Wise Marketing Secrets Interview Series with Carla Dawson

Carla Dawson is a senior Digital Marketing Consultant and manages a boutique Lead Generation Marketing Agency called Dawson.

She has more than 10 years experience in the digital marketing and software development industry.

Carla is originally from San Diego, California but lives in Argentina as an Expat.

Carla Dawson enjoys working with successful companies like Apex America, ENGworks and start-ups like RapiHogar.

How would you explain specifically what you do as an SEO?

SEO specialists are a kind of marketer with a focus on search engines. SEO is not just about ranking a website but rather ranking a website for the right audience that is interested in that websites product or service.

What is your primary marketing goal when it comes to delivering results?

Lead Generation is our focus.

Which new skills are most important for SEO’s to learn in the next six months?

PPC is a very important skill to have because a great SEO campaign also includes PPC efforts. PPC campaigns help identify the ideal keywords SEO specialist should go for.

Analytics – On page SEO is key and you cannot get a good understanding of your website if you do not know what works and what fails.

PR and Linkbuilding – White hat SEO is a very hard thing to do and it is necessary.

What do you find most rewarding about SEO?

Generating leads for clients. I love hearing “I sold X amount last month thanks to ranking in Google”

How do you stay updated with the latest SEO industry news?

MOZ, SEJ, and Twitter are my main sources

As an SEO, what is your favorite SEO hack?

Using PPC data to target lead generation keywords. Schemas.

Are there any particular SEO trends on the horizon that really excite you?

Yes, I think Google is moving away from link building and focusing a user interaction and co-citation. These new trends I think are very beneficial for internet users.

What are some of the top tools and apps in your SEO stack?

MOZ, Screaming Frog, Deep Crawl and aHrefs.

How is your typical work day structured?

Meetings, Operations and client visits.

Which one book/blog post would you recommend every SEO should read?

The Art of SEO is the best book on the market if you ask me related to SEO. As for the best blog post or article here are my favorites:

https://moz.com/blog/what-is-an-unnatural-link-an-in-depth-look-at-the-google-quality-guidelines

https://moz.com/blog/5-dos-and-donts-of-international-seo

https://moz.com/blog/parallax-scrolling-websites-and-seo-a-collection-of-solutions-and-examples

What advice would you share with other SEO’s who want to become more productive?

Try and have few clients with larger budgets than many small clients with small budgets. You will be more effective and more productive.

Among the Google algorithm updates what is the most challenging one that you’ve encountered?

Panda and Penguin are right up there and I think Doorway will be very challenging in the near future.

Doorway is obligating companies to advertise in Adwords to reach certain regions and finding a whitehat way around this is quite a challenge.

If there’s one SEO Guru you’d recommend who and why.

I really like the work Marie Haynes is doing. She is so clear and thorough and her insight is critical for us in the industry.

I also really appreciate Bill Slawski’s work. And last but definitely not the least is MOZ in general for creating serious information that is vital in industry.