Need an SEO analyst to make sure your business’s online presence is up to par? With SEO being a crucial piece of a thriving business, you want to make sure you hire someone with the right talent and expertise.

• Full 36 questions
• FAQ: How can I ensure I’m hiring the best SEO analyst for my business’s online success?

So that you can find the right SEO analyst, we have compiled a list of SEO interview questions that we have successfully utilized at Bruce Clay Inc., an SEO agency renowned for hiring experts with at least 5 years of experience. These questions will help you assess candidates’ SEO knowledge, experience, and strategic thinking.

If you want an experienced SEO specialist to work with your business, we offer exceptional SEO consulting services. Request a quote to learn more about how we can revamp your SEO strategy.

Full 36 Questions

• How did you acquire your SEO knowledge and skills?
• Why did you choose a career in SEO?
• Tell me about your last SEO project?
• How do you stay updated on industry news and keep track of algorithm changes?
• What factors contribute to making a website search engine friendly?
• Walk us through the steps you follow to develop an effective SEO strategy.
• Which SEO tools do you regularly employ in your work?
• What metrics do you consider when measuring the success of an SEO campaign?
• Are you experienced in any programming languages relevant to SEO?
• Which content management systems have you worked with in the past?
• How do you adapt your strategies to meet the unique needs of different clients?
• How frequently do you communicate with clients during an SEO project?
• How do you stay organized while working on multiple SEO projects simultaneously?
• Share with us your most notable digital marketing success story.
• What is your approach to conducting keyword research?
• What are your views on proper link-building techniques?
• How do you conduct an audit to identify and handle toxic links?
• Have you encountered any link penalties, and if so, how did you address them?
• Explain the concept of E-A-T and how you would strengthen it for a brand.
• Define the concept of local SEO and its significance.
• Differentiate between on-page SEO and off-page SEO.
• What are some common SEO mistakes that you have encountered?
• How do SEO, SEM, and social media marketing intersect and complement each other?
• What is involved in a competitive analysis for SEO purposes?
• Describe a keyword gap analysis and its relevance to SEO.
• What is a canonical issue, and how does it affect SEO?
• What should a technical SEO audit encompass?
• Which schema markups are essential for optimizing a website?
• Explain the key components of Google’s Core Web Vitals.
• Why is website accessibility crucial for SEO?
• Can you elaborate on the concept of content siloing and its importance?
• What are the primary considerations when assisting a website in performing a site migration?
• Walk us through your process for improving a local business’s visibility in search results.
• What method do you employ to redirect a page effectively?
• Share an example of how you have used structured data to earn featured snippets.

While the above SEO interview questions focus on assessing technical skills and experience, evaluating candidates’ soft skills is equally crucial. When hiring, look for effective communication, relationship-building, time management, prioritization, and work ethic.

Ready to optimize your business’s online presence? Partner with us, an acclaimed SEO agency with a track record of hiring top-tier experts. Contact us today to revamp your SEO strategy.

FAQ: How can I ensure I’m hiring the best SEO analyst for my business’s online success?

The role of an SEO analyst has become pivotal for success. Your business’s digital presence depends on the expertise of the individual you entrust with your SEO strategy. Here are essential insights to guide you in hiring the best SEO analyst for your business.

1. Understanding Your Business Goals:

Clearly define your business objectives. Different SEO analysts specialize in various niches, and aligning their expertise with your goals is crucial. A clear understanding of your business needs sets the foundation, whether it’s increasing organic traffic, improving conversion rates, or expanding your online reach.

2. Technical Proficiency:

A top-notch SEO analyst possesses a strong technical skill set. From website audits to keyword research, ensure your potential hire is well-versed in the latest SEO tools and practices. This includes a comprehensive understanding of Google Analytics, SEO auditing tools, and familiarity with emerging trends in the industry.

3. Proven Track Record:

Ask for a portfolio showcasing past successes. A seasoned SEO analyst should be able to provide case studies or examples of previous projects detailing how they tackled challenges and achieved positive results. Look for quantifiable achievements, such as increased organic traffic, higher search engine rankings, or improved click-through rates.

4. Adaptability and Continuous Learning:

SEO is dynamic, and algorithms constantly change. A great SEO analyst is adaptable and committed to continuous learning. Inquire about their approach to staying updated with industry changes and their strategies for implementing the latest SEO best practices.

5. Communication Skills:

Effective communication is often overlooked but crucial. Your SEO analyst must be able to communicate complex ideas clearly so you and your team can understand. Communication is the cornerstone of collaboration; it ensures everyone understands goals and strategies.

Hiring the best SEO analyst involves a strategic and thorough process. By aligning their expertise with your business goals, evaluating technical proficiency, checking their track record, emphasizing adaptability, and assessing communication skills, you can make an informed decision that propels your online success.

Step-by-Step Guide to Hiring a Prospective SEO Analyst

1. Clearly define your business goals and objectives.
2. Identify specific SEO needs aligned with your business strategy.
3. Seek candidates with technical proficiency in SEO tools and practices.
4. Request a portfolio showcasing past successes and achievements.
5. Assess the candidate’s adaptability and commitment to continuous learning.
6. Evaluate communication skills to ensure effective collaboration.
7. Interview candidates to discuss their approach to SEO challenges.
8. Inquire about their experience with Google Analytics and other relevant tools.
9. Check for familiarity with emerging trends in the SEO industry.
10. Discuss strategies for improving organic traffic and search engine rankings.
11. Consider candidates who demonstrate a holistic understanding of SEO.
12. Ask for references from previous clients or employers.
13. Analyze case studies or examples of successful projects.
14. Ensure the candidate understands your target audience and market.
15. Verify their ability to analyze and interpret data for informed decision-making.
16. Assess their problem-solving skills and ability to adapt to algorithm changes.
17. Discuss the importance of ethical SEO practices and whitehat techniques.
18. Collaborate with your team to gather input on the potential hire.
19. Negotiate terms and conditions, including timelines and deliverables.
20. Make an informed decision based on a comprehensive evaluation of candidates.

This article was updated on December 8, 2023. 

The post 36 SEO Interview Questions You Must Ask a Prospective SEO Analyst appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

With the role of an SEM analyst being so important to your business’s advertising efforts, you need to make sure you find someone with a lot of experience and stay up to date with algorithm changes. So, we’ve compiled a list of 25 interview questions so that you can uncover the best SEM analyst for your company.

• Tell me how you optimize lead gen?
• How are you adapting to the removal of right-side ads?
• Which bid optimization tools do you utilize as a PPC analyst? (Note: Mention the updated name if any tool has changed.)
• What strategies do you employ when working with an ecommerce client?
• How do you manage limited budgets in high CPC environments, such as legal and medical industries?
• Which industries have you successfully managed paid campaigns for?
• Could you explain what a micro-moment is?
• According to your experience, what are the three most crucial components of a well-crafted search ad?
• What are the key characteristics of an effective PPC landing page?
• In your opinion, which match-type holds the most value in Google AdWords or Bing Ads?
• How do you ensure accurate conversion tracking?
• What techniques do you employ to drive sales during non-peak periods for clients?
• How would you leverage organic data to enhance the performance of your PPC campaigns?
• Provide examples of how you have utilized Google Analytics to improve your PPC campaigns?
• What steps do you take when writing an ad?
• What role does mobile play in today’s PPC advertising landscape?
• How do you stay updated with the latest SEM news?
• Share a successful instance where you implemented CRO tactics.
• Describe how you collaborate with other digital marketing departments.
• Tell me about a time when your work or guidance positively impacted a coworker or another internal team.
• What aspect of PPC excites you the most?
• How do you handle a client who is resistant to your recommendations?
• Explain your workflow for optimizing PPC ad campaigns.
• What do you know about our company?
• Why should we choose to hire you as our SEM analyst?

These questions will help you gain valuable insights into a candidate’s capabilities and suitability for the role. Remember, finding the right SEM analyst can greatly impact your business’s online advertising success.

