Jill Whalen is the CEO of High Rankings and has been one of the leaders in SEO for many, many years. Enjoy this one. I am not sure if Jill remembers, but I have met her in 2005 for a minute.
18 Comments
18 Comments
Sorry this site requires JavaScript to be enabled in your browser. See the following guide on How to enable JavaScript in Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox and Safari. Alternatively you may be blocking JavaScript with an advert-related or developer plugin. Please check your browser plugins.
Upcoming Conferences
Search Engine Land produces SMX, the Search Marketing Expo conference series. SMX events deliver the most comprehensive educational and networking experiences - whether you're just starting in search marketing or you're a seasoned expert.
Join us at an upcoming SMX event:
- SMX Advanced Seattle - June 5-6, 2012
- SMX Paris - June 7-8 2012
- SMX Melbourne - Sept. 5-6, 2012
- SMX East - Oct. 2-4, 2012
- SMX Stockholm - Oct. 15-16, 2012
- SMX Social Media Marketing - Dec. 5-6, 2012
- SMX Munich - Apr. 9-10, 2013
- SMX West - March 2013
- SMX Toronto - April 2013
- SMX Sydney - May 2013
Latest News From Marketing Land
- Yahoo Shutters Livestand iPad “Living Magazine”
- Marketing Day: May 25, 2012
- Marketing Biz: Tracking Google’s Dune Strategy
- How Performance Marketing Is Influencing The Next Generation Of Internet Startups
- New Google+ Android App Adds Vivid Imagery & Additional Functionality
- - See more news at Marketing Land -
Upcoming Webcasts
Learn more about search marketing with our free online webcasts and webinars from our sister site, Search Marketing Now. Upcoming online events include:
- Search, Social and Mobile: What Travel Marketers Must Know - June 26, 2012
Latest News From Search Engine Land
- SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 25, 2012
- Search In Pics: SEO LEGO, Facebook Cooler & A Happy SEO
- Google Disapproved 134M Ads And Disabled More Than 800K AdWords Accounts In 2011
- Microsoft Integrates More Nokia “Infrastructure” (Traffic, Geocoding) Into Bing Maps
- What Trademark Search Data Can Reveal About User Behavior
- - See more news at Search Engine Land -
Comments
The interesting thing about that is that to succeed in tomorrow’s search marketing world, it’s the same as how to succeed in today’s “real” world. " So true, the market will always decide in the end. Algorithms are trying to imitate human behavior and it should never be vice versa.
Ok this interview is worth sphinning. A few oddball questions in there (e.g. "Give some advice to the Google employees" - lol its probably the SEOs that need advice from Google I don’t know any SEOs white hat or black hat making ~50 million a day and 20,000 employees), but overall nice job Mike.
Yep Jill Rocks :) Agree with you about a couple of those questions HD. I would have asked her more about her ethics or methods as a marketer, and how/if that has perspective has changed over the years. What effect has Google moving the goal posts had on her as a first generation online marketer?
Always great to read up on the interviews of the movers and shakers in the SEO industry. It gives you some insights into their mindset and you get a chance to pick up some cool tips to boot.
Hey Nick, those are good questions! Let me know if you’d be interested in interviewing me as well! I’d answer you here, but I think those questions deserve more than just some Sphinn comments.
Would be a pleasure Jill - I’ll get some more questions together and send you an email :)
For those of you who wondered, I had to move servers and goofed something up, but everything is fine now. Mike Dammann
"its probably the SEOs that need advice from Google I don’t know any SEOs white hat or black hat making ~50 million a day and 20,000 employees"I disagree. Just because you work for a company like that does not mean that today’s employees and those responsible for quality are of the same caliber as the two founders, which btw. I truly respect.I have noticed that the old fire and idealism has left a couple of years ago. Google right now is run like a business, back in the days it was revolutionary. I do believe that right now is a time where Google needs a lot of help and input from anybody with a creative mind.I personally pay more attention to anybody who has done something on their own rather than follow a company’s guidelines. Sure, for some people that is the best way to go, but people I myself am interested in and whose opinions I listen to are self motivated people who just do it and figure it out on their own. Those are the ones who tend to be able to think of things others haven’t done before.Just MO of course.Mike
"Just because you work for a company like that does not mean that today’s employees and those responsible for quality are of the same caliber as the two founders, which btw. I truly respect."I didn’t say "Googlers" Mike, I said Google. Bottom line is most of the Google-bashers don’t have a clue. I’m more interested in people focusing their energies on growing their own business instead of noisy naysayers throwing pebbles from the sidelines, debating ethics, and dishing out advice as though they knew better when their house is no more in order than Google’s. It’s easy to sit and critique what’s wrong with someone else’s movie - harder to go out and make one yourself. Of course Google has a long ways to go but same can be said about any other business online and off, yours and mine.One common complaint is against Google’s link-based algos. Guess what? Go try coding up a content-based search engine and tell me how easy that is. You’re talking about building a program with AI. It took years just to build a machine that walks. Too many marketers take things for granted.Sure it’d be nice for people to be able to go back in time and we can bitch about not having a time-machine or having a car that flies but those than can, do, and those than can’t, bitch.
Halfdeck, I agree 100%. I don’t like bashing. But I refuse to give Google the same reference today that I gave Google years ago. I find it interesting to hear what non Google employees say they would do had they had a chance to make some changes to turn it into the search engine that they would love to use even more. I personally got ranked in Google and made money because of that before I even understood why, so Google will always have a big place in my heart. I just don’t like the politics that I believe unofficial spokespersons have created around it and want people to speak their minds a little bit more.Mike
"I just don’t like the politics that I believe unofficial spokespersons have created around it"SEOs and marketers are mostly responsible for that politics Mike. It doesn’t take much brains to understand Google and its business model. Their messages have been consistent. Do I agree with all their policies? No. But too many people are talking ethics (good VS evil) and drumming up FUD when its just business. Google’s stance on paid links, for example, is just a business decision. I don’t care if people want to debate the ROI of that decision but when words like "evil" gets tossed around I have to laugh.Google is still a primitive search engine, but alot of this talk is as useful as people giving Britney Spears advice about how to straighten up her life.
heh ok but the thing is that right now we know not to take the original webmaster guidelines seriously, especially after Matt starts giving webmasters advice on how to build their sites to get them spidered more beneficial to them and Google. Google is still on top. For old times’ sake. I actually should stop talking about Google and allow the market to decide what is next. Google is so big, that the only future I can predict is going downhill hard. Google is at a standstill and if things keep on going the way they are, there is no way that their popularity can possibly remain at the same level that it has been on.Sorry to Jill for turning this into something completely different, but when I am put on the spot, I speak my mind. :)Mike
I don’t like interviews, period!
"Google is so big, that the only future I can predict is going downhill hard."That’s thinking with a marketer’s cap on. They are in the business of predicting what can’t be done and where the limits lie, based not on facts but bias and trends and tea-leaf reading. It’s a self-limiting attitude.Entrepreneurs maintain that anything is possible.Where ever the truths lie, I’m personally just sick of listing to marketers talk. It’s as useful and inspiring as listening to rep and dem spinmeisters after a presidential debate.Anyway people have the right to bitch - when people are not in position of power what else can they do - but it’d be nice if I figure out a way to filter out all the repetitive noise without shutting down feed readers completely.
Great article. Thanks for the insights.
Thanks for everyone’s constructive criticism and comments. Why even argue, let Google do what they want and we do what we want. ;)
Oooooh, I just now saw Jill’s beef connection.This interview could have been about Joe Blow, as far as I was concerned.
Not really, her answers were superb, and I am not learning that much new here, but from her I have learned quite a bit.