Searchfeatured: Aaron Wall!
March 6, 2008
Before I start, I want to express how grateful I am that Aaron Wall has agreed to be the first SEO celebrity to be Search featured on our blog.
Aaron, this is a big favor. Out of all the SEO people out there, you are my first choice, so this is a sign.
Jason, thank you for the joke that made this happen. 
Without any further ado, here is Aaron answering questions which I´ve had on my mind:
1) [Search Feature] Aaron, in the past 3 years you have become one of the top faces of SEO. I however remember you as being one of the first to ever respond to my questions on Digital Point. You have once mentioned that the first year of doing SEO you´ve only made a small amount of money.
What kept you going and at what point did you realize you´ve had something there?
[Aaron] At that point in time I was not all that much motivated by money, but I knew SEO would be big soon after getting on the web. It just seemed like a way to give a voice to the voiceless, and that to me was a powerful idea.
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2) [Search Feature] Aaron, in the past, we have not had guys like Matt Cutts or anybody from Google give us feedback. We pretty much experimented around and figured it out for ourselves. How do you believe that Google employees befriending SEOs has changed the market and why do you think it all happened in the first place?
[Aaron] I think that Google looks out for Google’s best interests. I think Google felt that to look out for Google’s best interests they needed to have active voices manipulating the marketplace. And so we got garbage like link rel=nofollow. Not sure if/how that benefits us though.
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3) [Search Feature] I believe that a lot of young and new webmasters are drawn to blackhat. It seems to be the cooler and easier way to go. What would you tell someone age 13, a new webmaster kid, to get him on the track you believe is better for him/her?
[Aaron] If they are great at programming and want to give it a go then try it. For me the whole black hat vs white hat thing is a bit arbitrary. I think that black hat is continually refined to include anything that gives a great short term ROI and is easy to detect and kill. It is all a game of risk vs reward. At this point in time I have come to realize that if I want to build a real sustainable brand much more value needs to go into customer interaction than in short term ranking schemes.
Years ago when I was less well known my site got filtered out for its own name when Google rolled in a new algorithm. And that really had minimal effects on my sales (even as a person selling an information product about SEO).
http://www.search-marketing
Search is good for letting prospects find you, but not for converting if you sell a high touch service. For that you need emotional resonance and word of mouth marketing.
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4) [Search Feature] One thing about you is that you seem to love detail. Everything you put out there, you examine and seem to not miss anything. Are you very passionate about SEO and what is it that you like about it so much?
[Aaron] It is the idea that amongst all the backdrop of corruption, circle-jerking, self-promotion, lies, and manipulation from soulless corporations that an individual can compete and dominate the marketplace simply by being more passionate.
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5) [Search Feature] OK, I was told that I´ve met you at the Ask party at the SES 2005. I really don´t remember, but remember it being an awesome party. Which one of the conventions was your favorite and what are some of your best memories?
[Aaron] I would say the first ones meant more to me than the most recent ones. But that is how dopamine works. When something is new you get a bigger rush from it. Then as time passes and it becomes normal you do not get as much of a rush from it.
Some people who have been in the industry 3 times as long as I have still go to like 3 conferences a month…I am not sure how they pull that off. I would get burned out.
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6) [Search Feature] OK, and last but not least, where do you see SEO and YOURSELF headed. What else do you want to do that you have not yet done?
[Aaron] I want to keep making a bunch more SEO Tools http://tools.seobook.com/ , extend out my SEO training program http://www.seobook.com/join/ , and keep learning about the broader field of marketing. I would love to create a site as strong as SEO Book outside the SEO market, and my wife http://www.heygio.com/ is working on making that happen. 
Excellent overview for those unfamiliar with some of the more common SEO terms, as well as those interested in a little background history on how SEO used to be defined, relative to today.
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Mike it is great you got to do a Q&A with Aaron. Not a bad way to kick off this blog. Always have like his blog posts and sessions at conferences.
[…] http://searchfeature.com/blog/search…ed-aaron-wall/ […]
I have to say, I love the answers.
I´ve just now read thru this and I feel compelled to ask some follow up questions.
Yes, you can beat huge corporations and marketing budgets by being passionate and being creative.
And I completely agree with what Aaron has said about spokespersons looking out for Google.
It´s just that this is the first time a major SEO player is saying this publically (as far as I know).
Everyone knows that´s how it is, but things have shifted so far in the past few years, that SEO knowledge seems to be far less important than your visibility at conventions and your closeness to those who can control certain aspects on who will rank and who won´t.
- Mike
Good interview… Mike what would yourself and Aaron say about blog comments? If it’s up to the blog owner to monitor, is it 100% white hat? If I spend all day blog commenting should I be concerned? Seems if you do one or two its white hat, but when you deal with bulk (lots of effort) it turns black..does Google have a stance on this? Just seems like all SEO is black hat if you truly think about it…your trying to get your name out there.
Congrats on the interview. Aaron has always had an interesting take on things. I think his tools are probably the most used on the internet.
Zack, as far as I am concerned, spam or not spam depends on the intent behind it. Whatever is cool with you, is what you should do. I wouldn’t care if you leave 50 comments on one of my other blogs with more content (not here where there are only a few posts so far), as long as they are on topic and actually contribute to the post.
I think that no follow is one of the lamest things out there.
You as a blogger benefit from comments and commenters should benefit as well.
So, what you need is Askimet and common sense when you moderate.
You either get your comment approved or you don’t and if you get it approved, why not give some link love for some content love.
Aaron?
- Mike
Leave it to you to hit a homerun on the first blog post
Kudos!
Great interview Mike. I have seen first hand that someone passionate about SEO can outrank big corporations.
Do you think it will continue to be that way? Do you think Google wants it that way?
Anyway - great start for you blog. I am bookmarking now.
Tony, thanks but the credit obviously goes to my buddy Aaron and not me.
Wayne, I believe as time goes by, it will be harder to dominate SEO with passion and talent and money and connections with the right people will play a stronger and stronger role.
This is the time to brand whatever you have and use SEO to brand yourself as strongly as you possibly can.
The internet is still in the Wild West stage, but things are changing.
That of course is only my opinion based on trends I am seeing.
- Mike
Very cool interview. Aaron- I really agree with your point about when you were filtered out. Search brings eyeballs, not converted customers.
Best
Eric
ok, I just want to try to be clear. If you comment about the material/post (relevant) and you find a bunch of do follow blogs and dominate a major traffic kw Google won’t take action, or have they said they don’t agree with blog comments? Also I notice links here are coming up as no follow…not sure if I’m looking at it wrong.
Zack, I am going to upload the do follow plugin right now. Just didn’t have the time. I already did it on http://www.firetown.com/cool and getting it done in a minute.
Google is just taking the easy way.
For the life of me I cannot think of a reason why a good comment on a blog won’t benefit you in Google, but some spam comment on a forum will with your signature link.
Hey, Mike! Great interview! I’d really like to think that I can have an impact on my rankings if I truly work at it. I have such a niche market - why not, right?
Amy, you can make a huge impact. Start blogging and plug your site whereever it makes sense to plug it. Think advertising first, normally what works in advertising, works with SEO as well.
Build links by finding sources for targetted traffic.
Even if you get no follow links.
Use SEO and marketing to brand yourself more than anything. Once branded and getting known, everything will fall into place.
Mike
Great interview on Aaron Mike - very informative. Thanks!
Great and very informative interview.. Thanks for interview mike
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