Dustin will be speaking about “Implementing Your Search Marketing Strategy” at SearchFest 2011, which will take place on February 23rd at the Governor Hotel in Portland, Oregon. Tickets are available now. To purchase, please click the following link.
1) Please give us your background and tell us what you do for a living.
My path to becoming an SEO started in 1996 when I built and ran a website for NASA. With the web in its infancy, getting degrees in Economics and Business Finance seemed to be the smart move. Upon graduating and joining an investment firm to manage wealthy people’s portfolios, I was given a side project to build and develop their website. The web “experiment” paid off. I doubled the 20-year old company’s assets by attracting $250 million and forever locked in my interest in search engines and search engine optimization.
I spent over a decade as an in-house SEO, primarily for small companies with large online presences, like Allrecipes, before going out on my own to provide SEO consulting services for a variety of sites. I usually am hired for SEO, but many of my clients also make use of my editorial, usability, social media, and web analytics background. Like most SEOs, I don’t choose to focus on one particular niche, but if I were forced to, it would be SEO for User-Generated Content.
As mentioned in previous SEMpdx intereviews, I am also a filmmaker. This year I plan on shooting a crowd-sourced feature-length documentary later this year. People can learn more about me via DustinWoodard.com.
I’m excited to participate in Searchfest once again. As always, I’ll try to keep my presentation fun & highly informative.
2) With the ever-changing nature of the web, how much search marketing "strategizing" is necessary and at what point does it become counterproductive?
The web and search engines are constantly evolving and it feels like if you blink, something important may slip past you. In the old days, I used to absorb as much information as possible. With the vast amount of information and misinformation out there, if I tried that today, my head would likely explode.
And therein lies the problem with setting strategies. If you are too reactionary to news, new tactics, or fall victim to overhyped opportunities, you could go on strategizing and re-strategizing forever. It is important to understand the big picture, set goals, identify opportunities, and then take action!
If you find yourself spending too much time getting “buy-in,” convincing others, or documenting strategies, chances are your company is suffering from over-strategizing. If knowing what to do is 1/3rd of the search marketing battle, implementing it is 1/3rd, and implementing it correctly is the final third.
3) Can you talk about when it makes the most sense to devote internal resources to search marketing and when should a company outsource all or part of these functions?
Ideally, you’d build an internal team with the talent and experience necessary to be successful. For very small companies, this might be one person, for bigger companies or websites, it might be dozens of people. Unfortunately, hiring an experienced search marketer internally is extremely difficult due to the limited supply of veteran search marketers.
Why the shortage? I believe part of it is because by the time search finally caught on, the demand for talent far exceeded the supply. And part of it is because the best search marketers usually make more money consulting for multiple companies, or simply applying their skills to their own sites.
Going back to the experience topic, I firmly believe people with experience are critical to your success because they are battle-tested and can quickly recognize your site’s deficiencies. Plus when new tactics or opportunities arise, they better able to gauge what should be acted upon, what should be tested, and what should be shelved for later.
If you can get your hands on an experienced search marketer, go for it. If you can’t, you should supplement your internal resources with one by hiring a consultant part-time. In most cases, a consultant’s fees are dwarfed by the positive financial impact they’ll have on your business. Relying on someone newer to the field can be dangerous and expensive. Some mistakes like poor title tags are easily reversed, others like URL structures can be a nightmare to fix. If you are in a competitive industry or have high aspirations, you may need to hire several specialized consultants or a full-service agency.
Unless you are a very small company, I don’t believe you should outsource everything. Far too often I see companies contracting experts and also relying on them for things that take a lot of human effort, like link building or content creation. Use the consultant to steer your efforts, but make sure someone in your company is doing some of the work so you can start growing the necessary experience internally. Nothing beats the combination of strong search experience with strong knowledge of your niche.
Todd Mintz knows PPC…knows Social Media…knows SEO…knows Blogging…knows Domaining…and knows them all real well. He runs growth marketing for )and is also a Director & Founding Member of SEMpdx: Portland, Oregon’s Search Engine Marketing Association, and he can be found here on Twitter and Facebook.