“It’s a very snake oil industry. So just make sure that you’re researching the company that you’re going to be working with…”

Interview by Mike Sullivan

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Mike:
Hey, everyone, this is Mike Sullivan. Thanks for joining me again today on MO.com, where we always feature small business owners and entrepreneurs. Today joining us is Billy Canu of SEOHaus. Billy’s joining us today to talk a little bit about what small business owners can do to help improve their site’s rankings and talk a little bit about his business as well.

Billy, thanks for joining us. Can you talk about the evolution of SEOHaus, from DVD rental to SEO powerhouse?

Billy:
Yeah. So I started off about, I want to say, seven or eight years ago, more than that, with my business partner at the time. We started a DVD rental company, similar to Netflix. Basically, when we first started, it wasn’t doing so well, and so I started some SEO techniques and I really started mastering the link building process and everything else. Back then it was very easy. Within about 4 months, I was getting about 30 signups a day and we were almost growing too big for our own good. So we just continued to grow, and then one day we were approached by a larger conglomerate and they wanted to buy us out. So we kind of felt like it was at the right time just because we knew that we were never going to be a Netflix or a Blockbuster.com. So we went ahead and sold. One of the requirements was, part of the agreement, was that I would stay on and help with search engine optimization and that’s how SEOHaus started.

We started off with just a couple of those clients, and in the entertainment world news travels really fast. So before we knew it, we started working with Red Bull and a lot of different other companies. Now SEOHaus, we’re a team of about 25 to 30 employees, and we work globally with about 350, I would say around there, companies.

Mike:
That’s pretty awesome. On your website, you mention that there’s an eight times return on investment when comparing SEO to traditional advertising. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?

Billy:
Yeah. So a great example I always use is a billboard. When you go out and you see a billboard, let’s say they’re selling a coffee maker, the billboard only reaches a grouping of about 2.5 miles. So if half those people don’t drink coffee and then half of that half only go to Starbucks, the coffee maker isn’t going to sell to the masses. That might have cost $5,000 to $10,000 to get a billboard set up, where with SEO, if you search “coffeemaker,” it gets searched about 60,000 times a month. So you have to imagine if you’re on the first page for “coffeemaker” and you’re only competing against ten other people, the chances of your conversions are a lot higher, especially if you’re pricing’s point is a the right point. So that compared with magazines, compared with everything, it just has a bigger return on investment.

I’ve seen it time and time again. The reason why I have 350 clients is because everyone says the same thing: “The return on investment is there.”

Mike:
I personally have a bit of domain name background. How important do you find domain names, premium keyword domain names in SEO?

Billy:
Oh my God, it helps so much. If you can afford it, because obviously we all know that that can get pretty pricey, having what we call a top level domain that has keywords in it is an amazing, amazing thing. I actually purchased SEOprofessional.org, SEOsubmission.com, and other keyword variations to just kind of help spread out my brand. They’ve all been really beneficial.

Mike:
The terms “black hat” and “white hat” are often associated with SEO. Can you tell me, and for those who may not know, what do those terms mean?

Billy:
Black hat and white hat, yes, I can. Black hat is techniques that are frowned upon by Google. So we do something called link building, which is where you build a link from one website towards another site or towards your client’s site. There are a lot of tricky ways that you can do that by link farming, using scraper sites, that sort of thing, and Google really looks down on that because it looks like spam. What Google’s looking for are white hat techniques. What that basically does is it just makes sure that the site stays looking natural and relevant, and doesn’t look like you’re trying to force anything, not hiding text within the website, things like that. Anything that you would think sounds a little odd and kind of sounds a little weird usually falls into that black hat category.

Mike:
How has SEO changed since the early days when you got started compared to where we’re at now, and what does the future look like?

Billy:
Well, SEO back in the day was just so easy. It was one of those things where Google didn’t really have its algorithms figured out. So you could get away with trying some of the more tricky, black hat methods in order to get on the top. Also, you could just put a domain name up, and time and time again I have new clients that contact me and they say, “Oh, I used to be up on the first page for this, this, and this, and now I’m not.” It’s because what Google requires now for relevant links, quality, everything is just so different.

The future of SEO, the Internet’s ever changing. Now there’s a big focus on social media. They’re cracking down on content because a lot of people were just defaulting on content to get their sites ranked. So for me, what I’ve noticed is that it’s really starting to put something on peer-to-peer recommendations and the quality of links that you have to your site.

Mike:
So as far as social networking, things like Facebook likes or Google Plus, those things will continue to have an influence as we move forward?

Billy:
Yeah. A couple of years ago Google introduced Universal Search, which involved Twitter, Facebook, images, video, like everything. So really that’s just becoming more prevalent as they’re working out the kinks. I would say that you’re going to see that a lot more in the future. You can see the Plus icon next to search results, which will now start showing who your Google Plus friends, what sites they liked, things like that. So as this grows more and more, you’re going to see that.

Mike:
Billy, are there any simple SEO tactics that small business owners can apply immediately to start seeing some results?

Billy:
For sure, yeah. The first thing is obviously, Flash is getting easier and easier, but I always recommend not having a Flash website. I also recommend having a content enriched website. Those are just two simple things right off the bat. The next thing I would definitely say is just making sure that your site is geared towards your audience, just because you don’t want to have a site that’s really, really confusing. Google actually will go through and look at your content to make sure that it’s not confusing versus your competitors. Then the last thing is, just really simple SEO techniques, are going and finding directories in your industry and basically setting up yourself in those directories. Getting a link pointed towards your website in the directories is a real simple startup way in order to do some basic SEO.

Mike:
How important are pay-per-click campaigns to small businesses?

Billy:
Well, it depends on your audience. I think that if you’re selling a high price point item and you can pay for the conversion, then I think it’s great. But if you’re a small business and you’re selling trinkets or whatever else, pay-per-click can be a money burner. So I usually recommend people to really look at what their audience is and what they’re trying to promote, because the thing about pay-per-click is I see people in real estate, for example, spending $16 a click. I just think that that can end up being really expensive for a startup business.

Mike:
Any additional tips or cautions on SEO?

Billy:
SEO is an insurance policy for websites out there. I think every website right now can use it, and I’m not just saying that because I’m in the business. I’ve time and time again have people that come to me and say that we’ve changed their whole business makeup and how their business is functioning with increased clients, and all that. It’s a very snake oil industry. So just make sure that you’re researching the company that you’re going to be working with, the links that they build, and the quality that they provide. I think that if you make those right decisions and you align yourself with a great company, that you’ll have a really successful campaign and you’ll do great on the Internet.

Mike:
One last question, how affordable is SEO?

Billy:
I would say that you’re looking at a package for about $495 to start off on the lighter end. We have a program, I’m not trying to promote myself at all and you can even edit this out, but it’s called “Pay per Result.” The way it works is it’s $100 a month, and then we work on three to four keyword phrases and each one that hits the first page ,we then increase. It just allows that client to grow their campaign up. It’s great for that small business that doesn’t have a lot of money to put forward and wants to try it out on the Internet. But I definitely think that if you can’t get somebody to do it for you, you should definitely try to do it for yourself. I read all the blogs about quick tips to make money and all that. It’s hard to do that. It’s a long process and nothing is a quick answer. So I think SEO just helps along in that method.

Mike:
Hey, Billy, great talking to you. Thank you so much.

Billy:
Thank you so much.