“Google is the god of the SEO ecosystem and every day is Judgement Day,” Search Laboratory CEO Ian Harris told the recent Internet Retailing Expo in Birmingham.
Ian was talking at the exhibition and conference, which is attended by over 5,000 retailers from some of the UKs largest businesses, about how to win on the global search engines in 2013.
The presentation focused predominately on off-page search engine optimisation and why this is important for internet retailers.
Using fashion as an example Ian said: “Search actually dwarfs any other type of traffic to fashion websites, ASOS, who is a big winner online gets a quarter of its traffic from search”.
Ian also covered:
- How natural search is still king, despite the increase in paid advertising click-through rates
- Why Google Panda and Penguin updates have changed the search industry
- The importance of SEO fitting naturally within the internet ecosystem
- The criteria Google uses to rank each websites on its results page
Talking about the relationship between off and on-page SEO Ian told the exhibition: “I always think of it like a car. Which is most important, the engine or the wheels?
“In the absence of either you don’t get anywhere, so you’ve got to get them both right to list well on the search engines.”
Ian’s presentation can be viewed in full, below.
Internet Retailing Expo was not the only time Ian held court at a lectern upon a stage in March as both he and Search Laboratory Content and Online PR Manager Susanna Hartmans were invited to guest lecture at Leeds University Business School last month by Senior Teaching Fellow Dr Caterina Presi.
In two lectures to the International Marketing Management and Advertising & Marketing Masters courses both Ian and Susanna discussed how search engine optimisation is now an integral part of online retail and marketing.
Ian kicked off the lecture with a history of Search Laboratory and background to what search marketing actually entails. He explained how Britain’s retail sector is becoming increasingly online focused and as a result the search marketing industry in this country is constantly growing.
Susanna, a Leeds University Business School alumnus, followed Ian with a presentation on how her experiences on the International Marketing Management course have helped her career at Search Laboratory.
From job hunting to subsequent employment Susanna discussed how the course had given her a good foundation for working in search marketing.
During her presentation Susanna revealed that it was while sitting in a Leeds Business School lecture theatre that she entertained the notion that SEO could be a potential career path.
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