We would love to hear from you as well. Feel free to share any additional PPC interview questions you think would be valuable in the comments section below!

Ready to find the perfect SEM analyst for your team? Contact us. 

FAQ: How can I find the best SEM analyst using 25 PPC interview questions?

Finding the right SEM analyst can significantly impact the success of your online advertising endeavors. Here’s a guide to help you identify the perfect candidate through targeted PPC interview questions.

1. Understanding Your Goals

To start, assess your specific advertising objectives. Are you aiming for lead generation, brand awareness, or sales conversion? Define these goals clearly to align with the skills and expertise you seek in an SEM analyst.

2. Expertise in PPC Strategies

Look for candidates well-versed in PPC strategies tailored to your industry. Seek insights into their experience with high-CPC environments or niche sectors like legal and medical industries.

3. Adaptability to Industry Changes

Inquire about how they adapt to ongoing shifts, like removing right-side ads or algorithm updates. An adaptable analyst is crucial in navigating the ever-evolving landscape of PPC.

4. Optimizing Limited Budgets

Ask about their approach to managing limited budgets while maintaining campaign effectiveness. A skilled analyst can make every penny count, especially in competitive industries.

5. Analytical Skills and Tools Utilization

Assess their proficiency with bid optimization tools, conversion tracking, and analytics platforms like Google Analytics. Their analytical capabilities are key to campaign success.

6. Performance Metrics and ROI

Seek insights into their understanding of key performance metrics and how they tie these metrics to achieving a solid return on investment (ROI) for your campaigns.

7. Collaboration and Communication

Evaluate their ability to collaborate with other digital marketing departments and communicate effectively. A collaborative approach ensures a holistic marketing strategy.

8. Company Knowledge and Fit

Lastly, gauge their familiarity with your company. A candidate who has researched and understands your brand showcases genuine interest and potential cultural fit.

Step-by-Step Guide:

1. Define your advertising goals clearly.
2. Outline specific industry-related challenges.
3. Craft questions tailored to these challenges.
4. Assess adaptability to industry changes.
5. Evaluate tools and analytical skills.
6. Dive into performance metrics and ROI focus.
7. Gauge collaboration and communication abilities.
8. Assess company knowledge and cultural fit.

Selecting the ideal SEM analyst involves comprehensively evaluating skills, adaptability, and industry knowledge. By asking targeted PPC interview questions, you’ll uncover the perfect fit for your advertising needs, ensuring a strategic and fruitful partnership.

This article was updated on December 8, 2023. 

The post Looking for an SEM Analyst? 25 PPC Interview Questions You Should Ask appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

It turns out that the WordStream founder’s pyramid scheme is a real thing, and it’s not even shady! It’s just a memorably scandalous name for a cutting-edge social media advertising tactic. And he’s letting all of us search and social PPC advertisers in on it.

I had a chance to interview Kim in advance of his social hacks presentation at the SocialPro conference taking place today and tomorrow. We jump right in to his uber-powerful paid social advertising tactics that boast 20% to 40% click-through and engagement rates. (If you want a little background on social advertising first, check out WordStream’s Social Ads 101 guide and then jump back here.)

This interview is 20 minutes of action-packed insight on how to reach your target market through Facebook and Twitter — where the competition is low, the cost is low and the ROI is high, if done right.

Love this interview? Subscribe to this blog for updates from the SMX Advanced conference this week.

Interview Transcript

Virginia: SocialPro is coming up, and you have a solo presentation there on paid social hacks. When I first asked you if you’d chat with me a bit, it was based on conversion hacks you shared at Conversion Conference (read my liveblog coverage of Larry’s 10 CRO hacks here). But you have a whole new set of hacks to share at SocialPro.

Larry: We have a lot of these crazy hacks. We like to try to figure out the secrets.

Virginia: Secrets that you’re willing to share! Every time I hear you speak, I pick up a little bit more. I’m excited to absorb some more of your super powers in social paid advertising today.

Larry: I hope you can make it (to my SocialPro presentation). We’re talking a lot about Facebook and Twitter advertising.

I’m as excited about those two as I was about Google advertising 10 or 15 years ago. It’s so powerful, so transformative, so cheap, there’s not that much competition. It’s pretty remarkable in terms of what you can do compared to how you used to do it, which was not as good.

Virginia: You’ve been talking a lot about unicorns lately. What’s a unicorn ad.

Larry: I use the unicorn analogy in a lot of my content when I talk about CRO or AdWords or SEO. The idea of a unicorn is something really remarkable — like the top one or two percent. My point about these unicorns is they’re so rare and so beautiful, they’re not just a little bit better than everything else, they’re ten or 100 times better than everything else. I want to share some secrets on how to create these unicorns for yourself.

Virginia: At Conversion Conference you said you wrote a program for detecting unicorns. So what’s the formula for creating a unicorn ad?

Larry: WordStream has over 10,000 customers — that’s a good amount of ads that I can scan through programmatically and look for really high click-through rate ads. A couple months ago we did a deep dive on why do some ads have 40% click-through rate as opposed to some ads that have .4% click-through rate? That’s a big difference, like two orders of magnitute, or 100 times difference.

Of the things that stood out among these rare and beautiful unicorn ads, one of them had to do with the keywords. Going after keywords with high commercial intent, as opposed to going after keywords that are very informational in nature.

The other idea was the use of emotional triggers instead of dynamic keyword insertion. Dynamic keyword insertion is very safe. It will get you an above-average ad. But it doesn’t translate to being super remarkable. The ones that were remarkable had emotional triggers like fear or anger or happiness or laughter. They were effective in shocking you or scaring you or exciting you into clicking this thing, even if it ad didn’t include the keyword you were searching for in the headline.

Virginia: In your Conversion Conference presentation you crystallize four voices for ad copy. If you write an ad in the voice of the bearer of bad news, the hero/villain, the comedian or the feel-good friend — give that a try.

Larry: So many companies write ads as though the company is speaking to you. So like, some benefit or feature of the product or services they are offering. A far more effective copywriting technique is to come at it from one of those friend or enemy personas as opposed to the company speaking.

Virginia: You shared a preview of your SocialPro presentation with me. One of the slides is “Larry’s Organic & Paid Social Network Sharing/Posting Pyramid Scheme.” Can you share the pyramid scheme with me?

Larry: The pyramid scheme, it’s totally legal, you won’t get put in jail. It just sounds kind of scheme-y. It has to do with this idea of unicorn detection.

You and I, we both do a lot of blogging. We want to believe that every post we write is a unicorn because we’ve put all our time and effort into it. But in reality, only one or two percent will do really well.

The idea here is, how do you figure out which of your pieces of content are those rare unicorns among the average run-of-the-mill stories. Because in Facebook and Twitter, when you’re (paid) promoting content, you really want to go all-in on your best content, just promoting the ones that have 30 or 40 percent engagement rates because you end up getting tons of free clicks and paying very little for that exposure because people love it so much.

The idea is to audition the content by tweeting it. Tweet out your stories. If something, once in a while, is getting 100 retweets in an hour, then those are probably unicorns, and those are the things that, if they did well organically, will also likely do well in a paid way.

Virginia: A mistake that some companies make is boosting every post they have. You’re saying, use organic posting as the audition, and then find out what your top performers are, and those are the unicorns. Those are the ones you want to blast off into space.

Larry: The worst thing you can do is launch a donkey into space. They can’t withstand the rigors of space travel. You want to go all in on your unicorns. If you have $1000 to spend on posts in a month, and ten posts, the worst thing you can do is equally split the spend among all of your posts. You want to go all-in on you top post and you won’t get just double, you might get ten times the engagement, clicks and conversions.

It’s a bit like the Hunger Games, where they auditioned and had to battle each other out and figure out who will be the victor and only the victor was celebrated in the capitol. So maybe you have ten posts this month. You need to find the victor. Which is the one piece of content that will be promoted and celebrated this month? You have to battle them out in some organic way.

