Interview: Hot Coffee With Jeff Quipp of Search Engine People

I got an opportunity to interview Jeff Quipp CEO of Search Engine People. Jeff is indeed one of the best SEOs and Marketing guys around in the arena. Take a hot cup of coffee, sit back and enjoy this great interview. Quite a lot of information within. Here it goes!

1. For people who don’t know you Jeff, please introduce yourself. (Who Jeff is, where was he born, where he studied, where he worked, when did he started in SEO and what motivated him to opt SEO as a career.)

Answer - I’m a 42 year old father of 3, happily married, and a sports, science and technology nut. I’m President of Search Engine People Inc. … we’re based out of Toronto Canada.

I started in search in the mid 90’s. At that time I worked for the original search engine … Canada’s Yellow Pages. Started in Sales, went to Marketing (in charge of headings at one point in time), progressed to Business development where I launched the first speech enabled portal in North America (VoiceNet it was called at the time). After that I took on YellowPages.ca, and we were spun off into Sympatico-Lycos Inc. (SL). My role evolved again, and I found myself in charge of traffic and distribution for all SL sites. Obviously search played quite prominently into achieving my objectives, but we couldn’t find any really good honest search companies at the time. I saw this as a tremendous opportunity and challenge, and in 2001 launched Search Engine People Inc.

2. What is your view on SEO? (Its marketing strategy, and ROI.) Do you think SEO is the same, like it used to be 5 years ago?

Answer - Great question! SEO is a great medium … but its only part of the marketing mix. SEO works best when someone isn’t too invested in it, because we cannot control search results. Companies need to be using other media too. I’ve seen some great research that says search increases the effectiveness of all other media, and visa versa. That said, I’m a firm believer in ROI. Each medium must justify its own costs, and fortunately that much easier to do with search than with other more creative media.

Do I think search is the same as it was five year ago? Yes and no. Yes from the perspective that the search engines’ goals haven’t really changed, only their tactics. So, if 5 years ago you optimized with the engines’ long term goals in mind, you haven’t had to change your tactics too drastically. If a company is more reactionary, they’ll have had to undergo massive changes in their tactics. In the end, they search engines are still trying to differentiate real from artificial links.

3. What is your view on Link Building? (Directories, Article submission, Paid links.)

Answer - Let me begin by saying … link building is a crucial element to SEO!!! Links are thought to account for a high percentage of the algorithms of the major search engines. That said I’m all about diversifying risk. I like to think we take a mutual fund type approach to link building, meaning we use many many different approaches. Too much reliance on any one approach and you could find yourself in trouble if Google changes. Accordingly, sure we submit sites to relevant directories, engage in article submission, and yes even buy links where the links generate a respectable ROI (before even considering the ranking value). The aforementioned link building tactics also permit you to control the pages being linked to, and the anchor text being used. Generally as we see it. Link Building helps us create awareness of unique content that the client has on their site.

4. What is you view on Link Baiting? Is it a big daddy’s work or newbies could also do it. (How should a newbie start with it).

Answer - I’m not sure I like the term “link baiting” … its got a negative connotation. Essentially the concept is to generate content that you know others will like enough to want to share it with friends and yes link to it. If that’s the case, I’m all for it. So in reality, in its simplest form its about:
a) making sure the site and content is SEO friendly
b) making sure there is lots of high quality content on a site, and that more is being constantly added
c) promoting that content to make sure many people know about it

How should a newbie start? First, just start doing it … get in and get your hands dirty. We learn more through trial and error than we do by learning vicariously (by watching others). Goto Digg, Reddit, Sphinn, and other social voting sites, and look for patterns in the pieces that reach the front page. Talk to friends about their ideas. Brainstorm with the client if need be. Look for missing content, and create it.

I also think there is a tremendous opportunity for video and images at the moment. Most people are still trying to wrap their heads around using video and images, so newbies are not as far behind in that realm.

5. Where do you see SEO heading in future? Will it die or will take a re-birth? (Advice for newbies.)

Answer - SEO will never die. People will always need to search to find what they are looking for. Will it change … sure. Will it die … NO!

Instead, I see a number of things happening that will permit search to evolve to become much more efficient yet:
a) much more personalization … the engines learning your preferences
b) more integration of friends thoughts and opinions, which will help to reorder the search results for you (I wrote a more detailed post about this here.)
c) search will be available 24/7 via mobile devices
d) multi-modal means of input and output (text, speech, brainwaves … threw that in there just in case someone was dozing off ).

