Posts on State of Search about ‘Business’

The Business of SEO

SEO is a bit of an odd duck in the total mix of online (marketing) disciplines. On the one hand it’s a very techy, ‘hard’ discipline that requires a lot of skill and expertise in a wide range of fields. On the other hand, it’s probably one of the more difficult online disciplines to quantify.

Web developers, for example, have a finished product they deliver: a working website built according to the customer’s spec. Email marketers too have very clear deliverables: open-rates, click-through rates, spam reports, delivered emails – all these are very solid metrics that an email marketer can influence and report, and they tend to correlate to a financial ROI somewhere down the line.

Conversion rate optimisers have it even easier: their whole job is to map out the ROI-funnel of a website and to make it work better. And many social media marketers are as of yet still wallowing in the fuzziness of old-school, offline marketing – they get away with meaningless lingo-speak like ‘customer engagement’ and ‘brand building’. In other words, ROI isn’t (yet) a big part of the SMO business.

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Working at Google can be profitable, just don’t tell anyone

Google is doing good. Though they now have to share the webs dominance with Facebook and the Google stocks have fallen below the 600 dollars again, the company is doing very good financially. Their revenue has been going up for the past few years reaching a highpoint of over 7 billion in the third quarter of this year.

And when Google is doing good, so are its employees. It has been like that ever since Google first started hiring. They always treat their employees right. Until the employee screws up.

Yes, its that time of year again when people at companies start talking about bonuses and raises. And Google is no different. And with Google doing well there might be a raise or two some Googlers can expect. Or a new Nexus. Like the raise four of Google’s executive officers got for 2011. They can expect a raise of no less than 30 percent. The executives can also expect some stock awards worth between 5 and 20 million US dollars. Go Google!

But other Googlers are not to worry, they are not left in the cold. Google is awarding everybody else a 10 percent raise. On top of that raise comes a $1,000 bonus, to be taken home in cash for those living in Silicon Valley.

Not bad huh? Actually the only ones not getting a raise are the Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and the CEO Eric Schmidt. They are staying on their 1 dollar salary. Was it something you said Eric? (more…)

How to Get SEO Recruitment Right First Time

I’ve had a bit of a low profile on the SEO scene the last few months, it’s because I’ve been busy short-listing, interviewing and offering jobs to a new batch of recruits. It’s been an interesting process that I wanted to share with you some of the things I’ve learned that might make your life a bit easier if you’re in the process of attracting good SEOs.

They Might Not Call Themselves SEOs

Some of the strongest candidates we’ve found with our recruiter wouldn’t have described themselves as SEO, in fact a few of them hadn’t had much interaction with the world of search, but working in other internet marketing disciplines they actually had some of the specific skills a search marketing team is looking for. (more…)

What should you be doing to stop the Search Marketing Conmen ruining your reputation

I was surprised after publishing my last post here about a mis-leading search marketing firm cold calling me offering me PPC disguised as SEO that this wasn’t an isolated incident and seems to be happening all over Europe. My comments about the industry being at risk of being seen as bad as estate agents and traffic wardens seems even more stark and real.

So what can we do stop this slight on our reputations; as this could be much worse that just dirty looks at dinner parties, this could really ruin our fledgling industry. (more…)

SEO’s are going to end up more hated than traffic wardens and estate agents

I’m as guilty of anyone of using a headline full of hyperbole then writing an article much more reserved, but in this case I’m being completely honest. Unless the SEO industry does something fast we’re going to find ourselves in a situation where we’re as disliked as a profession as traffic recruiters, estate agents even traffic wardens.

I run a little website to promote a little sideline I have in wedding dj-ing. It isn’t much, has average SEO, but it gets me enough enquiries that I can convince my wife I don’t need to get rid of my PA, Records and DJ equipment.

A tiny site with very little traffic yet every couple of days I get emails from people asking for or offering payment for links. A little aggravating I’ll be honest but not the end of the world.
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Looking For the Perfect Search Client – Must Have Own Car & GSOH

Stand back, please form an orderly queue. I have recently put myself back on the market.

Similar to dating, the early stages of client relationships are filled with wooing, excitement and so many enthusiastic nods of approval that your neck hurts. BUT just like love, it is hard to find that special person. Along the way you have to face some challenging and unsavoury matches, but just like relationships they equip you to deal with the next one better.

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The scope and limitations of SEO

Over the past few weeks I’ve had several discussions with fellow SEOs, especially over at the (excellent) SEO Training Dojo, about what exactly the scope and remit of SEO is supposed to be. These debates were often sparked by a preceding discussion on valid SEO KPIs – what metrics we measure as indications of SEO success.

Some SEOs, which I’ll call ‘purists’, stick with a tight definition of SEO, placing the emphasis firmly on the first two words of the acronym: search engines. These purist SEOs see their scope as delivering targeted search engine traffic, and that’s where their remit ends. Turning this traffic in to actual conversions is a different discipline – conversion rate optimisation.

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Suze Orman tells Google how to earn money

Suze Orman is a internationally known finance expert who made a lot of money over the years. Google must have thought she could learn its employees about money and decided to ask her to talk to Google employees. The video of her  speech you can find here. Learn what Googlers learned about money. It sounds like a money-scheme or just ‘save money’, but listen good, you can actually learn from it.

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