For example, posting them on Twitter, or email marketing — maybe you have email statistics from opens if you’re mailing out your blog posts. This might be an indication that content will do well on social media, because if things do well organically, they tend to also do well in a promoted fashion.

Virginia: It’s a good reminder. We all want to believe that everything we write is great, but we have to be self critical.

Larry: I’ve written over 1600 articles in the last six years. That’s a lot of content. But 50 articles of the 1600 articles produce half the traffic of the million-plus visitors to the WordStream blog. That’s three percent of them producing half the traffic. We’re really looking for those gems. No matter how good you are, I define unicorns on a relative basis. It’s going to be your top 1%. So no matter how good you are, only 1 of 100 is going to be your unicorn.

Virginia: Is this pyramid scheme still viable if you don’t have as many followers as you do. If you’re just starting out or you don’t have much of a following, you might not be able to get as much of a statistical significance.

Larry: What you do is you promote everything with very small budgets, like $5. With $5 on Twitter or Facebook you can get 2,000 or 3,000 ad impressions. That’s a good sample. Even if you have no fans organically, so no means to audition the stuff, you can still audition in a paid way by keeping the budget small. I’d argue that if you have 2,000 impressions and it’s not doing well — you don’t have a 20% or 30% engagement rate, if it’s like half that — then it’s probably not going to make it into outer space. Polling organizations can poll the outcome of a U.S. election based on 1,000 calls or something. Once you have 1,000 or 2,000 people seeing this thing, that’s a pretty good sample size. Very small micro-budgets of testing something out, and then tripling-down on the thing that came up on top.

Virginia: You’ve coined a new term: “super remarketing.” Remarketing is getting content shown again to someone who has been to your site, or been cookied, or are in an audience that you’ve preselected. And earlier in this interview you mentioned that social ads are better than search ads and I’m guessing that one of the reasons you say this is probably super remarketing?

Larry: Yes. This is not an official term, and if you’ve never heard it, it’s because we made it up. But basically why remarket when you can do super remarketing? You probably do remarketing; the conversion rate for these ads is probably 2% to 4% — that’s pretty typical for the industry. That still means that 96% to 98% are not clicking. With super remarketing, rather than remarketing to everyone who visited a certain page or section of your website, you can be more picky.

Instead of remarketing to every one of them, we pick certain behaviors and interests that are aligned with our target buyer. So maybe it’s, we only sell to people who work at Fortune 500 companies. You can actually target for that in Facebook Ads by looking at the size of the company where they’re employed. Or maybe they have certain job titles, like I’m only looking for people who are director and above or college degree education or who are super wealthy or who own a boat or who are leaning left in their political leanings or have an anniversary coming up.

If you can figure out who your target market is — and I hope you would have some idea of who the target market is, otherwise how are you still in business — if you can express that in terms of interests, demographics and behaviors, then overlay those characteristics over the remarketing audience, then that’s very powerful.

You’re not only remarketing to everybody who visited your site, you’re requiring multiple things. You had to A) visit the site and B) have a certain job title or certain interests in certain topics or certain purchasing behavior. By being more picky you can get a lot more yield for a lot smaller spend. You tend to get five times higher click-through rates and conversion rates as opposed to remarketing alone. In online marketing, people get excited about 3% increases or 5% increases, but this is like 300% increase or 500% increase. That’s why I’m calling it super remarketing.

Virginia: As an example of the results that this can yield, can you share a success story. On your own articles you have super remarketed to journalists.

Larry: That’s an example of “super duper remarketing” — it’s a custom list where you know the identity of the people you are trying to target, like if you know their Twitter names or their emails. Then you’re not basing it off of job titles, which is pretty good, but if you absolutely know the ten people or 1,000 people you are looking for, then just upload those names and target those thousands. For one thousand names, the most you could possibly spend is like $10 or $20 because it’s cost per impression and maybe $5 to $10 per thousand impressions.

If you’re targeting this very targeted message to people like journalists if you’re trying to get press coverage, this is a powerful way to get in front of these people and they tend to write about the things that they see.

Virginia: They do, and then you get lots of links, which gives you cross-over SEO value, as well as media mentions, and then you’re a columnist for the Huffington Post.

Larry: We’ve created global news cycles using this technology. Seeding stories to people at CNN and Fox Business, we’ve created global news stories with ten thousand or more press pick-ups, internationalized into 27 languages just by spending these very small remarketing budgets towards targeted lists. It’s pretty powerful stuff. You should look into it.

For Larry’s presentation and more decks from SocialPro, keep an eye out on Marketing Land’s SlideShare tag SocialPro.

If you liked this, there’s lots more great digital marketing content where this came from! Subscribe to our blog for updates from the SMX Advanced conference this week and interviews with top experts in digital marketing year-round.

The post VIDEO: WordStream’s Larry Kim on Paid Social ‘Super Remarketing’ — #SocialPro Interview appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Together search engine optimization and social media marketing create a powerhouse effect that drives traffic to your site, builds buzz and creates brand awareness. And while both are worthy forces on their own, when combined they’re even stronger. Jason White, the VP of SEO & SEM at Dragon Search and Maggie Malek, the head of social at The MMI Agency, agree 100% — and next week, we’re all headed to Seattle to lead sessions at SocialPro and SMX Advanced.

But we couldn’t wait. We were ready to start talking about #RelationshipGoals when it comes to SEO & SMM. Listen in as we discuss:

• Why search and social are a match made in heaven
• Client success stories
• Livestreaming videos
• Artificial intelligence and virtual assistants
• Snapchat hacks

White and Malek will take the SMX Advanced stage in the the “Search and Social: Let’s Dance” session at 11 a.m. on June 22. If you’re headed to SMX, you definitely don’t want to miss.

If you’re not headed to SMX, however, you’re still in luck. I’ll be liveblogging key sessions at SMX Advanced. Subscribe to the Bruce Clay, Inc. Blog to get all the news coming out of SMX Advanced as it happens … for free!

The post VIDEO: Search + Social = ♥ | Take It to the Next Level #RelationshipGoals appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

At Bruce Clay, Inc., our SEO agency is always paying attention to those changes — and so is renowned marketing scientist Dr. Pete Meyers. He’s the brains behind MozCast, the Google algorithm “weather report” that chronicles changes to the SERP as they happen. He’s also presenting his Guide To The Changing Google SERPs Search Marketing Expo (SMX) Advanced this month.

While Google announces major updates like Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird, it stays silent on the vast majority of its changes. Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google’s parent company Alphabet, revealed in congressional testimony that there were 516 changes to the Google algorithm in a single year.

That means it’s up to SEOs and digital marketers to keep their eyes on the SERP to monitor what’s happening day in and day out.

To keep us digital marketers in the know, Meyers joined Bruce Clay, Inc. Senior Technical Writer Paula Allen and I for a candid conversation on the latest changes to the SERP and what it means for SEO.

We talked 2016’s most impactful SERP updates, including:

• How SEOs should proceed with the new title and description length
• Google’s motivation behind larger text ads
• The disappearance of the right-hand column — perhaps entirely
• And how standardizing mobile and desktop SERPs could lead to future design changes

Catch up with all the latest SERP news in the above interview with Dr. Pete! It’s an outstanding preview of what’s to come at SMX Advanced. If you’re headed to Seattle for SMX Advanced, you can catch his session at 11 a.m. PDT on June 20.

No SMX Advanced ticket? No problem. I’ll be there liveblogging the conference. Subscribe to the Bruce Clay, Inc. Blog to get all the news coming out of SMX Advanced as it happens … for free!

The post VIDEO: Dr. Pete Meyers on Major Search Changes and How to Deal appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

We caught up with her to get a sneak peak at what’s coming when she takes the stage at Pubcon Las Vegas next month. Listen in as she talks about:

• The Mindful Business Movement
• Her new book “Space”
• Advice for businesses just starting out with social media
• The importance of paid social
• Social media for mobile

Kristi Kellogg: You just got back from Wisdom 2.0 conference in New York and you were doing research for you latest book, “Space.” What did you learn there?

