A summer interview with… Sarah Carling (@sarahcarling): “The link graph has to develop”
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A summer interview with… Sarah Carling (@sarahcarling): “The link graph has to develop”

28th July 2010

There are many great search-experts out there. We decided we wanted to give some extra attention to some of them. Therefore we will be interviewing some of these experts. During the entire summer you will be served with short interviews with influential people in the industry. You will be seeing interviews with the likes of Joost de Valk, Marcus Tandler, Chris Sherman, Mike Grehan and Danny Sullivan, and off course our bloggers! Be aware that some interviews will be published in the newsletter!

Today: SEO Chick and one of the smartest SEOs out there: Sarah Carling

1- Can you introduce yourself in one paragraph?

I’ve been working in SEO for about 4 years now, currently I’m the Search & Social Media manager for Bloom Media in Leeds, I also blog for SEO chicks and spend far too much time chatting on Twitter. Before moving up to Leeds, I worked in house on PPC & SEO, which I think makes me one of the few people who have gone from SEO to PPC and back again, which sometimes makes for a slightly unusual perspective on things.

2- What are you doing this summer?

This summer is a quiet one for me, with lots of planning for some big changes happening in the autumn that I can’t discuss yet. Suffice to say the last few months of 2010 are going to be very exciting for me, so there’s a lot of looking forward right now.

3- What is the most hottest subject in search at the moment, what should every SEO be looking into

I think social linking factors are huge at the moment, and the facebook open graph developments are only going to make that more important going forward. I think that a lot of the old link metrics that Google uses are becoming redundant, so many links are now nofollow and people are more likely to put recommendations on social media sites. The link graph has to develop to make the most of this, especially when you consider the idea of links being votes, I think votes from customers are far more valuable that votes from other website owners. Social links are also going to be great news for smaller businesses who are better equipped to form stronger relationships with their consumer base.

4- What do you think is the “state of search” at the moment, is the industry doing good?

I think the industry is doing great. Certainly here in the North of the UK, the demand for good SEO talent to meet client demand is huge. I’m also seeing a lot more integration between SEO and other types of agencies, which I think can only help clients to get better value out of all of their marketing efforts.

5- What is your favorite website, apart from your own?

I love the SEO Dojo, even if I don’t get nearly enough time to play in there, but there is so much expertise in that community, and David is one of my favourite people for well thought out, logical SEO information. I love that the Dojo tends to avoid the hype and knee jerk reactions that I sometimes see elsewhere.

6- Can “social marketing / media” and search survive apart from each other?

Yes they can survive, but I don’t think they can thrive. I’ve worked on a few accounts recently where SEO and social media have been done by different agencies, and where both agencies have skills in both areas this seems to work very well, but where either agency lacks skills in one area or the other, it becomes difficult to balance the requirements and maximise the opportunities between the two mediums. But then I don’t think that’s so different to any other marketing method, no single discipline can ever be totally effective in isolation.

7- What’s your search tip for the summer?

Build relationships with your clients other agencies & consultants. There is a whole world of opportunities when multiple agencies in different disciplines work together. The whole is always better than the sum of its parts.

Sarah was a guest on the State of Search radioshow on webmasterradio a couple of weeks ago. Check out the show here.

Written By
Bas van den Beld is an award winning Digital Marketing consultant, trainer and speaker. He is the founder of State of Digital and helps companies develop solid marketing strategies.
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