Search,Engine,Marketing,John,A marketing Search Engine Marketing - John Alexander Interviews SEO auth

Automation technologies represent a fundamental aspect of any modern industry. The major types of industrial automation solutions, such as DCS, PLC, SCADA, and MES, are used on a large-scale in process and discrete industries.DCS technologie Awhile ago, I got an email from one of the "gurus" I follow and it shocked me. The gist of it was this person wanted to trade services for a household item.To say it floored me would be an understatement.What was worse was a few days later t

Robin Nobles was the very first person to develop a structuredseries of comprehensive courses and lessons which are recognizedand approved by the US educational system for training people insearch engine marketing skills. Robin Nobles celebrates her 6thyear in the online Web training business with her ever popularSEO certification courses at http://www.onlinewebtraining.com. Hattiesburg, MS (PRWEB) July 15, 2004 -- Today we bring you the4th in a series of interviews conducted by Robin's businesspartner John Alexander, who is looking up some of Robin's veryearliest online students and asking them about theirrecollections of what it was like building SEO skills way back in1998 and how far they've come in the SEO industry since then.John Alexander: "Welcome Susan O'Neil, I'd really like to thankyou for taking the time to speak with us today. Susan, you hadsome background in marketing before you started into the searchengine marketing industry.Could you tell us a little about yourbackground and how you first got thinking about search enginemarketing?"Susan O'Neil: "I began my career in marketing in 1975 as Directorof Public Relations with a symphony orchestra. From there I wentto Wall Street where I was National Advertising Manager for PaineWebber. When I moved to New Hampshire, I opened a publicrelations agency, which is where I first got involved with theInternet when a client company launched an e-mail service."John Alexander: "Could you take us back and share some memoriesof the early days? How did you first find Robin Nobles onlinecourses in the beginning?"Susan O'Neil: "I was helping a few of my PR clients with text fortheir websites and began experimenting with Meta tags and contentalterations. The more I learned about the power of optimization,the more I realized that I didn't know it all. That's when Isearched for an online SEO course and found Robin Nobles. Herexpertise and her passion for her work inspired me then and itstill inspires me now."John Alexander: "That's very nice and I know exactly what youmean. Could you tell us how long after your initial training wasit, before you began realizing your true SEO skills and beginhelping people with their Web visibility challenges?"Susan O'Neil: "I had a good deal of early success back them byjust applying the basics that I'd picked up through trial anderror. This was easy to do in the mid to late 90's. However, onceI finished Robin's course in 1998, I was able to implement a moreaggressive program that could better serve the most competitivetypes of e-commerce sites. Also, through Robin and her students,I found a forum that allowed me to share and learn from peers --so important in the then-emerging industry. Previous to that,doing SEO was a pretty lonely job since few realized this fieldof marketing even existed."John Alexander: "That is very interesting to see how far thisgoes back. Robin's vision for a forum has always been to createan ideal place where people can share information safely togetherand she has always been so good at bringing the very best talentsout in people. I should mention just for our readers sake, thather newest efforts in this regard just recently has been tofashion an excellent networking community called the WorldResource Center at http://www.sew-wrc.com."John Alexander: "Susan, I was reading a copy of your book whichyou co-authored with Robin Nobles and noted that in the preface,it says that you two actually wrote "Maximize Web site Traffic"without ever actually meeting in person. Can you tell us how thiscame about?"Susan O'Neil: "As I helped more and more of my PR clients moveonto the Web through optimized websites, I realized that therewas a need for a corporate, comprehensive approach to providingprofessional SEO services to America's companies. I decided tocreate such a company and, in 1998, closed my PR agency andlaunched @Web Site Publicity. In order to give my new companyquick credibility and exposure, I decided to write a book on SEO- a "how to" book. Knowing how time-consuming the writing wouldbe, I asked Robin to share the endeavor with me." John Alexander: "And this was the beginning of this new book?"Susan O'Neil: "Yes, she agreed to the idea, so we divvied up thechapters and started writing. We didn't meet until it was time todo the final edit. Robin flew up from Mississippi to a skichalet in Vermont where we typed and talked non-stop for a week.Robin brought a