Interview with SEO expert Llew Jury
Bluewire Media interviews search engine optimisation, SEO expert Llew Jury, of Reload Media.
What’s the best thing about SEO?
The best thing about SEO is that it’s a constantly changing industry and you’re always helping companies and customers get leads in new business that they didn’t think they could get before.
What led you to become an expert in the field of SEO?
I had a web company that I started with my brother in the late 90’s and we optimised from about 2001 with Google. Across a couple of search terms it became very favourable. We picked up a lot of business from those search terms that we didn’t actually pay for. We thought, there must be a market here, and hence we then learnt more about SEO from the early 2000’s. We saw some great potential there to help other people.
What are top three things you need to know to be successful in SEO?
- You want to know basically how Google works, you need to know as much as possible about that algorithm that Google uses to favourable rank your website.
- You also need to keep abreast the constantly changing SEO environment – it changes daily or hourly. You need to know so you can advise your clients what’s happening with SEO.
- You need to explain SEO in a non-technical way.
What’s the best way to get started?
The best way people can learn is reading up on the blogs and making sure you try out SEO techniques on small sites before doing larger ones.
How long does it take to become proficient in SEO?
I would say approximately two – three years before you can actually going out and selling SEO as a service.
Do your methods and advice work for anyone?
Yes they do. The big thing about SEO is, you’ve really got to pick a vertical and one client in each vertical. You can’t really get two clients in each channel or vertical because then you’re competing against yourself. But SEO does work in any industry for any website.
How much experience does a person need?
if someone’s taking on work in the SEO environment, you need to have at least one year of SEO experience on a commercially-focused website.
Can you tell us how your advice has worked for some of your clients?
We’ve had huge success over the years with websites, both large and small. An example would be Devine Homes with their Leighton Holdings joint project – hamiltonharbour.com.au. That website has experienced some amazing rankings – over 10,000 new rankings and positions and also 50 top ten keywords just in four weeks. You can see there by doing good SEO to a new website you can really change the landscape and the positive leads and potential.
If you could give away one SEO secret what would it be?
The top secret i can give away is, know what your competitors are doing and whether they’re actually doing SEO. Then you can actually put in place some strategies to actually go above them.
What are some common problems that people experience with SEO?
The one that we see is, companies come to us who have already tried it themselves haven’t done it for long enough. You’ve actually got to do SEO with a bit of a 12 month game-plan. There’s no point in doing intensive SEO for a few weeks to get it up and running and then let it drop because someone else in that particular industry might have a website that goes over top of yours. Definitely do it with a long-term focus, it’s not something you can do overnight.
SEO sounds too good to be true. What’s the catch?
The big catch is that no one can guarantee that you’re going to be number one. For example, what we do is guarantee that you’re going to be in the top ten. Just be careful if someone’s trying to guarantee number one.
What can people do to stay on top of the search engine rankings?
They need to constantly optimise their website. They need to keep abreast and have a clear communication channel with the SEO company about the change they’re making and they need to have an understanding with their web designer.
Where can people find out more information on SEO?
The easiest way is by searching SEO on Yahoo or Google or getting in touch with an SEO company to find out how SEO can benefit your business.
SEO Brisbane: To go on an SEO (search engine optimisation) program that guarantees “Top 10” rankings, contact us. Bluewire Media is an official partner of Reload Media.