6. What is your view on Social Media Marketing?

Answer - Currently, social media marketing is an exceptionally broad term … too broad. Accordingly, lets narrow the view to encompass social bookmarking and voting sites like Digg, Delicious, Reddit.

Currently, these sites do not really produce great quality traffic, although can produce tremendous volumes of traffic, and links. Also, depending on what your goals are, these social media can help you achieve other goals such as RSS Subscribers, awareness, etc.

Longer term, as word-of-mouth aspects from social media (eh. Thumbs ups from Stumbleupon, Delicious saves, etc.) are intergrated into the search results, and begin to affect the ordering of the search results, the job of seos will change substantially. SEO will become less about link building, and more about influencing key influencers, and managing reputations and perceptions of reputations. As powerful as word of mouth is currently … it will become much more powerful yet once the integration of word-of-mouth into search occurs.

7. Do you believe that Social Media Marketing is the next SEO? (Yes or No, and Why?)

Answer - No … I believe the word-of mouth aspect of social media will be integrated into SEO (see answer above).

8. How many hours did you spend blogging each week at your initial stages and now?

Answer - Initially, I spent likely 5-6 hours blogging a week. Now, I probably spend 6-8 hours a week, just because I’m more experienced and efficient, though now write between 3 and 4 postings a week.

9. What would you suggest new bloggers should do to reach their goals in SEO and SMO?

Answer - Great great question!
1) Read Skellie and DoshDosh, and learn from them. Both are infinitely talented, and all around stellar bloggers.
2) Read Sphinn… lots of great information surfaces there too.
3) Think outside the box … don’t write about what everyone else is writing about. Find and break new ground based on your background and interests. Hopefully you’ll find a niche for yourself.
4) Experiment, Experiment, Experiment … then experiment again! If your successful from the get go … you’re doing something wrong, or you’re damn lucky.
5) A good friend of mine (Brian Wallace from Nowsourcing) told me early on … Jeff, only 16% of people actually read what you write, the rest just scan. So, read this to learn how to write scannable content.
6) Network! Join Sphinn, StumbleUpon, Delicious, MyBlogLog, and make friends. Then expand these friends to other social media like Digg, Reddit, Mixx, etc.
7) Enjoy yourself! If you ever stop enjoying yourself, it will show, and readers will become disinterested. Its got to be a passion!

10. What’s the secret to creating great content?

Answer - I don’t think there is a secret so to speak. Though I think there are a number of things one can do to help.

1) read everything you can get your hands on - often unique content is just the ability to marry two or more separate concepts together. The more you read, the more separate concepts you become aware of, and the more likely you’ll find something that binds or links them.

2) talk with others - when two people get together to hash out an idea, you inevitably build on each others ideas, and the result is larger than either of the two of you could have conceived of individually. I’ve heard it referred to as `the Third Mind” principle.

3) Run current concepts in your space through your “experience filter”. Your life/job experiences are unique to you. No one else has those experiences … so you see things differently than everyone else. If you’ve got a sales background, apply sales theories and tactics to the topic you blog about.

11. Any other projects that you are currently involved in besides your SEO company?

Answer - Hehe … raising 3 kids. That’s the project I have the most fun with. Trying to raise them to become confident, smart, well behaved hockey players and fellow SEOs (just kidding). Seriously … between blogging, running Search Engine People, my addiction hmmm passion for social media, and the three kids, there’s no time for anything else.

12. What would you like to say to our readers before we end this interview? Any trade secrets of your own that would help the readers! What should one do to succeed in this highly competitive arena!

Answer - Honestly, my biggest secret … think outside the box and create great content. I try never to repackage what’s been written previously … and least not if I don’t have a different spin or perspective. Search is more about marketing than technology. Its not about trying to fool Google, Yahoo, MSN, or Ask … its about giving them exactly what they want. They want superior content! There are some fantastic opportunities with image and video content at the moment, as well as with widgets and gadgets. Text content is a little more competitive, although if you’ve got someone who can think outside the box to come up with original ideas, or who can write well enough to capture the attention of the masses … you’ll get a following, and become an authority in your space.

In the end I would like to thank you Jeff, for taking out the time for the interview.

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