A summer interview with… Kevin Gibbons (@kevgibbo): “now is the time to be thinking about Bing”

There are many great search-experts out there. We decided we wanted to give some extra attention to some of them. Therefore we will be interviewing some of these experts. During the entire summer you will be served with short interviews with influential people in the industry. You will be seeing interviews with the likes of Joost de Valk, Marcus Tandler, Chris Sherman, Mike Grehan and Danny Sullivan, and off course our bloggers! Be aware that some interviews will be published in the newsletter!

Today: one of the finest bloggers on SEO out there: Kevin Gibbons

1- Can you introduce yourself in one paragraph?

Yes sure and thanks for the interview invite! As a quick intro, I’m founder and Director of Search at SEOptimise in the UK – I can also be found blogging on SEOptimise, Econsultancy and Search Engine Watch or on Twitter.

2- What are you doing this summer?

Like most of the other interviewees, I’m being kept very busy with SEO work at the moment. I have a holiday planned towards the end of the year and have been enjoying what has so far been a warm and sunny British summer – honestly. And of course trying to avoid any talk of football or the World Cup!

3- What is the most hottest subject in search at the moment, what should every SEO be looking into?

Mobile! Only joking, that’s next year

Seriously, I think Jonathan hit the nail on the head when talking about corporate SEO. From what I’ve seen this year, especially at the conferences, everyone is now past the theory stage of what’s good SEO and what isn’t. And if they haven’t done this already, they’re now ready to put SEO strategies fully into practice and want to start seeing results – meaning that they have to know what’s realistic and be able to manage teams by setting systems and processes to roll this out on a large scale.

Also, now is the time to be thinking about Bing – they’ve almost doubled their market share in a year and the integration with Yahoo for providing search is just around the corner too. So having a realistic 2nd competitor to Google, instead of two smaller competitors is likely to make an impact to advertisers and budget splits.

4- What do you think is the “state of search” at the moment, is the industry doing good?

The industry is at a very interesting time, as mentioned above there seems to be a growing demand for SEM at the moment which is great news. Plus we’re being kept on our toes with the ever-changing and developing world of Twitter/real-time search, Facebook SEO, Google Caffeine, growth of Bing & Yahoo deal etc… So there’s plenty to keep us busy.

5- What is your favorite website, apart from your own?

I’ll try and stay away from the more obvious SEO choices – there’s far too many to mention anyway. But like many people, if there’s a way of working more efficiently, without working any harder, then I’m all for it – so website’s such as Zen Habits and the likes of Tim Ferriss and David Allen are normally towards the top of my most read blogs.

6- Can “social marketing / media” and search survive apart from each other?

Yes – to be honest I’m sceptical about how Facebook and search are going to work together, especially short-term. I still see them as very separate things at the moment.

However, everything is now about speed of information. For example, Google News is often reporting stories which have already been spotted as trending topics on Twitter. You just have to look at the real-time search deals to see that this is being taken seriously and although they still have a way to go in terms of improving the quality of results, it is moving forward and going to continue being a very strong focus.

7- What’s your search tip for the summer?

Get down to BrightonSEO on Friday – it’s on the beach, packed full of what’s likely to be some great search and social presentations and has beer afterwards – we may even have some sunshine, what more do you want

Related posts:

1. A4U Speaker: Kevin Gibbons (@kevgibbo): “it’s a real mixture of topics”
2. Live interviews from A4UExpo: Kevin Gibbons, Dave Reynolds and Dixon Jones
3. A summer interview with… Richard Baxter: “Get excited about real time discovery”
4. A summer interview with… Sam Murray (@sammurray): “Always make time to read blogposts “
5. A summer interview with… Mike Grehan (@mikegrehan): “the most interesting time to be involved in the industry”