What does TopRung SEO do? They rank a website on the 1st page of Google, Yahoo and Bing search engines… and they do it at low costs. How does Top Rung SEO achieve results? Who is behind this Top SEO UK company? The SEO experts are driving the SEO revolution. With offices in South London, UK TopRung SEO takes SEO to the limits. What are the thoughts of the founder of TopRung?
The founder Neil, worked at eBay.co.uk. He became an expert in virtual online sales, e-commerce, and knows the ins and outs of the business of SEO. At eBay he focused on analysis and marketing. Neil developed many of eBay UK’s marketing analysis tools to allocate and spend eBay’s marketing budget. Analyzing investment, costs and results he gained a unique vision of Search Engine Optimization.
Neil is a graduate of Cambridge University and he kindly agreed to answer our questions.
Neil has contacts throughout the industry and also has friends who work for the major search engines. His experience and business model makes this an interview of significant value. Open and transparent he spoke to us about the business of SEO and his unique ways to success. Neil reveals in this interview his insights on SEO and today’s services, the Human Factor, key words and key phrases, the evolution of internet and its greatest problems.
From tangible commodities to how to measure results, Neil also takes to innovations and introduces some new concepts of his own such as, the “last mile issue”, rules and keys of the business and how to achieve SEO goals.
Neil, your company says, “We offer SEO services at the actual price they should cost.” How do you measure cost and Value? What tools do you use to measure return?
I measure the cost by thinking “What would I pay if I had to buy the service?”. To do this I put myself in the shoes of my clients. I feel that’s the best way to build a business. We measure value by the simple fact that getting to the search engines’ first page for keywords relevant to the clients site is very profitable and it has a great return on investment. As SEO increases your traffic your costs with us remain the same so your return on investment continually grows.
This happens as more potential customers use search engines to search for services and products, so if they find our clients sites our clients will have a successful internet business.
About the Faceless Factor and the Human Factor, is creativity compromised by SEO? How much of the field is creative and how much is strictly technical?
An important, creative part is the keyword analysis and keyword selection before we start SEO. For this we work closely with clients over the phone and email to help them chose the best keywords. We have to be creative and put ourselves in the shoes of our clients customers to pick the best keywords. Given we have a variety of clients, from IT equipment sellers to wineries, we have to be creative and imagine how people search and then check if the data supports us.
The internet revolution is evolving. From social networking to virtual worlds, future trends such as Augmented Reality, new forms of advertising, 3D visualizations and international outsourced markets. What is in your opinion the business role of SEO in this new evolution of tools? How will SEO play out in these new times?
I think many of these new tools will play some part in the internet revolution. SEO will help promote the businesses making these tools. International outsourced markets will probably benefit the greatest from SEO as SEO is the best way for these international companies to get customers from other parts of the world.
How is the business and work of SEO influenced by breaking world news?
Some clients have asked for their keywords to be changed due to breaking news but SEO is a longer term marketing strategy so it’s influenced much more by longer term trends in the news and commerce.
What is the greatest problem the internet is facing today?
I think the greatest problem for the internet is what I call the “last mile issue”.
For the internet to reach it’s full potential and complete the last mile of it’s journey it needs to be accessible by everyone, everywhere and regardless how much they earn. This means the internet needs to be available to people living in rural areas and affordable for poorer people in urban areas. These two groups make up a huge proportion of the worlds population and they are less likely to have internet access. This last mile will be a difficult hurdle to overcome but I hope cheap mobile and wireless communication will solve it.
How effective is the analysis when a company is not providing tangible commodities? Is there a time frame when conducting brand awareness campaigns?
The tangible results we provide are the improvement in the clients rankings for the keywords they chose so analysis can be done and it is effective. Plus there is nothing more tangible than being on the first page when the clients achieve this via our SEO.
The timeframe for brand awareness via SEO can be very long. We find as more customers come to know about you via SEO searches using our clients brand name increase. Therefore the clients own brand name can become a very important keyword and it shows the client is developing a popular brand because more people are searching for it.
How important is networking? Can a company make it without Social Media?
Networking is key to any business. You have to go out there and sell your business and what you do. A lot of our networking is done by email when our existing clients refer us to their friends.
There are some companies who need social media less than others and there are some which could even make it without social media. But whatever happens social media will become more important to all companies. I think social media will become vital for very fast growing start ups and large companies looking to leverage their brand.
SEO is a growing field. Is there an effective system of education capable preparing efficiently the new generations in the Business of professional SEO?
SEO is a growing field and I’ve learned a lot by just doing it and seeing what works. There is a vast amount of literature on the internet about SEO but you’ll only know what works if you do it and see the results.
We hear different rules, such as, the 85 % content rule, the planned strategy vs. improvisation, or the investment vs. return. What is in your opinion on the ultimate rule?
My rule is Keep it Simple.
Work with your SEO firm and pick good keywords. Your SEO firm should tell you in simple terms what their planned strategy for you is and what you should expect.
In the business of Digital and physical online selling, What is the key point of online selling that will maximize return on investments?
The key is getting new customers at the lowest possible cost which is what SEO is perfect for. When you get these new customers treat them well and get them continually buying from you with good marketing. This is what social media and direct email marketing are good for.
Will SEOs require to be more transparent? If the mystique of SEO tools are revealed could SEO survive? How much competition is there between SEO companies?
SEO firms will become more transparent. Good SEO firms are transparent and honest about what they can achieve. There is no mystique of SEO and it will survive because clients should focus on running and growing their business and should outsource SEO to an expert.
This will save the client a great deal of time and money as the SEO firm will bring in their range of experiences (pre learnt) so the client doesn’t have to learn and make mistakes and the SEO firm will do SEO at a cost which is much lower than the client could ever do in house. There is a lot of competition between SEO companies.
Finally, what SEO book do you recommend?
I would recommend keeping up to date with what is being written on the internet and the search engines’ help pages on the topic of SEO.