Lisa Buyer: When I was writing my book “Social PR Secrets,” I hired a business coach and he advised me to block out space and time each day before I did any of my writing to go to yoga, and then take three hours right after and write my book and then go on with my day. I thought this would make it take forever, but it actually ended up being the most productive advice ever and I finished the book within 30 days.

That got me thinking about the brain and how to calm it down and how that really helps you get creative and improves your productivity and thought processes. That made me think there must be something more to this. We’re in a social media crazy world and there’s a movement going on called the Mindful Movement in Businesses. It’s prevalent in high tech and startups.

It used to be it’s great to be a multi-tasker but now that’s not great and it’s better to take time and recharge and restore to really be the best you can be as a company leader and lead by example, so that’s why I was inspired to go to Wisdom 2.0 to do research for the book that I’m working on now: “Space.” It’s going to be a general business book and will apply to any type of professional.

KK: One of the things you really focused on in “Social PR Secrets” and that you’ll be talking about at Pubcon is social media. How has the seismic shift to mobile impacted social media marketing?

LB: From a public relations standpoint and getting social media to get publicity, we have to just realize that everything is in the palm or your hand, whether it’s your tablet, iPhone or other mobile device, and you really have to be thinking about that – be short, quick, visual, and get to your point as quickly as possible. Optimize and hopefully lead them to longer form content on your website or blog with a signal to purchase right there. Make it as easy as possible.

“Social media for mobile should get to the point as quickly as possible.” – @LisaBuyer
Click To Tweet

KK: What do need to focus on in the paid social media space right now?

LB: Traditionally in public relations, you want everything to be organic. But the reality is you need to use paid (social media) to really amplify and reach your targeted audience, and if you do it right, the beauty and synergy of using paid, organic and social can be very effective from a public relations standpoint.

But a lot of brands just try to do it by trial-and-error and get super frustrated and don’t get results. But in order to get the best return on your investment and not spend needless money, you need to stay educated and keep up with the best practices because things are moving so fast and changing so fast.

KK: Speaking of education, you teach a course on social media management at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism. What are some of the most common social media knowledge gaps among these tech-savvy millennials?

LB: Of course they’re super proficient when it comes to social media from a personal standpoint, but it’s a whole new world to them when it comes to social media for business. Even though they’re using social – it’s the old joke of hiring an intern to do your social media. It could be a good thing, but they need to have had background in using social media from a business standpoint so they’re not learning as they go.

Even though they’re familiar with all the channels and using Instagram every day and Snapchat, it’s a completely different mindset on using it for business vs. personal. Even though the millennials grew up on social for the most part, social from a business standpoint is something they still have a lot to learn about – and so do we!

KK: Let’s say you’re a business with no social media presence — how would you recommend getting started?

LB: I’m imagining a startup or personal brand or entrepreneur or a company that’s maybe just a little behind. The first thing I would do is see where your audience is – where are your prospects? Which social networks are they actually on? Focus there first. A common mistake that brand makes is spreading their efforts across evenly on every social network and really you should just focus on one. If Facebook is where your audience is, focus on just Facebook and really master that and then move on.

The next thing I would do is see where your competition is and look where the media and journalists that are covering your space – where are they? Start following them and interacting with them on social media.

KK: How do you gauge the value of a new platform, like Blab.im or something else that hasn’t really been tested?

LB: It’s worthwhile to definitely explore some of these new platforms that come out – I just did an interview right before ours on Blab and you know it’s in beta and it’s just starting out and it’s definitely worth testing. Should you put all your eggs in one basket? Should you stop what you’re doing and switch gears? I wouldn’t recommend that. It depends on your resources. If you can test things out right away and be an early adopter of something when it comes out, you won’t be playing catch up later if you realize it’s a good match for your audience.

KK: Other than Blab and mobile, what else would you say is trending in the world of social and digital?

LB: You can’t help but notice the huge explosion of Periscope and Meerkat, which fall in line with Blab. Livestreaming video and being able to interview someone from your mobile device is another huge example of mobile and social being used together. Personally, out of the two I like Periscope right now, but for brands to be able to have that ability to use livestreaming video whether it’s doing a behind-the-scenes interview and then uploading it to YouTube and have that video content which is the content that is working so well right now on social and mobile it’s huge. If you can find a way to integrate video into your social and PR strategy that makes sense, it could be a home run.

KK: What are you top tips for staying on top of reputation management?

LB: Reputation management is so important for so many different aspects. From a public relations aspect, if you’re a startup or new company, it’s so important to start early and be proactive when it comes to reputation management. Get those easy wins in the search results right away – get positive media coverage. Because then, when something negative happens, you’re at least a little bit secure and prepared and it’s not just this obvious negativity.

The other thing I would recommend goes back to mindfulness for business. We’re working 24/7 in social media – and the more you’re on it and the more you don’t take breaks, the more apt you are to making mistakes. A lot of these social media mishaps caused big huge reputation management PR problems because somebody posted something on behalf of the brand instead of a personal account. A lot of these situations start with mistakes, and mistakes are usually made when people are overworked or trying to do too many things at once.

Avoiding #SMM missteps: “The more you don’t take breaks, the more apt you are to make mistakes.” @LisaBuyer
Click To Tweet

KK: For someone who’s an employee or working in-house and can’t necessarily break away for yoga every morning, what tips would you give to them to manage their time better and be mindful?

LB: You don’t have to do yoga to be mindful! It could be as easy as stepping away for five minutes and actually taking a lunch and not sitting at your desk and eating while reading emails, etc. Get up and get out and take a pause – that was one of the biggest takeaways I got from the Wisdom 2.0 Conference. Refresh, restore and come back and be more productive and happier.

Key to productivity? “Get up and get out and take a pause – and come back more productive.” @LisaBuyer
Click To Tweet

KK: Pubcon is one of the most anticipated digital marketing conferences of the year, with more than 180 industry leaders sharing their insights. What are you most looking forward to at Pubcon?

LB: As an attendee, I think it’s great networking. I always meet the most interesting professionals from the tech and digital world. I also continue my own education. I go to sessions on search marketing and other sessions that complement what I do from a social media and PR standpoint. I think it’s a combination of the people, the content and the network we can do – and, of course, it’s Las Vegas.

KK: Who are some of your favorite people to follow on Twitter?

For mindful business:  

• Wisdom 2.0
• Melissa Daimler
• Daily Zen
• Elizabeth Gilbert
• Jonathan Fields

For social PR and marketing:

• Gary Vaynerchuck
• Guy Kawasaki
• Peg Fitzpatrick
• Ekaterina Walter
• Canva

Great insights from Lisa Buyer! Catch Lisa speaking at Pubcon on Oct. 7 at 11:45 alongside Marty Weintraub and Murray Newlands in “Mobile and Social PR Secrets.” A 10% off ticket is yours with discount code ex-6104410.

The post What’s Trending in Social: Inside Scoop with PR Pro Lisa Buyer appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

(Last week, we spoke with Search Engine Land editors Danny Sullivan and Ginny Marvin about what to expect at SMX East later this month. Watch it here.)

Rand illuminated topics including:

• The ROI of giving away information via content/Whiteboard Friday
• What he’ll be addressing at Pubcon
• Google’s new logo and rebranding
• The war between time, energy and budget inside marketing teams
• How he brings the values of TAGFEE to life and work

Kristi Kellogg: Whiteboard Friday is hugely popular. How does Moz measure the ROI of giving information away?

Rand Fishkin: That’s a tough one. That’s something obviously you folks at Bruce Clay, Inc. do really well — and many of us in the industry have started to find value in that. But there’s not a clear and immediate ROI calculation (for giving information away).

