SEO Begin talks SEO with Divine Write

Glenn Murray

For me SEO evolved from basically coding everything i did with my sites in Notepad and making sense of how that slightest tweak effected affected how my site appeared in the search results. The term “SEO” was certainly not my first Google search back in 2001, it was probably more along the lines of “How do i get visitors to my site” or something similar. How did you first learn of SEO?

I was forced into it. By 2003, I’d learned a little about SEO copywriting by reading an ebook or article written by Jill Whalen. But I didn’t know anything about SEO, outside of that. Then I took on a contract for an IT company in Sydney, writing their SEO copy, and the day I started, the boss told me I was responsible for their entire SEO. I told him I knew nothing about it, and he said he was happy to pay me to learn!

What was your “Eureka” moment when SEO just made sense?

I’m not sure there was a Eureka moment. Even back then, there was heaps of information around on SEO. Unfortunately, most of it was either outdated or misleading. (Not a lot’s changed on that score, (IMHO.) Problem was, I didn’t really know about it at the time. I just had to muddle my way through. I learned in dribs and drabs, mostly from interacting on forums. I did have a Eureka moment when Google spider activity made sense, though: I was on a forum discussing how long it would be until Google crawled my client’s site. A kind SEO in the UK (who was webmaster of a high ranking site) threw a link on his site to my client’s. We were crawled almost immediately.

Considering time commitments that need to be set aside for SEO, i personally have a daily schedule Monday to Friday where i commit time to completing tasks and i know exactly how long each one of those takes, from an SEO Copywriter’s point of view how do you set time aside for research and development of copy?

SEO copy isn’t really that complicated. And to be honest, it’s getting easier, the smarter the search engines get. My job is simply to write compelling, engaging, on-topic copy. Most of the time, that copy will naturally contain most of the keywords that most of the target audience would be searching for. I do, of course, make sure that this is the case, and that the target phrases are there in abundance, but it’s not something that’s difficult to understand. And it’s not something that merits a lot of research and development. The real trick is writing the compelling, engaging copy!

Having said that, I DO spend a lot of time researching SEO, generally. Usually around 2 hours a day, give or take.

Glenn you are also a family man running your own SEO Copywriting business with a dedicated team of staff, . in In the early days of developing the company how many thousands of times did you tell yourself “This will work”?

I still tell myself that, every day. I’m always trying new things, and most of them don’t work. But I learn from each, and that learning strengthens my core business.

Understanding that you need 100% trust in your team, how hard is at times to take a hands off approach or do you oversee every aspect of a new clients introduction?

I find it very difficult to let go the reins. Almost impossible. This is partly because I’m a control freak, and partly because it’s difficult to find good help. I now have a very small team of writers who can output copy that meets my very high standards. I personally write 95% of the copy that goes out the door. And I quality control everything else. If it needs to be fixed or rewritten, I’d rather it’s me who tells the writer, not my client! Sometimes my writers deal directly with the client, sometimes I’m the middleman. All depends on the situation.

I was one of the lucky ones that managed to get a preview copy of your eBook “SEO Secrets” via a single Twitter Tweet, what inspired you to write “SEO Secrets”?

I wasn’t really inspired; I was just doing what was natural for me. I’ve always been a writer ­ even as a kid. I express myself best, and learn best when I write. So when I was thrown in the deep end with that SEO contract I mentioned, my natural impulse was to write down everything I learned.

It started out as a kind of log-book, but by the time I’d finished, it was very nearly a book. It doesn’t hurt that, prior to starting Divine Write, I was technical writer in the software industry, for 9 years ­ writing user guides and online help. So even when I was only writing a log-book, I was writing it in a user manual style, simply out of habit.

As an SEO myself i found your eBook to be enlightening in quite a few areas, let`s call them “How did i miss that” moments. Where from within the SEO industry have you drawn your inspirations to share certain techniques?

Because I don’t optimise hundreds of client sites (I only do my own), most of my research had its roots in Twitter. I follow the established thought leaders (and the not-so-established) so I end up reading about all the important, trustworthy news, events, thoughts, debates and research, and I can incorporate that learning into my SEO ebook. Obviously, the Internet being the big network of links it is, those readings led to other readings, and so on. There’s a pretty comprehensive Bibliography at the end of the book.

Personally i am a great advocate of everything Aaron Wall, Debra Mastaler and Rand Fishkin orientated to name but a few, who do you consider to be the “SEO Thought Leaders” within our field?

