Interview with Nyagoslav Zhekov ahead of SMX West 2012 in San Jose

February 18th, 2012 11:37 AM

Interview with Nyagoslav Zhekov ahead of SMX West 2012 in San Jose

Hello, Nyagoslav! February 28, a lot of digital marketers will gather for SMX West 2012 in San Jose. You will be one of the speakers on this important Internet marketing event. So, this interview is a great and unique possibility for our readers and us to get acquainted with you and with your activity.

Hello, Viktoriia. Thank you very much for the invitation. I am happy to share anything that would be of interest for your readers.

Could you tell us something about your life, childhood, family? You have a Slavonic name. Where were you born?

I was born and raised in Bulgaria – a small country in Southeast Europe. My childhood passed under the signature of the transition from communism to democracy in the country. It was wild years back then. My parents are doctors, so I am often getting the question “Why didn’t you become one, too?” I have my own way in life and I don’t like to follow the footsteps of others.

You have received a degree in marketing and management in tourism. What was your motivation for such choice?

My hometown, Varna, is a famous tourist destination and one of the biggest resort centers at the Black Sea shore. I have always been interested in marketing and advertising, and these were the main reasons for my choice. Moreover, the university I graduated from is the best in the country that offers a degree in tourism.

Now you deal with Internet marketing. When and why did you start your internet marketing business?

I first got to know about Internet marketing a few years ago, and I was irregularly reading articles related to the field, completely out of curiosity. Then, in the summer between my junior and senior year in the college, I went on a 3-month intern-ship in Japan. My daily tasks were mainly related to market research, but I was also involved in some in-house Internet marketing activities. That was when I came to be more interested in it. When I returned to Bulgaria, I found a part-time job in a Bulgaria-based US local search engine optimization company. Unfortunately, many of the things there were being done wrongfully, so I decided to move on and start my own business.

As we know, you are a Director of OptiLocal. Tell us some words about your company and the services you provide.

OptiLocal is a local search marketing start up. We founded it together with my high school friend Vladislav Todorov (BA in Computer Science from Ramapo College of New Jersey). Currently we are a team of 6. We are based in Varna, Bulgaria, but we service mostly US and UK clients. We have good connections in Canada, Australia, and Germany, too.

We provide local search marketing services for businesses that target locally. These include both small- and medium-sized businesses, and large companies with multiple locations. We offer holistic online marketing solutions – from completely web development and design, to local search engine optimization, to pay-per-click management. Our main specialty is in Google Places optimization, and that’s what we are famous with.

Coming back to the position you hold in the company, what do you consider to be the main benefit you get working in OptiLocal?

I learn new things every day. The job helps me improve my skills in business ethics, business language, time management, intercultural communication, work under pressure and tight deadlines, and many more. This is invaluable experience, which one cannot feel at a normal executive position.

You are one of the youngest leading professionals in your niche. According to your opinion, what skills and qualities of character have helped you to reach that you have now?

I think the most important qualities for a person to be successful in anything are to aim for their goals no matter the external factors, to dare to “go for it”, and to believe in what they do. These are the things that help me wake up every day and keep doing what I do.

You practice guest blogging on Search Engine People. How much time do you spend on it? What are you interested in?

I post on Search Engine People once every 8 weeks. I usually spend about 3-6 hours on each of my articles there. It is a great opportunity for my opinion to reach more people. I am very thankful to the SEP team and especially Ruud Hein for the opportunity.

The topics I write on are mostly related to Google Places and local search in general. Unfortunately, sometimes I find myself having too many things to share and too little time to do it.

On the 28nd of February, we will be glad to hear your speech. It will be about success strategies in Google Places, its pros and cons. Could you share with us some secrets about your prospective speech? What are we going to hear from you as SEO expert?

My presentation will be mostly related to covering the basics of the problems on Google Places. It is a very complicated system that Google has created and this complication causes frequent troubles for both business owners and Internet marketers. I will try to explain the root of the problems, as well as mention some useful tools for solving them.

Could you give some tips concerning Google Places Optimization?

There are 3 main pillars in Google Places and in local search in general, which Google uses when determining the rankings of the listings for particular search query: relevance, prominence, distance. While distance is something which cannot be affected on, as is relevance in the majority of the cases (if you are an electrical engineer it would be hard to show up when people search for a bar in the area), prominence is the factor which everyone should work on. Consistency of the online information available for the business is the key here.

If a site is not optimized for Google Places, what traffic volume does it lose?

It depends on the type of business that is represented by the website. Businesses that do not offer in-person contact with the customers are not allowed to use Google Places, for instance. Google Places is also not that important for businesses that do not serve local audience nearby their physical location. However, the traffic volume could be tremendously increased via Google Places for restaurants, bars, hotels, motels, lawyers, doctors, dentists, contractors, and practically every business that services their local area residents.

What are the main drawbacks of modern local search engines? What do they lack?

There are many drawbacks. The main problem comes from the fact that the search engineers are trying to create “machines” that could think like humans based on mathematical equations. This is, of course, impossible and spammers are usually the ones that adapt the fastest to the changes. In terms of local search the main problem is currently related to the fact that for city-level searches Google assigns an artificial “centroid” at the geometrical center of the city of search. This centroid serves as the point from which Google counts the “distance”. This opens up a large loophole for scam. Many service-based businesses rent mail boxes, or virtual offices near this centroid for the sole purpose of taking an edge in the organic rankings.

Other major drawback of both Google and Bing is that they put too much weight on the keywords in domain and business name. The ongoing problem of the high value of keyword-rich backlinks is also a well-known imperfection.

You have a great practical SEO experience. What do you think about the creation of your own local search?

I have ideas on what could potentially be improved, but I have neither the resources, nor the time to work on such a project.

On your site you provide the online consultation about different SEO services. How can a casual visitor get it? How much does it cost?

We offer consultation service to business owners, marketers, web designers, and SEO companies. The consultations are usually hourly phone or Skype talks, but we also provide email consultations, when it is more appropriate for the client. The current rate is US$75 per hour, with discounts for package consultations.

What is your personal secret of success?

Work. And in your spare time – finish the work you couldn’t. I little talent and imagination could just boost the process.

What do you expect from attending SMX West 2012?

I expect to share thoughts, ideas, and experience with other marketers and business owners. I have heard that the networking events on SMX are one of the best in the industry.

Please, try to draw a verbal image of the successful modern digital marketer? How do you imagine him/her?

Passionate, self-driven, always on top of the things, loving what they do.

According to your professional point of view, what changes are waiting for SEO strategies in 2012?

I think the most important thing that we are going to see in 2012 will be the further increase of the value of social factors on Google, especially coming from Google+. Personalization will most probably destroy the SEO as we know it originally. I hope Google and Bing are working on decreasing the importance of anchor text, keywords in URL and business name. These will definitely lead to remodeling of some of the current most widespread SEO strategies, and people would have to look more into the social side of search. The automatization of the optimization will turn to be almost impossible in many cases.

Now we would like to ask several personal questions.

Your desk book? – The Bible
People you hold up as an example? – My mum
Mac or PC? – Mac
iPhone or Android? – iPhone
Favorite brand? - Apple
Wishes for 2012? – Good health and good friends

Thanks a lot for this interview! We wish you to show your best during SMX West 2012 sessions! See you soon!

Bizzteams.com