For us it starts from a place of a core value: we want to be transparent and we want to try to make the operations of search engines, social media platforms and content transparent.

That’s almost bigger than an ROI calculation. It’s more of a mission, for us. That being said, we do have some pretty cool metrics that we’ve built up over time. Moz has this dashboard … called 1Metric. Basically it lists all the posts we’ve put out, including Whiteboard Fridays, and has a lot of metrics beside it, including: social shares, new links coming in, the total number of linking root domains, as well as onsite metrics such as time on page, engagement rate, browse rate, etc.

From all of those things, our data science team built an algorithm that correlates with visitors who eventually end up taking a free trial. We look at whether someone eventually, after many, many visits to Moz — takes a free trial and whether or not that particular piece of content was part of that path and then this algorithm provides the best correlated combination of all of those different metrics into a single metric. Then you can sort the posts by one metric each month and see which one did the best.

KK: It works for everyone – people get great content and you guys eventually get people to sign up for free trials. Everybody wins!

RF: Hopefully! We promote tools from our competitors and all that kind of stuff. It’s about doing the best we can for our community and the marketing world. We’re not exclusively focused on how to turn content into leads.

We do a lot of sharing even though we know it won’t necessarily lead to free trials. @RandFish #SEO
Click To Tweet

KK: Well, that sounds very TAGFEE (we’ll get to that later in the chat). But, for now, let’s talk about what your Pubcon keynote will focus on.

RF: I’ve been deciding between a few things, actually, but I suspect what I’ll be focusing on is a look at the ranking elements that Google is using today along with some specific deep dives into experiments that I’ve been running at Moz and as part of the IMEC Lab group. The Pubcon audience tends to be a more technical, advanced group and they like to see interesting and new things they haven’t seen before in the SEO world.

At #Pubcon Las Vegas @RandFish will share his latest #SEO experiments. Watch him here
Click To Tweet

KK: What do you think are the biggest trends in digital marketing that we should be watching out for?

RF: I think we’re experiencing a little bit of tension in the digital marketing world between the desktop/laptop world and the mobile world. And I mean that in terms of:

• Where content is hosted (web or app)
• Whether I should be putting things on my platform vs. other people’s platforms
• Where should I spend my time and energy? Should I be spending my time in the classic inbound marketing avenues like we’re doing today with this Hangout — creating content, hopefully sharing that social and earning traffic, emailing subscribers, etc. — or the paid media platforms, especially now that there are so many content amplification platforms that exist

All of these different tensions are warring for time and energy and budget inside marketing teams. And some of those decisions are being made very strategically by companies that have tested and invested in these things, and some of these decisions are being made from a place of less intelligent analysis.

I think it’s up to marketers like you and I to help everyone who’s investing in digital marketing understand the trade-offs, balances, wins, and losses that are inherent in all these different platforms and mediums.

The biggest #digitalmarketing trend according to @RandFish? Just watch
Click To Tweet

KK: When you rebranded SEOMoz to Moz, what to you did that say about the notion of SEO being dead?

Totally honest, it has nothing to do with SEO being dead. I will say that when we made this change I had an assumption about what the digital marketing world was going to do, that did not come true.

My assumption, which turned out to be wrong, was that people who did SEO would shift to focus on not just SEO but content marketing and social media and other forms of non-paid, organic digital marketing channels. That turned out not to be the case … There’s some overlap, but it tended to be the case … that SEO continued to be its own practice. One of the reasons we made that switch was that we thought SEO was going to grow to be bigger than just SEO, and that has not tended to be the case.

Another big reason we made the switch was we wanted to be able to do things that aren’t just SEO. For example, we knew that we were going to be buying FollowerWonk. We knew that we wanted to be able to offer social media tools. We knew that eventually we were going to launch a content product (which I think will happen later this year or next year). So, in order to launch something that centered around content, for example, it’s weird to have that come from something called SEOMoz and it’s much more natural to have it come from a company called Moz.

KK: That’s definitely more inclusive to take SEO off – and now you get to be the Wizard of Moz instead of SEOMoz.

RF: For sure. I forgot — it was mostly about the pun-iness of my title.

KK: Speaking of rebranding, Google unleashed its new logo today. What are your thoughts on the new, sans serif Google?

RF: I suspect that it has more to do with Google’s internal teams wanting an update and a fresh feeling, especially going forward around brand unity now that they’re separate from Alphabet. I don’t think they looked at a bunch of tests and said ‘Oh man, nobody on the Internet likes serif fonts anymore and so we need to go flat.’ I suspect it’s a little more of Google under Sundar Pichai, their new CEO, saying, ‘This is our Google now.’

KK: Well, it’s a fresh look.

RF: You’ll be able to tell very easily if a slide deck or screen share was taken before Sept. 1 2015.

KK: Let’s talk about TAGFEE. TAGFEE represents the core principles of Moz: Transparency. Authenticity. Generosity. Fun. Being the exception. And empathy. How do you live out those principles on a daily basis?

RF: No one, myself included, is perfect at exemplifying or living TAGFEE. It’s an aspirational value set. For me, a big part of being TAGFEE means sharing who I am, what I’m learning, what I’m thinking, and even how I’m feeling, very publicly. I think that another big element of my job is continually pushing teams inside Moz — our marketing, our hiring and recruiting, our on-boarding, our intra-company meetings and the way we get things done internally — to represent those values and to try and identify when people have done a great job with representing TAGFEE and rewarding them with praise and recognition, and when people are doing not so great a job representing TAGFEE to quietly nudge them and say, ‘Hey, this could use some work and here’s why.’

It goes deeper too, right? I’m working very specifically with two teams at Moz that are working on a keyword research product and a big part of TAGFEE there is trying to balance out things like generosity with revenue. How much can we afford to give away this tool for free and how much can we afford to make these API calls to various services, and what margins do we need to make this a scalable business?

And then, in terms of transparency, how do we make a keyword density score that’s more transparent, more honest, and more realistically represents how difficult it would be to rank for a given keyword? Is it more transparent or less transparent to factor in CTR, for example?

KK: In your latest Whiteboard Friday video you talk about the importance of creating content that is outstanding and highly relevant, and then nudging influencers to notice it. The question of influencer marketing made me wonder who you consider the top five influencers in digital marketing.

RF: I’ve been trying to identify influencers who I think bring a particularly excellent and new perspective:

• Amber Naslund, SVP of Marketing at Sysomos. She shares some great stuff, that’s often outside of the box that I am in and that’s great.
• Marie Haynes. She’s all things google penalties and penalty recovery. She has tremendous insight.
• Cindy Krum, CEO of Mobile Moxie. She’s terrific. Really, really impressed with her.
• Gabriel Weinberg, founder of Duck Duck Go. He shares a surprising amount of marketing information. He recently wrote a book called “Traction.”
• Joanna Wiebe. She does a lot writing, content, editing, marketing and analysis. Very data-driven and opinion-driven — very very smart.

Bruce Clay, Inc. has a special discount code for our readers: 15 percent off Pubcon 2015 registration with the code: ex-2072615. This code is good for 10 registrants. If those spots are already full, you can still use our 10 percent discount code (good for unlimited registrants!): ex-6104410. Register here. See you at Pubcon!

The post An Interview with Moz’s Rand Fishkin: Up Close and Personal #TAGFEE appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

This was the first in a series of interviews, many planned as live video hangouts, that Bruce Clay, Inc. presents all month long. In advance of SMX East and Pubcon, we’ll be chatting with Google’s Gary Illyes, Moz’s Rand Fishkin, iPullRank’s Michael King and Stone Temple Consulting’s Eric Enge. Check out the video interview or read the transcript below!

Kristi Kellogg: What are the top things that SEOs should be focusing on for the rest of the year?

Danny Sullivan:

• Mobilegeddon has come and gone, and it wasn’t as strong as some people thought, but it’s going to continue to ramp up.

