John will be speaking about “Business to Business Search Marketing” at Searchfest 2009 which will be held March 10th in Portland, Oregon. Get your tickets now.
1) Please give me your background and tell us what you do for a living.
I’m a competitive Internet consultant with a strong background in biomedical research and technical search engine optimization (SEO). I’m based in Seattle, Washington, and I publish an SEO insider’s blog at JohnOn.com. I provide SEO services for Upper Left Placement, an SEO firm in Bellingham, Washington. I’ve been involved in SEO since 1996. I became a full time Internet business consultant in 2003, after spending 12 years as an Engineer and Information Technology Director in clinical medical research.
2) Many of your blog posts reveal a deep distrust of Google and its motivations. Why do you feel this way?
Google is not a person, but a business entity. There is no reason to “trust” Google to be anything other than a law-abiding, for-profit US corporation. Many people do seem trust Google though, which I believe is a mistake. According to US law, Google the corporation must act in the best interests of its shareholders. Perhaps when I go against the popular opinion I appear to be distrustful of Google. I am actually quite trusting of Google — I trust it will always act in its own interests and the interests of its legal partners. For web publishers, that usually means Google is both a partner and a competitor. Of course operationally, Google is an organization of people, and so when we try to understand Google we need to consider the individual Googlers and listen carefully to what they say to us.
3) How could a business that doesn’t know much about search marketing properly screen a prospective search marketing consultant?
That’s a great question, with an answer that may be more obvious than it seems. A search marketing consultant is a business consultant in the general sense, with a search marketing specialization. So use the same process you would use to screen any business consultant, because you need a good business consultant. Are they problem solvers? Do they listen carefully? Do they take notes and get things right the first time? Have they been in this situation before? Did they succeed? Do they communicate well? Are they creative? Do others find them to be brilliant, reliable, trustworthy? Do you?
Once you know you have a good business consultant, screen your candidates for how well they can work with you on your search marketing issues. Describe where you are, and ask questions about things you have experienced already. Ask for advice during the interview, and listen carefully. The honest truth is, whatever level of knowledge you have of search marketing, you need a search marketing consultant to take it from there and work with you to define and achieve your goals. If you don’t have much knowledge yet, you might have to spend more for the right person who can take you from where you are to where you want to be next.
As always, the less knowledge you have of what you need, the less likely you are to find success with advertised search marketing offerings. They are often designed to cash in on buyer naivete, and usually require you to sign a contract before you know what you need.
No matter where you start, make sure you and your consultant agree on outcome and success metrics up front. Use those metrics to evaluate the success of your consultant engagement and evaluate it monthly. I advise people to avoid term contracts and pay a premium to put a consultant on a retainer for the first few months. The advertised market rates for SEO services are artificially low because they come with contract limitations that enable those low rates, usually at the expense of your project’s success. Expect to redefine outcome metrics frequently as you make progress, and always ask your consultant to keep one eye on the future, so you are prepared to capitalize on your success.
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.
I could not agree with John more about Google. Google is looking out for themselves. There is nothing wrong with that, but they are not the moral giant they claim to be.
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