Interview with Eric Enge ahead of SMX West 2012 in San Jose

February 20th, 2012 01:07 PM

Interview with Eric Enge ahead of SMX West 2012 in San Jose

Hello, Eric! 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.

Could you tell us something about your life, family? Where were you born?

I was born in Boston, Mass, and have a wife and three teenage children. They keep me busy!

What education did you get? Something connected with marketing or not?

I have a Bachelor in Electrical Engineering and a Master in Computer Engineering. Nothing connected with marketing! That came later.

When and why did you start your Internet marketing business as a SEO specialist?

It happened by accident. I was helping a friend of mine with his company. It was a DVD e-tailer, and after looking at it for a while I realized what he needed was search engine traffic. So I went and figured out how to do it. A year later they were doing $3M in sales from search.

Now you are the CEO of Stone Temple Consulting. Tell us some words about your site and the services you provide.

STC is a full service Internet marketing optimization firm. We help publishers with SEO, link building, social media, pay per click, mobile optimization, and even display advertising.

You conduct two columns in SearchEngineLand and SearchEngineWatch. What is your category? SEO? What is the main in audience of these two blogs?

For Search Engine Watch, I write in the SEO column, so it reaches a wide range of digital marketers. In Search Engine Land it is also an SEO column, but more specifically targeted at large enterprises.

Please, tell us some words about your book “The Art of SEO”.

The Art of SEO is a book originally published by O'Reilly in October of 2009. The book has done extremely well. We have a new edition coming out in March of 2012. This later edition has been updated significantly, including an entirely new chapter on social media and its impact on search.

We found a lot of interviews of leading industry figures on your blog. Could your share you strategies of interview planning, scheduling?

I enjoy doing the interviews as it allows me to ask people the types of questions that I know many other people have. If I can help shed a little bit of light on the way things work, this helps others, and it helps me as well. In terms of planning them out, it pretty much happens organically.

When the opportunity arises I generally jump on it and set something up. Sometimes this means a few weeks go by between interviews, and other times they come in bursts. However, it is the only way I can fit it into my crazy schedule.

According to your opinion, what skills and qualities of character have helped you to reach that you have now?

I am very opportunistic. I have been blessed with a number of opportunities that have come my way, and I have been very aggressive in pursuing them. For example, I agreed to join the team to write The Art of SEO within 60 minutes of being asked to do so.

What difficulties do you face in your work? How do you cope with them?

STC has been going through constant growth. This is a good thing, but each stage of growth creates some new demands. It's a good problem to have, of course, and we deal with it be having a strong company culture where people readily adapt to new challenges.

On the 29th of February, we will be glad to hear your speech. It will be about brand building, social media influence and viral techniques in the scope of SEO strategy. Could you share with us some secrets about your prospective speech?

I will be on the Differentiate or Die panel. The main point I want to make is that Google really only needs a very small number of results. Users don't need hundreds of thousands of results in response to their search queries. They only need a few, maybe 4.

If the user only needs 4, than Google only needs 4. So then the question is, how are you going to be one of the 4 Google needs? Every business has to address this question or their business online is at risk.

What is your attitude towards personalization and socialization influence on search? What is your forecast concerning this phenomenon for future?

Personalization will continue to grow over time. The biggest limitation it has currently is that the ways that social media can effectively impact search results is not yet clear. Only a small percentage of social media users are the very active contributors.

However, social media use will grow over time, and this will result in a growing impact on search.

What do you expect from attending SMX West 2012?

Even if you are an expert in digital marketing, it is always useful to hear what other people have to say about it. They may simply take the same information you already have and organize it differently, and that can provide a lesson all by itself.

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

Agile is the number one attribute. Change is a constant, and adapting quickly is a must.

What is your personal secret of success?

Define your goal and why it matters to you. Once these things are straight in your head, a lot of things start to happen quite easily. And when the going gets tough, determination sets in and you work your way through it.

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

2011 brought us Panda, and 2012 brought us Search, plus Your World. The party is just beginning and there is much more to come. Expect major changes in Search, plus Your World, and a major new mobile index from Google. And, pray that they do something about link spam.

Now we would like to ask several personal questions.

Your desk book? – PHP Programming -- not that I program much these days. But I do still dabble now and then.

People you hold up as an example? – Johannes Kepler - a middle age astronomer who would not renounce his beliefs in what he knew to be true about the universe, even though he was subjected to torture.

Mac or PC? PC

iPhone or Android? Android

Favorite brand? NFL. What a great job they have done. After that Apple, then Google.

Wishes for 2012? - Now that's a broad question! Here's a thought - how about that social media spreads the cause of world peace by creating stronger and stronger connections and communication across the globe. Sounds a bit corny, I know, but it’s a nice thought isn't it?

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