Get your mobile house in order. #Mobile is going to continue to ramp up. – @DannySullivan
Click To Tweet

• Continue to look at structured data and find ways to make use of it.
• Consider a mobile app. The search engines seem to be so into apps these days it’s almost makes me wonder if people need to have apps because that’s an important area that they need to be part of.

What’s trending in #SEO? @DannySullivan says: Search engines are so into apps these days.
Click To Tweet

• Focus on your content. Figure out ways you can make great content. Repurpose and refresh good stuff that you’ve done before. As always, I think content is a great success factor.

KK: What are the top things that paid search marketers should be focusing on for the rest of the year?

Ginny Marvin: I’m going to echo Danny’s comments on mobile. Mobile is a big source of traffic now that more clicks are coming through mobile than desktop. We’re also seeing Google adding three text ads to mobile search results rather than the typical two. I would suggest you’re really watching what your click-through rates and costs are doing.

Then I would segue into mobile and say the reason why Yahoo Gemini is on the scene is because of that loophole with the deal with Microsoft and Bing search. Yahoo Gemini is still a very small part of the overall search landscape but that’s something that people are going to need to be paying attention to, especially now that Yahoo is adding desktop inventory to Gemini. We’re back to a three-platform search marketing landscape so there’s more work to do.

What’s trending in #SEM? @GinnyMarvin says: With Yahoo Gemini we’re back to a 3-platform landscape.
Click To Tweet

I would add automation. We’ve seen Bing Ads come out with more automated alerts and bidding rules. We’ve also got AdWords Reports Editor. That’s something people need to be looking at. We’ve also got revamped dynamic search ads and automated extensions. Obviously, we’re heading into the holidays, so also make sure feed data is looking good and you’ve got your product numbers set. Look at what you can do with remarketing lists for search ads, as well.

KK: I’m lucky enough to go to at least one SMX conference every year as a reporter for the Bruce Clay, Inc. blog. I know I’m not the only repeat attendee. Is there anything people who have been to SMX before will find different or new at SMX East next month?

Danny: Mobile, of course, has gotten even bigger than it was last year. We’ll talk about mobile more. And we have new tools that have come up and of course Google is making much more use of it in a big way than they had before. The direct answers aspect we’re exploring in more depth than we have before. We’ve had changes that have happened on the technical SEO side with the Ajax depreciation so we’ll be covering that sort of stuff as part of the session that we do on technical SEO. And then there’s just always lots of little changes that are going on.

Trending topics @SMX East? @DannySullivan says: direct answers, new tools, mobile & technical #SEO
Click To Tweet

GM: We have a whole session on AdWords reporting tools. We’ll have John Gagnon from Bing Ads, and then we also have a whole session on how to do a deep dive into the new Reports editor.

We have a session called Battle of the Match Types – we’ll have the boxing gloves on and be ready to hash out different approaches to whether or not you’re going to break out match types in your ad groups campaigns and how you’re going to do that. I’m really excited about that!

KK: Danny, I know that you were a reporter and then in 1996 you founded Search Engine Watch, and you’ve been reporting on it ever since! Can you tell us how you originally got into SEO?

DS: I used to be a newspaper reporter and then I went into web development with a friend of mine. We were building websites for people and somebody questioned why they weren’t ranking at the top of search engines at the time for particular terms, and there weren’t any really good answers. No one had a lot of information so I started doing some research and developed what I called a “Webmasters Guide to Search Engines” that I published which had a lot of tips and advice and also talked about the search engines that I thought people should be paying attention to because there were so many and it could be so time consuming figuring out how to submit to different places. That grew into what I’m doing today, and doing all the reporting with a huge team now out of Search Engine Land.

KK: What about you Ginny?

GM: I started in marketing on the magazine side of publishing and went through several iterations; it was an interesting but challenging industry at that time so I was ready to switch gears and wanted to get into digital marketing and came across search. I started in SEO and admittedly reluctantly discovered and fell into PPC and found that I loved it. I have been on the PPC side of things for about ten years now.

KK: You guys interact with a lot of digital marketers running SMX and Search Engine Land – how do you think young people today get into SEO?

DS: That’s certainly a mystery to me! There’s lots of ways people come into the space. Some people have been doing it kind of on their own and then they join up with an agency. Some people are at a company and that becomes an opportunity that they can join up into. You have some people who come over from the technical side because they’ve been doing development and they get interested in it. But these days you have a growing number people who just want to be an SEO. That’s their career choice from the beginning, which is interesting for me because when I was growing up we didn’t have SEO.

KK: Last week, Ginny, you wrote an article on Google’s new “Book an Appointment” feature. As the name suggests, it allows you to book an appointment straight from the search results. Is Book an Appointment and other types of direct answer features good for businesses or bad in your opinion?

GM: I think it’s mostly a good thing. Unlike direct answers, the objective here is to still help a business meet their direct business objectives, so in the Book an Appointment case, the function is to appear in the knowledge panel so if someone searches for your local service, say a dentist, the searcher can see the information about your business on the knowledge panel and then there’s a call to action on the bottom called “book an appointment” and you can see the service is basically backending that capability … Intuit Local is powering it.

This is not an ad product like we’ve seen with Buy on Google or Google Compare or even the Home Service ads that are all in variations of beta. So for the Book an Appointment feature, you enter in what kind of appointment you want to make and then you click over to the website. You enter in all the normal information you would enter into that feed gen and that gets directly inputted into that database on the site. I think it’s a positive.

DS: On the SEO side, it’s kind of mixed. If you have a website that’s all based around facts and common information – what’s a celebrity’s birthday, etc. – direct answers are going to be kind of crippling to you, especially if they decide to pull direct answers and not cite anyone.

We’ve done this session at SMX West and Ehren Reilly at GlassDoor was talking about how they love it. (Editor’s note: read liveblog coverage of this session). They love it so much they’ve done all this work to show up there. They get traffic from it and they want to show up in that spot. I’ve had a couple other brand owners saying the same thing. That session is coming back at our New York show at SMX East. We’ll look at some of the latest changes, and Ehren will be back.

KK: Danny, you’re going to be doing a keynote with Gary Illyes and you’re going to ask him all kinds of questions. That’s one of my favorite sessions. Can you give us a preview of what you’re going to ask him?

DS: We’ll probably start off with some of the simple things like what are the secret ways of ranking well on Google? Can you tell us the insights to all of the Google algorithm. Just teasing. That session is largely driven by the questions the audience has. It’s an opportunity for people to put their questions straight to Google that have turned up and, in some ways, put Google on the spot. A lot of it comes down to what the audience wants to hear.

I imagine we’ll certainly want to talk about the changes going on with Panda where we’re in this ever-flux mode where it’s still perhaps rolling out even though it already rolled. It was a big shift. I’m always curious if they can do more to show site owners more about the algorithmic penalties or actions that have hit their sites. They’ve been a great job of showing you if you’ve hit by something manual but I think understanding algorithmic things is important, as well. Maybe we can get some hints if they’ve got new ranking factors that they’re planning to bring in.

Ready to buy your ticket to SMX East 2015? Save 10 percent with this discount code good on all passes and workshops: SMX15BRUCECLAY.

EDITOR’S UPDATE: Here’s where you can read our liveblog of the Evening Forum with Danny Sullivan at SMX East.

The post Danny Sullivan & Ginny Marvin Video Speed Interview: What’s Trending at SMX appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

In a preview of the knowledge bombs he’ll drop in those sessions, he joins us on the blog today for the final segment in a series of interviews with select SMX speakers. All month long, we’ve featured interviews of SEO VIPs sharing amazing insights on every aspect of digital marketing.

Today, Enge will shed light on the current state of search and social, complete with insights from his recent four-million tweet case study. Without further adieu, let’s get to the interview!

Kristi Kellogg: What are your tips when it comes to technical SEO in 2015? What trends do you see for online marketers to be aware of this year?

