SearchRank is a search and social media marketing company which offers SEO, PPC and Social Media services. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, it was founded 12 years ago.

CEO and co-founder David Wallace answered questions about SEO, paid search, social media and challenges.

- How would you explain the difference between organic and paid search to a client who was totally confused about these concepts?

Organic search results, sometimes referred to as “editorial,” are algorithmically produced and not based on whether someone has paid monies to the search engine to appear there. Paid search results on the other hand are exactly that—they are there because an advertiser paid for them to be there.

Organic search results appear based on the search engine response to a search query, and what actually appears, as well as any order, is based on the engine’s algorithm. While the paid search portion of a search engine has its own algorithm, what appears and the order in which those results appear is also based on how much someone is willing to pay, as well as how well their ad creative perform.

- What’s your favorite type of client: the one who already has a basic understanding of SEO and its importance, or the one who you must educate? Why?

Both can be great, while at the same time both can be difficult. There’s the client who has a little SEO knowledge but at the same time is a know-it-all. You almost want to say to them, “If you know everything, why did you hire me?” There are others armed with some SEO knowledge that can be very helpful, because they understand strategy that has been developed and how to implement that strategy.

Those clients who are willing to learn are also a pleasure to work with. The ones who are unwilling to learn at least what you are providing for them, typically do not remain long term loyal customers, because they never come to fully realize the value they are getting from a good SEO effort.

- Where do you see the PPC industry heading?

While we do not do a whole lot of PPC, I think more and more clients will either manage PPC campaigns themselves or use some sort of automated software solution. With regards to AdWords, I also see more and more advertisers allowing Google employees to manage their campaigns, which is not always in the best interest of the advertiser in my opinion, but it will happen anyway.

- You keep profiles on several social media sites (25, if I haven’t lost count). What’s the impact of social media on your business?

Being involved in social media has several benefits. Most importantly, it allows you to get your brand out there on social media related sites that are attracting thousands if not millions of users. There is also the networking aspect, that is, being able to connect to peers within your industry. I find this invaluable.

Being involved in social media has allowed me to connect to even more people in this vast industry and has even brought about new clients. It also has allowed our company and myself to become more transparent and open to communication.

- Which was the toughest obstacle your company SearchRank had to face? How did you triumph over it?

Finding time to work on internal projects. Let’s face it: any SEO/SEM firm that is good at what it does is very busy. And while this business is good for the bottom line, it often places internal projects on the back burner, or they are discarded altogether.

So, one thing we started doing last years was to make sure all of our regular scheduled work that we do for clients is complete by no later then the 20th of each month. This allows us a week, sometimes a bit more, to work on our own projects. For example, we run several blogs, a few directories and are developing some new tools and niche sites. All these require time, and without having that free time at the end of each month, these various projects would no doubt be neglected.

Now that you’ve read David Wallace’s answers, here are some links for your bookmark:

SearchRank – Phoenix, Arizona online marketing.

SearchRank Blog – Posts on Google, SEO, link building and more.

@DavidWallace – Follow him at Twitter.

SearchRank’s Founders – Full list of David Wallace’s profiles at various social media sites. Irma Wallace’s bio and profiles.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 at 10:21 pm and is filed under SEO & SEM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.