great depth of specific SEO experience whichmixed beautifully with my years of marketing experience and theresult was a book that, outdated as it is, still brings us fanmail!"John Alexander: "That is very cool! Now as you know, last monthjust as of June 29, 2004 Robin Nobles has been celebrating hersixth year in the SEO Training industry with her online(www.onlinewebtraining.com) instructional courses in searchengine optimization. Looking back to the early days when youfirst decided to study search engine marketing, can you describewhat your SEO skillset has meant to you personally? How much havethese skills meant to you?Susan O'Neil: "Because of my SEO skills and my marketingexpertise, I and my staff have been able to help hundreds ofsmall to large businesses succeed on the Internet. This remainsexciting and gratifying. Our clients were also better able toride out the dot.com bust because our approach to providing SEOservices has been to focus on the long term "health" of awebsite, which means building quality content continuously. Robinin her teaching and, together, in our book - we've never strayedfrom the truism that "content is king" and that continues toserve my clients well."John Alexander: "Can you tell our readers about one of yourearliest SEO success stories and what it felt like the first timeyou made a real difference to someone's business online?"Susan O'Neil: "A longtime PR client of mine is a publisher offine nonfiction for children. This company was early inrecognizing the power of the Internet and so invested in adelightful, informative website that also offered subscriptionsto their magazines. However, after spending the money to buildthe website, they didn't get any visitors. I liken it to givingbirth after a long labor to a beautiful new baby that no onecomes to admire. Aware of their concerns, I starting tweakingtags, cleaning up code, and adding content and their site beganto take off. That early first client has remained with mycompany all these years and has been generous in theirrecommending of us to others as they continue to grow theironline business." John Alexander: "What word of wisdom or advice do you have forany of our readers that might be considering building a newcareer in search engine marketing these days?"Susan O'Neil: "I don't think you can be in marketing todaywithout at least an understanding of search marketing concepts,even if you don't build the code and write the content. As this"new" science of SEO has become not only universally accepted butconsistently praised for its cost-effective strategies, therewill continue to be opportunities for people who can applyconsistent, aggressive, yet ethical strategies for growing onlinesuccess, both in-house for e-commerce companies and with SEO/SEMagencies like mine. In fact, my agency is growing still and whenI hire someone who may have a great marketing background but benew to SEO, I have them start their learning curve with one ofRobin's courses because no one can lay out the ground workbetter." John Alexander: "How nicely spoken, Susan." Susan O'Neil: "The other word of advice I have is an old one:don't believe everything you read. SEO newsletters and forums aregreat starting points and can be entertaining, but the peoplewith the best information don't go giving it away. Whatever youhear or read, never apply a strategy to a client's site withoutthoroughly testing it first extensively. We developed our own E-Commerce Lab for just this purpose." John Alexander: "Finally in closing, I'll ask if you have anyother favourite online resources you would care to mention forthe benefit of our readers?Susan O'Neil: "As my company has grown, my responsibilities haveshifted from trying to discern the optimum number of words on aGoogle-friendly page or the best marketing spin in a title tag,to focusing on the bigger picture, so I'm not a good one torecommend the best SEO reading today. Instead, as I lead my teaminto our 7th year of business, I'm reading the Wall StreetJournal, Forbes and the UK's Financial Times, always trying tolook beyond the bend - to try to see where business in general isgoing and the Internet specifically. To keep our clients ahead oftheir competition, we need to keep ahead of ours.John Alexander: "That is so very true. Well, I want to thank youagain so much Susan O'Neil, for taking time today to share someof your rememberances of the early days of search enginemarketing and telling us how you first got in to the business. Ithas been fascinating to speaking to you and I'll just take thisopportunity wish you the very greatest of ongoing success in thefuture."This interview has been brought to you courtesy of JohnAlexander, Co-director of Training and Education at Search EngineWorkshops (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com) and Online WebTraining(http://www.onlinewebtraining.com). Article Tags: Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine, Engine Marketing, John Alexander, Early Days, Robin Nobles, Susan O'neil