Wise Marketing Secrets Interview Series with Bart van der Meer
Bart is the owner of Klik Proces. An SEO and conversion optimization company based in The Netherlands.
Our team of fifteen professionals loves content creation, design, promotion, analytics, experiments and sandwiches.
How would you explain specifically what you do as an SEO?
As an SEO you are always looking for the right balance between creating content and promoting (linkbuilding). That involves looking for the right audience.
Questions, insecurities and other things that resonate with your audience. And then creating content (with the right keywords in mind). After that it is promotion, promotion and more promotion.
Besides that you need to make reports, check the traffic for learning’s, keep up with conversions, talk to your client. SEO is such an all-in-1 job. I am probably forgetting tasks every SEO does on a regular basis.
What is your primary marketing goal when it comes to delivering results?
Main goal is conversions.
A. Phone calls
B. Quote requests
C. Products bought
D. Email subscription
E. Etc.
Which new skills are most important for SEO’s to learn in the next six months?
In the next 6 months I don’t think anything drastic changes to SEO in the big picture.
I think that most SEO lack in writing skills that resonate with the target audience and turns visitors into buyers.
That will also help you out if the visitor behavior will play a bigger role in the SERP’s in the future.
What do you find most rewarding about SEO?
Most rewarding: A client calling me to ask “What the hell we did, because they can’t handle all the work.”
How do you stay updated with the latest SEO industry news?
Updates via moz, Search engine land and several specific blogs such as backlinko.com
As an SEO, what is your favorite SEO hack?
Favorite seo hack: Comparison pages.
For most of our clients we create several types of comparison pages.
Let’s assume you sell iphones.
· Compare all individual iphone to each other. Iphone 6 vs. iphone 5. Iphone 6 vs. Iphone 6s
· Then compare your products to competitors. The iphone 6 vs. Samsung Galaxy S6
· Compare brands: Apple VS. Samsung
· Basically anything you can compare that makes sense, you should.
Not only does this allow you to work in the same keywords several times on your website. Those pages are conversion beasts, easy to promote and very easy to create.
Win-win-win
Are there any particular SEO trends on the horizon that really excite you?
The death of spam is always great. User engagement seems to slowly make its way into the algorithm.
What are some of the top tools and apps in your SEO stack?
The tools we use at Klik Proces
A. Ahref + Majestic = backlink checking and value determination
B. our own developed keywords research software + Google keyword planner for keyword research.
C. Rankwatch for keyword tracking
How is your typical work day structured?
I have by no means any typical day. Since we work with 15 people every day is different. The only thing that is always the same is the team meeting every Monday morning.
Other than that days are always different between meetings, projects, reports, analytics etc.
Which one book/blog post would you recommend every SEO should read?
Not 1 specific, but please read up on conversions when you are in SEO. That would make your client so much happier with the same investment.
What advice would you share with other SEO’s who want to become more productive?
Stop looking at analytics, backlinks and keyword ranking on a day-to-day basis. It’s a long term game. Once a week or month is more then plenty.
Among the Google algorithm updates what is the most challenging one that you’ve encountered?
We always benefit from Google updates, so I have no problems with any of them.
If there’s one SEO Guru you’d recommend who and why.
Brian Dean. He is very unique and practical in his approach. Even if you already know all his techniques, you can still learn things in the HOW TO.