Lucie: Watussi just turned 10, and you took a trip around the world in 2016… Could you introduce yourself and tell us about your journey as a Digital Nomad?
Jean-Benoît: That’s right, Watussi celebrated its 10th anniversary in March—time really flies!
I discovered SEO back in high school when I started learning PHP to build websites. On my very first site, out of curiosity, I added a visitor counter, which was all the rage at the time. When I realized the counter only increased when I visited the site myself—which meant I was the only one visiting—I discovered what SEO was.
I quickly became fascinated with the field. I was young and probably a bit naive, but I found it fun to play around with search engines. I had no idea back then that it could become a real profession. It wasn’t until I learned about the creation of the SEOcamp association that I realized there were “professional SEOs,” and a few years later, I became one myself.
When I thought I had reached a decent level, I got a reality check by joining a well-known SEO agency in Paris. I learned concepts I didn’t even know existed and started working with major corporate clients—a completely different world from the “SEO site publisher” space I was used to.
Later, I joined one of the largest websites in France, both in terms of traffic and the sheer number of pages, as their Head of SEO. I was lucky to come onboard just as SEO was becoming strategic for the company, which had previously relied solely on traffic from its brand awareness. The untapped potential was enormous. We built an incredible team, both professionally and personally, and achieved spectacular results. Those years were professionally rewarding and exciting.
At the same time, I launched Watussi, a platform that allowed me to offer training, sell the log analysis tool I’d developed, and provide consulting services.
By mid-2016, after 10 years of living in Paris, I started feeling burnt out. I gave up my apartment keys to fulfill a childhood dream: traveling the world for a year with my wife. A few months into our journey, we quickly realized it would be tough to go back to our “old life.” That’s when we started exploring the idea of becoming digital nomads—organizing both our personal and professional lives to enable us to travel while working, and work while traveling. Our “vacation-style” world tour ended in May 2017, but shortly after, we hit the road again, this time indefinitely.
Watussi then became my primary business, and it still is today. It’s a 100% remote SEO & SEA agency. We travel the world, changing Airbnb every 45 days on average, while working to earn a living. Initially, working remotely was a hurdle and caused me to miss out on a few great projects. But the pandemic and the normalization of remote work have made this less of an issue today.
Lucie: Being a digital nomad sounds like quite a challenge! To balance traveling and working, especially remotely, I imagine you had to change the way you work and interact with clients. As you mentioned, COVID shifted perceptions about remote work. What impact did that have on you?
Jean-Benoît: I’m lucky to work almost exclusively with clients I already have a connection with—either former colleagues from my corporate days or people who’ve been referred to me.
This existing trust has helped reduce the number of prospects who might have walked away upon hearing that the work would be 100% remote and that we might never meet in person. While there was some hesitation before, it has almost completely vanished since the lockdowns, which helped normalize remote work. Though large companies still rarely have systems fully adapted for it.
Because I often work in a different time zone than France, I rely heavily on asynchronous work, which prioritizes written communication. Writing leaves a clear record and forces you to think carefully about what you want to say. In fact, the way we organized this interview is a great example of asynchronous collaboration.
On the flip side, synchronous work—like poorly prepared meetings with too many participants—is often inefficient. Unfortunately, this remains the default approach, and I don’t think the pandemic has led to much improvement in this area.
Looking back, it’s incredible how 2017, the year I started my nomadic life, feels like a completely different era. Back then, organizing a video call was a major ordeal—some people didn’t realize the Google Meet link was in the invite, others lacked headphones or had non-functioning mics. It was such a nightmare that I quickly subscribed to a VoIP service to call my clients directly on their phones. On this front, we’ve made huge strides.
The biggest challenge, however, was personal logistics. Before becoming a nomad, I had a comfortable work setup: dual monitors, a sit-stand desk, an ergonomic chair, and fiber-optic internet. Now, I work on a 13” laptop, often with uncomfortable tables and chairs, and deal with unreliable internet. I’ve optimized what I can, but since my life has to fit in a suitcase, compromises are inevitable.
Having worked from over 50 countries, I can attest that high-speed internet isn’t universal yet. This issue is gradually improving with better infrastructure and initiatives like Starlink. Ironically, my worst connection issues have been in rural France!
Lucie: You mentioned earlier that joining an agency was a wake-up call for you. The SEO field has evolved so much—it’s been declared dead and revived countless times. New generations with different approaches are entering the field. Do you think it’s still possible to have another “wake-up call” in 2023?
Jean-Benoît: Before joining Aposition in 2011, I was just a “simple” site publisher. That was the golden age of the SEO community, with free and selfless knowledge-sharing on large forums. Back then, no one was trying to sell overpriced courses or low-quality PDFs.
That said, some players had significant competitive advantages. At Aposition, there was unique expertise in analyzing crawl behaviors and managing large-scale websites. The agency had tools (crawlers, log analyzers, ranking databases) that were groundbreaking for the time—most people didn’t even know such tools existed.
There was a strong culture of secrecy to maintain this edge. Today, the trend is to openly share knowledge and commercialize SaaS tools.
In this regard, I doubt such a “wake-up call” is possible in 2023. I don’t think any agency today can claim a significant technological lead over others.
But SEO still delivers its share of surprises.
- I was blown away when I realized I could compete with YouTube and Dailymotion in the video pack by hosting my own videos.
- I was amazed when a small site I built ranked for “World Cup 2010” during the opening ceremony, thanks to Google News.
- I was stunned by the traffic potential of Google Discover.
- And recently, seeing my younger cousins search for restaurants on Instagram or TikTok instead of Google floored me.
These days, I’m constantly amazed by OpenAI’s advancements.
As for SEO’s so-called “death,” I’ll start worrying when companies stop investing in it, SEO professionals struggle to get hired, and freelancers can’t find work. For now, we’re far from that. SEO is ever-changing, but that’s exactly what keeps us passionate about this industry.
Lucie: Let’s step away from SEO for a moment. Focusing on travel—without work or logistics—do you plan your destinations in advance, or do you go with the flow?
Jean-Benoît: There have been different phases. In 2016, we had an 11-month sabbatical and treated it as the trip of a lifetime. We marked our dream destinations on a map and worked with a travel agency specializing in “round-the-world” tickets to create a coherent itinerary. Over those 11 months, we visited about 100 destinations and booked our major flights in advance.
After that first journey, we decided to continue traveling, but at a slower pace, as vacations were over, and we needed time to work. We still liked planning, so we mapped out our travels for the next 12 months, even if nothing was booked.
By our third year, planning became more flexible, and we focused on maintaining logical routes with some stops in France.
Then COVID hit, and everything went out the window. For instance, we had a road trip planned in China for March 2020—great timing! Not only was Plan A canceled, but so were Plans B, C, and so on. Planning became impossible.
Ironically, after spending the lockdown in France (thanks to a last-minute apartment find via the SEO community!), we experienced our best two years of travel. With tourists gone and prices slashed, we enjoyed empty destinations. I even entered Vietnam a few weeks before it officially reopened, thanks to my wife’s citizenship. In one small village, news spread like wildfire: “Foreigners are back!”
Nowadays, we hardly plan. It’s not uncommon for me to have no idea where I’ll be next month.
Lucie: To wrap up, let’s not travel through space but through time! If you could talk to your younger self, what would you say?
Jean-Benoît: Haha, that’s a very personal question! I’d probably just tell him not to worry—everything will turn out just fine.
Thanks so much for your questions! 😉
