Fun/informative Reddit WTF AMA from Andrew Shotland

[Linda Buquet]

I was watching a fun Reddit AMA unfold with Andrew Shotland yesterday.
He answered lots of Qs and dropped a ton of info.

<a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/bigseo/comments/26pi4c/hey_im_andrew_shotland_of_localseoguidecom/">Hey I'm Andrew Shotland of LocalSEOGuide.com. Dealing with some tricky Panda 4.0 stuff today but WTF AMA</a>

Here are a couple of choice snippets!

You all know how I love Dr SEO analogies! So you know I'd pick up on this one!

QUESTION: How do you personally define SEO? To your colleagues? To the C-Suite? To your mom?

"I typically use a doctor analogy.

If you are having a problem, SEO (or perhaps more precisely a SEO consultant) is like a doctor diagnosing issues and prescribing tactics/strategies to cure the patient, or to at least get the patient stable. I particularly like using "House" as an analogy because sometimes we think it's lupus and it turns out to not be lupus.

If you are not having a problem, then the SEO consultant is more like a "doctor" for a high performance athlete. We are working on techniques that can take you from ordinary performance to extraordinary performance. Of course those kinds of projects are typically more fun than dealing with sites that are in trouble."

QUESTION: How do you scale Geo Linkbait?

"I am sure there are other SEOs who can better answer that. I don't try to scale this kind of stuff because I feel that "scaling" is a euphemism for "making things crappier". I prefer to do custom work for clients that I think will be effective.

Of course, if you buy me a few beers we can probably come up with 100 great Geolinkbait ideas in an hour. It ain't rocket science."

But in addition to the witty answers there was some really good info too.
So head over, read up and wise up!

 

[Dustybones]

one of my favorites:

"What are the top three frustrating/annoying things when it comes to ranking a site for local? I'm assuming that dealing with duplicate listings is high on the list... So what else haunts your dreams?"

1. Getting the client to do anything
2. Getting the client to do something
3. Getting the client to...

 

[Linda Buquet]

Oh ya, I liked that one too Justin.

And that's a dynamite interview question too!

"So what else haunts your dreams?"

Bet we'd get a lot of good answers to that Q from pros here!

 

[Scott Rawlins]

Could not agree more with that answer! I am constantly muttering to myself after talking with some clients...."help me help you!"

It can be so frustrating some times.

 

[Dave]

Good stuff. Fun comments. Plus he got a link.

Andrew is linky dinky smart

 

[Colan Nielsen]

This is great, thanks Linda. Andrew is awesome.