Adam Audette will be speaking at the “SEO for eCommerce” session at SearchFest 2013 which will be taking place on February 22, 2013 at the Governor Hotel in Portland, Oregon. For more information or to purchase tickets, please click the following link.
1) Please give us your background and let us know what you do for a
living.
I’m the Chief Knowledge Officer at RKG. I work on the science and
strategy of RKG’s online marketing services, especially on the
integration of services across channels (paid search, SEO, display,
social media, etc). I’m also focused on technology innovation,
specifically around SEO.
Before RKG I founded a boutique SEO shop that worked with great brands
like Zappos, Amazon, HSN, and UnderArmour. We made a name for
ourselves doing advanced, complex SEO work as a small firm.
My roots in online marketing go back to the late ’90s. My father, John
Audette, was an early pioneer in the space and founded a company (now
Outrider) that gave a bunch of big names in the industry their start
(Bill Hunt, Marshall Simmonds, Adam Sherk, Jeremy Sanchez, Disa
Johnson, Derrick Wheeler, Andre Jensen to name a few).
You could say online marketing is in my blood.
2) When you’re putting together a crack ecommerce SEO team, what
skillsets are you looking for?
It’s an interesting question. We’re focused on other verticals now
aside from only ecommerce, although it will always be a core
competency. For ecommerce work, we tend to look for folks with a
direct marketing background. We like people who are data driven and
open to applying scientific rigor to their online marketing work. At
RKG, we’re all about finding out what actually works – not just what
“sounds good” or what’s trendy to talk about. That said, the way SEO
is evolving, it’s becoming important to find people with solid
marketing backgrounds in other areas such as public relations and even
creative. Ecommerce companies can use smart, well-rounded people
supporting them at agencies. They should be strong writers and
creative thinkers, as well as logical, clear thinkers. They should
love data!
3) How well does social contribute to overall ecommerce SEO?
It fits beautifully. Social is about what people are saying. Social is
not a channel, it is not Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. Social is
people. We have found social to be a wonder augment to outreach and
marketing efforts, and more indirectly, a driver of ecommerce sales.
We have not seen social drive ecommerce revenues directly for our
clients (I’d love to see that data if anyone has it). Most obviously
with Google Plus, but with other channels as well, we are seeing areas
where social can directly benefit SEO programs. It’s big and it’s not
going away.
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.