The Man Behind SEO — Bruce Clay

TMI with Kevin Ryan

Living legend and one of the founding fathers of SEO joins the show this week. Bruce is known as the man that coined the phrase “SEO” and has taught thousands of people how search functions, the misconceptions, and why it’s important we do it right. He and I talk about how he helps clients meet their SEO challenges, how we can establish ourselves as experts, and the latest trends Bruce thinks are important for professionals to know.

Takeaways:

[3:27] Bruce wrote and taught many people on how websites can best be found in search, and what Google looks at to establish ourselves as experts.

[5:02] Bruce’s company Bruce Clay, Inc, “has grown into a leading search marketing company providing SEO services and consulting, pay-per-click advertising management, content development, and social media marketing services.”

[8:13] Clients looking to have a solid SEO reputation must be trustworthy, and more and more in the modern day, it means having real-life people talking about you and writing about you. Bruce helps his clients get a Google tag, and pair up with review sites to recognize keywords in positive reviews.

[16:28] SEO engagement looks different for every business, depending on the scale and scope of the organization.

[17:55] Bruce hires staff based on variety, and that way he has a wide spread of expertise so they can really dig deep and produce significant results. Pro tip: Bruce may or may not also be hiring more experts after Christmas 2019!

[23:06] AI and mobile search are two items on the list that Bruce reminds us we have to keep track of constantly as SEO experts.

[27:33] SEO professionals are aware that it can be a struggle to relay the right information and they are on guard to help dispel misinformation.

[32:33] Bruce wants his clients to understand the same things his employees know, so training and educating them on SEO is something they do to empower everyone that works together on the project.

Quotes:

• ● “If you do what everyone knows, then that puts you at an average.”
• ● “I made a decision that we were going to be top-shelf and that we were going to be the experts.”
• Mentioned in This Episode:
• Bruce Clay
• @BruceClayInc
• Topshelf
• SMX
• UnGagged