Eric Enge: The big change during this coming year I see is the growing capability of Google to directly measure content quality. This began back in February 2011 with the release of their Panda algorithm, but Google’s capabilities have evolved significantly. I wrote about this last June, and again in November. Google is already doing things to measure how comprehensive and valuable your pages are.

This is an area that the industry still speaks little about, but I think it’s coming on like a freight train. The days of creating hundreds or thousands of pages to chase the long tail of search are fading, and it’s increasingly important to focus on building the very best pages.

And, to your next question, I think that direct answers in search (or rich answers as I now call them) is really going to continue.

KK: Direct answers (the answers that show up directly at the top of Google — no click-through necessary — with answers to common questions or information like movie times or sports scores) are a matter of hot debate among SEOs. What do you think? Are direct answers a threat to publishers … or an opportunity?

EE: It’s a good question, but I will answer it with an analogy. Many of your readers probably had the experience as a little kid. You built a sandcastle down by the ocean. You built it in the wet sand because that’s what worked the best. But, a few hours later the ocean came in and washed it away. Most little kids are really upset by the experience the first time it happens.

My point is that Google’s direct answers are like the ocean. They are coming whether we like them or not. So, the best thing for publishers to do is to prepare for the inevitable. (Tweet this!)

There are some key things that you can do to prepare:

• Don’t depend on publishing public domain data to get traffic to your website. If Google’s rich answers haven’t wiped that out for you already, it will.
• Don’t depend on publishing data that Google may cheaply obtain a license to for getting traffic to your websites. In some cases, Google may go get such a license, as they appear to have done for some songs (try a search on “jump lyrics” for an example of this).
• Focus on the core value of your business, and publishing rich, unique, and proprietary information that makes your site incredibly valuable to your potential customers and also to Google.
• This may not be a simple thing to do, but it’s what you need to do in this day and age.

KK: You recently published a massive a Twitter study, featuring data amassed from four million tweets. What prompted you to do this study and what were some of the most shocking findings?

EE: We have built an internal lab at Stone Temple Consulting that focuses on studying many aspects of the digital world and how it works. The four million-tweet Twitter study is just one of many that we have published, or are working on. We consider it our mission to demystify digital marketing (as much as we can!).

As for the findings, here are three of our most interesting conclusions:

1. We all knew that including images was an important factor in growing engagement, but what we did not know is just how much of a factor they are. For people with a Followerwonk Social Authority of 60 or less, including images can increase the number of RTs you get by 5 to 9 times! Now that does not mean you should shove an image in every tweet you do, but for the ones that are most important to your business, it would be crazy not too.
2. Other studies (using far fewer tweets as a sample) have suggested that Time of Day is a big factor in engagement on Twitter, but our study showed that this has no material influence at all.
3. Including a mention in your tweets was found to be a negative to engagement (as measured by total RTs your tweet gets). My guess is that once it becomes a conversation that few people that are not in the conversation are inclined to retweet it.

KK: In a recent YouTube video, you and Mark Traphagen broke down “Why is SEO So Hard?” In 140 characters or less, can you tell us … why is SEO so hard?

EE:

1. Indexing all the world’s info is amazingly complex.
2. Search algos are kept secrets.
3. We learn by experimentation and experience.

KK: How does your staff keep up with all the SEO and social media best practices?

EE: It’s a really tough challenge. You have to read the industry news, go to conferences, and keep experimenting and learning from your work on different sites. Then, even as you learn, things keep changing. There is only one really good solution to this problem, and that is to be passionate about learning. Of course, it’s helpful to have people who focus on different things so that other members of the team can learn from them.

KK: What is your response when you read or hear people saying “SEO is Dead?”

EE: They just don’t understand. Back to the my 140 character answer, there is so much complexity to what the search engines do, and so many different flavors of it. Local search is different than video search is different than shopping search is different than rich answers, and so forth. And, the desire for people to search for things will never go away. So, SEO is a long way from dead. As long as people need to search for things, and as long as the complexity of the search engine’s job is high, there will be a need for SEO.

You just have to think about it as consisting of these two things:

• Making it easier for search engines to understand what you have that there users are looking for.
• Doing marketing work so they understand why what you have is more important to those users than the other people that offer similar things.

These are just basic needs!

KK: What do you think SEO will look like in ten years?

EE: That’s a really tough question. I stand by my answer in the prior question, but there will be so much change in the next 10 years that it’s hard to say what it will look like.

The rate of change in technology that we have experienced in our lifetimes so far is accelerating. Even 5 years from now, the technology and web worlds will already be radically different!

KK: If you could give three SEO tips to a business startup with a very limited budget, what would they be?

EE: Here is my short formula!

1. Get enough expert help to make sure your website is being fully crawled and indexed. You can’t get out of the starting gate with SEO unless you solve this one.
2. Focus on publishing expert level, comprehensive content. This is the way that Google is going. If you don’t do this, then they will start to see your site as being very low in value.
3. Promote your business in a way that causes people to recognize you as an/the expert in the topic matter of your business. This will get you links (yes, they still count) and other forms of social proof that could be influencing your SEO, too.

Note that items 2 and 3 are really about how you conduct the day-to-day operations of your business. Even if you can’t get help with them, you should try to do this with the time that you have available to do so.

KK: What are your three favorite accounts to follow on Twitter?

EE: @randfish, @bruceclayinc and @jaybaer.

KK: Those are some of my favorites, too :) Besides SMX West, where can we find you speaking in 2015?

EE: So far, here is what I know:

• ClickZ Live NY
• Pubcon Austin
• SMX Advanced
• SMX East
• Pubcon Las Vegas
• (I am sure there will be others, but those are the ones I know about for now!)

Eric, we can’t wait for your sessions at SMX West 2015! Virginia Nussey and I will be on the scene, liveblogging key sessions, including both of yours. We’ll see you next week :)

Catch other interviews in our SMX West Speaker series here: Pushfire’s Rae Hoffman, Experian’s Bill Tancer, Bing’s Duane Forrester, Google’s Gary Illyes, SEO by the Sea’s Bill Slawski, Bruce Clay, Inc.’s Mindy Weinstein, HubSpot’s Luke Summerfield, aimClear’s Marty Weintraub, Alliance-Link’s Debra Mastaler and Moz’s Pete Meyers.

The post Enter Eric Enge’s World: Stone Temple Consulting CEO Talks SEO #SMX Series appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Here Hoffman shares the tools she’s using for link audits and analysis today, and describes her firm belief that the most effective Internet marketers stay “in the trenches.” No doubt you’ll find her insights on link acquisition strategies that work thought-provoking, and may relate to her opinion of Google’s most unfair update. Some actionable recommendations for dealing with duplicate manufacturer content on affiliate sites are in here, too.

Kristi Kellogg: You’ve been an online marketer since 1998. That’s many Internet moons of experience on SEO, Google, link building and what ranks. Are there any tactics you’d categorize as “SEO classic” ━ things that work today that worked in 2000?

Rae Hoffman: Now I feel old. Ha. I think several of the SEO basics still work – like title tags and making your site technically sound from a crawling perspective. And spam still works, though the punishments have gotten more severe. And creating good content still works. Though what “good content” is has changed. (Tweet this!) You know, I heard a discussion the other day that wasn’t about search, but it applied to marketing websites. It was a podcast by Adam Carolla, and he was discussing how several classic TV shows weren’t great TV shows, but rather simply made it because the programming options were so limited.

When I was a kid, we didn’t have more than 20 channels. There weren’t a lot of options once you removed niche channels like news and weather – so the most decent option on whatever number of channels were left won. But, with 200+ cable channels now and the Internet, what constitutes “good television” has changed – big time. Being on ABC during prime time isn’t enough to make a hit show anymore. It helps, but it’s no longer a guarantee. Likewise, being able to rank in Google isn’t enough to build an online business anymore. As I’ve said before, Google doesn’t want to make websites popular; they want to rank popular websites (Tweet this!).