I’m a big fan of Rand, Aaron and Debra, definitely. Some other favourites include Matt Cutts, of course, Danny Sullivan, David Harry, Tetsuto Yabuki, Shimon Sandler, CJ Jenkins, Lucas Ng, Mark Vozzo, Brian Chappell, Bill Slawski, Vanessa Fox and Jill Whalen. Plus I respect a lot of others who, like Rob Adelman, Daniel Benton, Tony da Costa and Joshua Hay, here in Australia, and Ben McKay in the UK.

SEO and SEM sometimes get tarred with the same brush, i do believe i am an SEO that ventures into SEM from time to time but i have no real Shoemoney understanding of what it is to market a website, what say you?

I definitely know more about SEO than its parent category SEM. However, as a business owner, I have a decent amount of hands-on experience in broader SEM. I’ve dabbled in AdWords, AdSense, etc., and I actively engage in social media marketing. As it stands, though, I certainly don’t feel I know enough to write a book, much less offer a service in SEM!

Explain SEO to the layperson in one sentence

SEO is the art of increasing your site’s natural search engine ranking ­ for the words your target customers are Googling ­ by making your site search-engine-friendly and relevant, and by influencing others to link to your site.

Google has become more capable of reading session urls, text within flash files and even crawling more of our Javascript files, what is your opinion on the advancements of Googlebots capabilities over the past 6 months or so?

From what I understand, Google has definitely gotten a lot smarter. But it still has a long way to go before it’ll be able to make as much sense from these elements as it does from simple URLs and straight HTML.

Blogging platforms in the beginning were a huge eye opener for potential for me from an SEO point of view in late 2004 and 2005, where my first Blogspot appeared and still exists, however in recent years i have crossed over and now actively promote WordPress as a Content Management Solution as well as a defining source of where your blog should be at, what is your opinion of WordPress?

Love it! It’s very easy to use and, when set up correctly, very SEO friendly. I’d say its biggest SEO problem is duplicate content, but you can get around that with a few tweaks. I haven’t had any experience with other platforms, though, so there may well be something better out there!

Social Networking platforms, like Twitter as an example are becoming mainstream, apart  from the Kutcher v CNN, Britney Spears and other celebrity hype that continuously fires the flames that is this renewed Twitter revolution, why do we as SEO`s need to concentrate our focus on our field of expertise?

If you mean why is social media marketing important to SEO, my answer is simply that it’s a great way to establish trust and credibility, and to get the word out about the great content on your site. No matter how good it is, people will only link to it if they know about it. Beyond that, Twitter’s a great way to stay up to date with the latest thinking, debates, readings and events, and an excellent way to network and share ideas with colleagues.

Glenn it has been an absolute pleasure to have you featured on SEO Begin as my first interviewee and as ever i will look forward to your updates via twitter

For those starting out in SEO or for business owners curious to know what SEO entails the SEO Secrets eBook  is a must read.

Glenn Murray on Twitter (@divinewrite)

divinewrite: A client of mine is after an awesome marketing plan. Traditional + online. Can anyone help? - Tue, 07 Sep 2010
divinewrite: A client of mine is after an awesome marketing plan. Traditional + online. Can anyone help?

divinewrite: @maadonna Amazing how much of a spanner it throws in the works when you ask to call them. And they're a telcom, for god's sake! - Tue, 07 Sep 2010
divinewrite: @maadonna Amazing how much of a spanner it throws in the works when you ask to call them. And they're a telcom, for god's sake!

divinewrite: @maadonna Was that on the phone? Happened to me a couple of times too. I said no, give me yours & dept & I'll call Telstra & ask 4 u - Tue, 07 Sep 2010
divinewrite: @maadonna Was that on the phone? Happened to me a couple of times too. I said no, give me yours & dept & I'll call Telstra & ask 4 u

divinewrite: E-Commerce SEO: Making Product Pages into Great Content: http://bit.ly/arKMDr - Tue, 07 Sep 2010
divinewrite: E-Commerce SEO: Making Product Pages into Great Content: http://bit.ly/arKMDr

divinewrite: A fun read and some good tips: 'How to write good' http://bit.ly/9HFyIT - Tue, 07 Sep 2010
divinewrite: A fun read and some good tips: 'How to write good' http://bit.ly/9HFyIT

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