Good morning everyone! So, it’s July. And you were thinking: “The ‘meet your SEO’ series is going to have a break for the summer for sure!”. NOT. AT. ALL.
We have a lot of interviews to come in the next weeks. Other things: yesterday Italy lost the european cup with Spain. Before you start saying anything, I don’t give a damn. So just you know 😀
Today I have the amazing opportunity to talk with Joe Hall. He is web developer, marketer, writer and artist. Isn’t this enough for you to read what Joe has to say? Ok then. He is the founder of the link building agency 22 Media and you can read more about him on his personal site.
Ok, let’s go. Thanks again Joe for this!
When did you enter the SEO world, and why ?
I started making things on the internet around 1996 or 97. But it wasn’t until 2002 that I tried to actually make money online. I think I had heard of SEO around 2004 and started reading Aaron Wall’s blog SEOBook.com then. But it wasn’t til 2007 that I really buckled down and started doing SEO professionally. At the time I was working at a large real estate brokerage and was put in charge of building the web site. The main focus of the site was to capture leads as cheaply as possible. So SEO was our main strategy. Around that same time I started my own web development/SEO business.
A great tip about onpage optimization?
Utilize relevant and natural internal back links. Sites that have strong internal link strategies tend to have higher Domain Authority and pass link equity through out the whole site.
The most stupid thing people believe about onpage optimization?
A client once told me that if you have a video embedded on a page and it is set to auto play on the page then the page ranks higher.
A great tip on how you build links?
Well link building is what we do so I know there’s lots of great tips out there. But I think the best advice I give clients is to build “link building assets” on your domain. Meaning build things that people want to link to. This is not the same thing as building great content and waiting for links to come in, this is more about building targeted link bait and then using it during an aggressive out reach campaign. So you might make an infographic, or a video, and and then do outreach to folks that you think will want to share it or link to it.
The most stupid thing you heard about linkbuilding?
I sometimes hear people say, “all you have to do is link out to good sites”. I think this myth is driven by folks that don’t understand the difference between outbound links and inbound links.
If you have to explain what you do at a 10 year-old kid , what are you gonna say?
I try not to talk to 10year old kids, but if I were forced I would say, “I help people find things on the internet, and help things get found.”
What do you drink when seoing?
During the day: coffee, iced tea, water, and diet coke. At night: whiskey.
What do you think about SEO community?
I have met some folks in the SEO community that I consider some of the coolest people I have ever met and I feel so fortunate to call them friends. And then I have met some folks that I could care less for. But, I like around 95% of the community.
Who is your biggest SEO influence?
Myself. Seriously I obsess so much over my own data its crazy. I think to be a really good SEO you should have lots of sites of different types all indexed and monitoring them like a hawk. When you do this you get to see subtle changes in the way the engines handle different sites and campaigns.
If you weren’t an SEO, what would you like to do?
Go back to graduate school for art history and write more poetry. (I am not even kidding about that).