KK: You recently tweeted: “The minute you think you’re ‘above writing title tags,’ feel free to slap yourself in the face … #StayInTheTrenches #NotSittingOnBenches.” Why is it so important to stay hands-on when it comes to digital marketing?

RH: Because otherwise, you have no idea what works. If you work with big brands and only big brands, then you have no idea what’s going on in the “real world” of search – where other 95 percent of businesses live. When you aren’t hands on, then you have to take the word of others. If you’re lucky, those “others” know what they’re doing. More often lately it feels like one person says what sounds good and sounds like it should work. But they’re so busy blogging eight times per week and promoting their company that they haven’t tried it. But, it sounds good. And it’s in line with what Google says. So, let’s roll with it.

And then ten more guys with high profiles who like that guy and also aren’t in the trenches themselves say, “that sounds plausible,” and they begin to state it as fact. Before you know it, half the search community is spouting this theory as fact and people in the trenches feel stupid because they can’t make it work. Because it doesn’t work and if you tried it before you gave a presentation on it at a conference, you’d know that. That’s not going to be a popular answer, but it is what it is.

KK: At SMX West you’re speaking on avoiding questionable link acquisition techniques. What tools do you use in a link audit?

RH: The primary tool I use is LinkResearchTools.com, but I have some caveats vs. a blanket recommendation. First, I use it primarily for gathering and segmenting link data and attributes. I don’t use LRT’s recommendations or values or recommendations. I solely use them as my nurse so to speak to gather the basic information. I don’t believe in letting tools think for me. A tool is a tool, and I use it as such. Second, LRT is expensive. They don’t offer the title rank feature (which I use in audits) for less $399 per month. That’s hella steep for a lot of consultants and small businesses. That said, you can do what you need to for clean up and occasionally monitoring by using it a few months per year. To me, the $99 plan is missing too many features. However, I wish LRT would make a consultant option that was in between the $99 and $399 per month. We do enough recovery work that we can justify the higher tiers, but on principal, I always feel bad recommending such a pricey tool. That said I’ve yet to find anything that sorts the links into all the nice and neat segments LRT does. (If you know a tool I need to try, please tell me!)

KK: What are good link acquisition tactics today? Can you maybe share two money ideas for attracting or inviting quality links?

RH: “Good link” acquisition – to me – centers around exposure strategies that get you publicity and exposure to your target market (Tweet this!). Google has done their best to kill linking tactics. What still works as far as “tactics” you won’t find being “shared,” because then it stops working. If you hear about a “tactic” that is easy to replicate, it either no longer works or soon won’t work. Solve problems. That’s my number one piece of link acquisition. What “solving problems” will mean will vary by industry. But you need to solve problems for your target user base. Just like your product or service needs to solve a problem, so does your content. Of course controversy, creativity and being “first” with any idea goes a long way. But the typical commercial website can’t do those kinds of initiatives every day. So, for the long haul, solving problems is a defensible strategy – both for your business as a whole and your link acquisition strategy.

KK: While your session is on avoiding Google Penguin, I read that your least favorite Google update is Panda. Affiliate websites are a big target of Panda. What do you recommend if a site has thin or duplicate manufacturer content?

RH: I hate Panda – because it’s arbitrary and often inaccurate. It’s one thing to not reward a site for stuff that you believe is an attempt at deception (thin content simply to rank). It’s quite another to make it impossible for them to rank well because you believe you’ve found an attempt at deception. I see more innocent victims with Panda – especially e-commerce websites (which are similar to affiliate sites in the data feed aspect) – than I do deserving ones. There are only so many words I can write about a pair of black socks. Google always tells us to build site content for users and to ignore search spiders – and then it comes out with an algorithm that has manufacturers writing product descriptions for search spiders. It’s hypocritical at best and reckless at worst. These are people’s livelihoods.

As far as recommendations – creating a hefty amount of value add and truly awesome content goes a long way to lowering the percentage of thin product pages your site has. Condensing product pages into one page that don’t need sixteen separate pages (meaning not having a page for pink [product] in small, pink [product in medium], blue [product in small], etc.) is another common recommendation I have to make. I’d also stress the importance of not using the same data feed to populate your site as you give to your affiliates and external shopping portals like Amazon or Shopping.com. If you’re an affiliate, keep in mind that the merchant provides that same data feed to 10,000 other affiliates. Affiliates should also keep in mind that they can have a “store” without opening the entire thing up. Sometimes disallowing access to product pages, while allowing access to categories and non-shopping site content can allow you to have your cake and eat it, too.

KK: You’ve built many affiliate sites from the ground – key to their success is a strong following. Can you share a few tips on building a brand new brand’s following?

RH: Focus on finding people, and you’ll naturally put out the signals to please the engines. If you launch a site and you think “I need to start getting this links” instead of “I need to start getting this traffic” then you’re doing it wrong for the long-term. Again, Google wants to rank popular websites. Find your point of difference and then attack it with a vengeance. You know, it’s funny. In 2007 I wrote a post about surviving the affiliate evolution and every year I go to update it and realize I’d still give the same advice. You become a brand when people decide you’re one. There’s a great book on this topic called “Brand is a Four Letter Word.” I highly recommend it.

KK: What advice would you give to someone looking to build an affiliate marketing business? Are there characteristics that make someone a better affiliate marketer?

RH: Be willing to learn. Be willing to work. Be willing to do whatever work needs doing. Be willing to fail. Never stop learning. Never stop failing. And remember that “passive income” comes after “years of hard work.” If you’re looking for easy money, you’re going to be very disappointed. I think busy minds with a talent for multitasking make the best affiliate marketers.

KK: What does an average day in your life look like?

RH: It depends on the day, aside from being up early and going to bed early, lol. Some days I’ll pull a 15-hour day, head down at my computer. Other days, I’ll go shoot pool at noon. I don’t think I have a standard day haha. I am a mom of four. We have football, baseball, guitar, basketball, horseback riding … Somewhere in there I have to fit in getting to the gym (if at all humanly possible) a few times a week. I also enjoy gardening, decorating and hosting parties, so I find ways to make time for those. I also almost never go a single day without educating myself in some way about something. I avoid phone calls like the plague.

But I don’t want to create this false vision of the freedom I have as if it didn’t have a decade of hard work before it. I’ve never worked for money wealth. I have a much bigger interest in time wealth. And I’ve worked very hard to obtain it.

KK: What are you top three most visited websites, besides the ones you own?

RH: They’re all social, LOL. Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. If you’re asking for non-social sites, I’d have a hard time giving any that I visit on the regular. I’m a drifter.

KK: What’s your current smartphone OS and device? What are your five most-used apps?

RH: I have an iPhone. This list is going to be so embarrassing, but my five most used apps are:

1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Pinterest
4. Sonic the Hedgehog
5. Wild Dice

KK: If the Internet shut down tomorrow, what new career would you choose?

RH: If I still needed or wanted to make bank, I’d probably be a real estate broker. I love the potential of not only earning money off what I sell, but also in having a ton of “sub-affiliates” (realtors) underneath me giving me a cut of their sales, too.

Otherwise? I’d probably be a farmer.

Dead serious.

Huge thanks to Rae Hoffman for sharing her insights on link acquisition – her “in the trenches” approach is an inspiration! For more lessons from SMX speakers, check out the other interviews in our SMX West 2015 Speaker Series? Over the past month, we’ve interviewed Experian’s Bill Tancer, Bing’s Duane Forrester, Google’s Gary Illyes, SEO by the Sea’s Bill Slawski, Bruce Clay, Inc.’s Mindy Weinstein, HubSpot’s Luke Summerfield, aimClear’s Marty Weintraub, Alliance-Link’s Debra Mastaler and Moz’s Pete Meyers. Our final interview with Stone Temple Consulting’s Eric Enge comes out tomorrow!

The post Fired Up for Links? So is Rae Hoffman #SMX Speaker Series appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..