and pioneering, and has shown passion and determination in bringing Black people towards the front in SEO.”
• “Reji is continually working towards helping the digital marketing industry recognise that there is a wealth of Black talent out there. Her tireless work in this area makes her a deserved nominee for this award.”
• “She’s the #1 supporter of promoting POC and women SEOs. She stands up for what she believes in. She’s also incredibly intelligent when it comes to keyword clusters and teaches us something new in the industry.”

Our guest judge and last year’sSearch Engine Land Award for Advancing Diversity and Inclusion winner Areej AbuAli said, “Rejoice is so deserving of this award, the impact she’s had on the industry over the past year is massive. The work she’s doing with B-DigitalUK is truly inspiring and her passion and perseverance in spreading her message on equality and inclusion is admirable. Looking forward to seeing all the brilliant initiatives coming from her community. Keep doing YOU, Rejoice, and a huge congratulations!”

hasOptimization: Organization

hasOptimization is a small marketing agency based in New Hampshire. Their marketing work is complemented by their work for both inclusion and diversity across many areas of focus.

Not only are they helping small businesses but are working hard in “attempting to advance accessibility, prioritizing minority-owned businesses, their LGBTQ+ leadership, as well as consistently employing a range of effective neurodiverse staff members who may or may not have chronic conditions. hasOptimization is not a large business, but is growing over time. I have seen a consistent line of communication regarding a range of broad and diverse ideas from staff members, many of which include new ways to make the web more accepting and accessible to others from all walks of life,” said their nominator.

“I have so much respect for the work that hasOptimization are doing. They are setting the standard for what an agency should focus on when it comes to web inclusion and accessibility. With a brilliant team and a diverse clientele, their mission on making the web a better place can be seen through the services they provide and the clients they serve. Congratulations team, well deserved recognition!” added AbuAli.

Congratulations to this year’s very deserved winners!

Check out our other Search Engine Land Award winners and Search Marketer of the Year winners, too.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Carolyn Lyden

Carolyn Lyden served as the Director of Search Content for Search Engine Land and SMX. With expertise in SEO, content marketing, local search, and analytics, she focuses on making marketers' jobs easier with important news and educational content.