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: Time for one ‘of our own’ again: State of Search blogger Sam Murray
1- Can you introduce yourself in one paragraph?
My name is Sam Murray, a 25 year old soul wandering the online pastures of search and having fun whilst doing so. I have been in search now for around 3 years, mainly spent under Lisa Myers wing. I enjoy blogging, when I can find the time which seems to always slip through my fingers. I also enjoy the general day to day activities of being involved in a search and social agency, oh and the fact I can wear flip flops to work.
2- What are you doing this summer?
I fear I will be spending most of it reminiscing about the holidays I have come back from. Recently came back from Benicassim in Spain for their annual music festival which was amazing, apart from sleeping in a 3 man tent when it is 30+ degrees outside of course.
3- What is the most hottest subject in search at the moment, what should every SEO be looking into
I think paying attention to a specific subject always means you are letting another slip by. SEO’s should be looking to get out of the box and finding other mediums rather than purely search engines to generate targeted traffic to your clients. We are finding a lot of success with Google Places and have been for a while now, it will be interesting to see what impact if any the ‘place page’ feature will have. Google products is also something else that people need to begin looking into if they are not already.
4- What do you think is the “state of search” at the moment, is the industry doing good?
Hmm… tough question. To a certain extent it is, obviously if you look at how many companies are utilising search marketing now and compare allocated online budgets from now to 5 years ago the state of search looks particularly healthy. However, there are still a lot of people who do not understand what we do, even if they are the ones wanting to employ us!
5- What is your favorite website, apart from your own?
I will have to say YouTube. Just for how random and entertaining it can be as well as educational. You can get some great videos on there.
6- Can “social marketing / media” and search survive apart from each other?
They can survive apart from each other but together they flourish. They can both address different functions of a brand but ultimately just like organism everything is interlinked and connected. A great example of this question is when company X (My Heritage I think but forgot their name!) developed a Facebook application and a microsite which received hundreds of thousands of links but they paid no attention to what the anchor text of the link would be or hosting the app on their own domain to benefit from all that link equity.
7- What’s your search tip for the summer?
Always make time to read blogposts and pay attention to what is being said in the online community. I have always said this but recently I have found myself being dragged away from this due to time constraints. However, now you have asked me this I will once again try to schedule time for further reading as you don’t just learn by doing you can learn and be inspired by other people’s experiences.
