Search Engine People Inc. is the largest and most experienced search engine optimization firm in Canada.
Here’s what Ruud Hein had to say about the company and the future of digital marketing:
For those who aren’t familiar with you and your company, please tell us a little more about your company
- Search Engine People is Canada’s largest SEO company. Founded in 2001 we’ve been recognized 6 times as one of the 100 fastest growing companies in Canada by Profit Magazine.
Our expertise means the Internet Advertising Bureau of Canada selected us to develop and instruct an intensive 9 hour Paid & Organic Search Course, and also that we teach search not only for the Canadian Marketing Association but also at the University of Toronto.Do you think the future of SEO depends only on interactive content ?
- Absolutely not. Think of your website as a car and your SEO team as car mechanics and professional race drivers. You would never expect your car mechanic to say that all car maintenance or repairs now depend on this one thing. Nor would you expect a professional race driver to say everything hangs on this one single thing.
- But maybe it’s easier to let yourself do the talking. Think back to the sites you’ve visited this week. You’ve been at a social site or two, maybe a news site, something somewhere where you can buy stuff, maybe some YouTube, and a collection of random sites where you ended up God knows how or why but you consumed content there. How much of that experience this week was interactive content? See how much of it was just plain old static text?
The role of SEO keeps on changing after every Google update. Do you think SEO is the right term anymore?
- Sure, why not. No SEO in his right mind would ever recommend a client to change their service description from a 20 year old, widely recognized one to a newly invented one people don’t even know they have to search for. If we don’t recommend a client to do it, why in the world would we do it to ourselves?!
The Google algorithm has evolved over the years. Do you think it really benefits small businesses?
- There is no benefit preference in search just like there is no benefit preference in advertising. But just as in advertising, if you’re a multi-billion company with a multi-million budget, you’re probably going to see different results from the corner store.
- I do think that localized results are a huge win and opportunity for small businesses. It’s not leveling the playing field; it’s kicking whole teams off the playing field. Suddenly you find yourself competing with the other restaurant in town, the other plumber — not with the whole world.
How do SEO clients behave these days? Do you think their knowledge and awareness of SEO increased?
- Clients are usually a dream to work with. They come to the table knowing they need SEO and with an eagerness to understand, implement, and execute. Besides the very technical aspects, the way things work, clients usually have a very good idea what we’re talking about.
There are now only four Ads on top of the SERPs. Do you think Adwords is the only way to appear above the fold? What are your thoughts on the Google Monopoly?
- “How long is a string?” It depends. There are many queries and many type of queries. In some cases you need to buy Adwords to appear above the fold but in others we have more options now than ever before. Answer cards, knowledge graph, local results, mixed content. There are so many ways to get in the picture.
- As for the Google monopoly — what monopoly? Last time I looked there are other search engines out there. Just because we choose to use Google en masse doesn’t mean they hold the monopoly. It’s not theoretical either: in Russia Google doesn’t come close to Yandex; in the USA Bing has close a quarter of the market. And don’t forget that search is a much larger space these days: Amazon, eBay, YouTube (owned by Google), Facebook, Pinterest — these are all top search destinations.
