Rhea Drysdale, Internet Marketing Manager, MPS Group
Rhea Drysdale is the Internet Marketing Manager for MPS Group, a Fortune 1000 staffing and consulting company. She’s also an associate editor for Loren Baker’s Search Engine Journal and the co-founder of a local SEM association.
MPS Group is a leading provider of staffing, consulting, and solutions in the disciplines of informa- tion technology, finance and accounting, law, engineering, and healthcare. MPS Group delivers its services to government entities and businesses in virtually all industries throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Europe. A Fortune 1000 company with headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida, MPS Group trades on the New York Stock Exchange.
Jerri: What do you see as the current state of SEO?
Drysdale: The current state of SEO…I think that SEO is experiencing a major evolution with the recent universal search update on Google and new Ask.com user interface changes. However, it’s still in its infancy compared to other forms of marketing. With that in mind, I think marketers are still trying to figure out what they can do with it. And unfortunately, the “rules” for SEO change on a daily basis, which makes it difficult to keep up with those changes and provide formal education in a classroom setting.
As search engines evolve, I’m really interested in seeing how search behavior changes accordingly. I think users are going to get smarter about how they search, which will challenge marketers to be more savvy in the methods they use to reach those users.
Jerri: What are companies doing well in SEO?
Drysdale: At this moment I think the experienced companies are doing an excellent job of tracking results and justifying the SEO return, something that hasn’t been easy in the past. As an in-house SEO, my biggest challenge is educating companies on an invisible marketing technique. Even if the return is less, most companies would prefer to spend their ad budgets on a banner ad than SEO. There’s something sticky about visuals whereas SEO feels a bit like smoke and mirrors to those that aren’t intimately familiar with it. So companies that are able to translate results and track return are rising to the top, while the more money-hungry spammers are crumbling. This is great for both the SEO reputation and companies seeking quality campaigns.
Jerri: What are some of MPS’s challenges and successes in SEO?
Drysdale: With my background in e-commerce, the biggest personal challenge has been tracking leads, which requires human interaction to document return. Previously, I could tie my efforts to specific dollars, but now, the source is much more difficult to discern.
As for successes, I think MPS does an excellent job of bringing new acquisitions up to certain stan- dards of design, usability, and optimization. From there we work with them to develop a marketing approach they can easily maintain that targets opportunities best suited to their business model.
I think that’s the key. A lot of companies like the concept of SEO, but they don’t have the infra- structure to support it and it fizzles out over time. You have to have a unique approach with every company or client to see phenomenal success. Some will do better with a certain strategy than others, since certain target markets just aren’t going to be receptive to different techniques. It’s a matter of understanding your customers-how they search and how they think, what words do they use when they search? What phase of the buying or information gathering cycle are they in when they get to your site? And once you understand the customer, it’s much easier to reach them.
Jerri: What kind of changes to you think that social media are going to have on SEO?
Drysdale: With recent updates on Google and Ask, I think it’s more apparent than ever before that certain industries need to make a concerted effort to be everywhere! This means developing videos, blogs, generating news articles, and having a presence on social networks. When we talk about social media, most people think about MySpace and Facebook, but there are hundreds of specific niche networks that are worth marketers’ attention. For example, Café Mom and Stylehive are ter- rific networks for the beauty and fashion industry. Would you rather spend thousands on poorly targeted MySpace ads or hundreds on a highly targeted presence that will generate much greater conversions?
If marketers can start a conversation on those networks, beyond ads, the return is even greater. They will naturally build a following, which will in turn produce qualified backlinks and content. The SEO implications are huge if social media campaigns can be successfully implemented and maintained.
Jerri: How important do you think that vertical markets will be in the future?
Drysdale: I don’t see them going anywhere if that’s what you mean. Verticals offer a more targeted method of finding information. So I think people will use them, and they will continue to grow. I know that Google is trying to organize all of the world’s information, but ultimately, if users can narrow their search right from the start, they will, and verticals make that possible.
A quick side note, Google’s reliance on backlinks for rankings limits them when it comes to highly relevant, recent web content. The universal search update should allow for postings of recent news and blog articles, but if I’m looking for something specific that’s just a few weeks old, more often than not I have to resort to creative search behavior or verticals to find the information. So, until Google or the other engines can account for new content, I see verticals maintaining or increasing in popularity.
Jerri: What other trends do you think will affect SEO over the next 18-24 months?
Drysdale: I’m a little concerned about personalized search but not immensely so. I think it’s still in its infancy and the search engines are dabbling in it to see what they can do. It’s a little disconcert- ing as a marketer, because I can’t tell how the search results differ for a user in Montpelier, Vermont, versus San Jose, California, or even in my own city if they have radically different search behavior from other users. From an SEO standpoint, you can’t tell where traffic comes from and how it reaches you, which makes it difficult to track changes. I’m all about the numbers and if I can’t see the numbers I feel like I’m flying blind, which is never a good thing.
As for universal search and the compartmentalized UI at Ask.com, I’m very interested in how this will affect search behavior and interaction with the results pages. I was really amazed by a recent eye-tracking study from Gord Hotchkiss of Enquiro who found that the “golden triangle” is broken as images are introduced. This sounds somewhat obvious, but the implications on paid search and emphasis of top position natural rankings might be less intense as marketers discover where users are clicking.
I’m also interested in seeing the evolution of “link bait” and bloggers. I think the time and knowledge involved in implementing a high quality viral marketing campaign will leave many marketers scratch- ing their heads. As for bloggers, their credibility is often called into question, but more importantly, the amount of noise on the Web is unbearable. I’m hoping that over time we see a decline in the number of bloggers and an increase in their quality.
With both bloggers and viral marketing, I think that companies that embrace these campaigns early on will do much better in the long run than those that wait for a proven return and “safe” approach.
