In The Butter Room / Jane Copland, Search Marketing Consultant Ah, so this is The Butter Room … it’s everything I imagined and more! Seriously, though, I am excited to be a part of such a talented group of professionals and I’m even more excited about my first contribution to this unique site. First, allow myself to introduce … myself … I’m Gary Cope, the In-house Search Engine Optimization and Marketing Professional for a company in Roanoke, Va. I also founded and run CWI Media & Marketing. If you want more detail, check out my bio. The bottom line is, I spend about 10-14 hours a day working on search engine optimization. SEO is a never-ending learning process, mostly in part because the search engines (Google, Yahoo!, Ask, MSN) are constantly modifying their algorithms to adjust for changes in the SEO landscape and to combat Black Hat SEO practices. The biggest part of my job is keeping up with those changes and that means reading a lot (and I mean A LOT) of SEO-related blogs. And that brings us to our interviewee Jane Copland, a Search Marketing Consultant for SEOMoz.org. Jane has established herself as one of the most respected search marketing professionals in the business. SEOMoz is a Seattle-based SEO company that serves as a hub for search marketers worldwide, providing education, tools, resources and paid services. Photo of Jane is Property of SEOMoz.org. The Butter Room thanks Jane for her time and response.

For those who may not be familiar with your background, can you give us a quick overview and a little bit of info about SEOMoz?

Jane Copland: SEOmoz is a search marketing company based in Seattle, Washington. We specialise in creating both SEO tools and in creating educational content for the search marketing community, as well as maintaining a popular Q&A service and a daily SEO blog. I started working here in September 2006. Looking back, I was incredibly lucky to get this job: there were over 100 applicants, many (most?) of whom were way more qualified to work here than I was. However, I made it through the rather grueling interview process SEOmoz had set up and have been working here for almost a year and a half. Before that, I attended Washington State University and competed on the school’s swim team for four years. I’m originally from New Zealand, but I’ve been living in the U.S. for six years now.

You’ve been in the SEO business for about 18 months, yet you have established yourself as one of the industry’s most respected SEO professionals in such a relatively short period of time. With apologies to Michael J. Fox, what is the secret of your success?

Jane: I’m very lucky to be working at SEOmoz, really. The blog was very visible and respected long before I walked through the front door, so I had a good place from which to start! Along with that, I’ve fallen in love with my work, which makes it easy to learn fast.

What is your favorite part of SEO and why? Your least favorite and why?

Jane: My favourite part is probably figuring out the reason why something isn’t working and fixing it. I love material results like that. My least-liked thing in SEO is when the “pieces don’t fit together” and I can’t work out why something is happening. Sometimes, you’ve done everything right, you’ve been smart and clever and you’re sure something will go right and it doesn’t. I don’t like it when there is no explanation or foreseeable way to fix a problem.

SEO, relative to other industries, is in its infancy and as such, there do not appear to be any universally recognized code of ethics or standards. With respect to SEMPO (of which I am a member), there doesn’t seem to be a professional organization that has taken a commanding lead to create such standards and ethics for our profession. Do you think there should be a set of standards and ethics to govern the rapidly growing SEO industry?

Jane: That’s a tough question in regards to the Internet as a whole and not just SEO. How much should the Internet be regulated? I believe we’ll see some codes of ethics popping up over the next year or two: it will be interesting to see whose standards are adopted as authoritative.

Following up on the previous question … more and more colleges and universities are beginning to offer courses focusing on search engine marketing and optimization, but without a set of standards and ethics, are there concerns or even discussions amongst the current SEO professionals about what is being taught in these courses?

Jane: It’s scary to think what people might teach college kids about SEO. I was in college two years ago (so, two minutes ago!) and there was enough disagreement amongst my professors about older industries and practices. I’d hate to think about the conflicting messages students could get when they’re being taught about an industry that is so young. The sad thing is, I have friends who graduated with marketing and advertising degrees and they were never taught anything about SEO or SEM. So people with degrees from 2006 know next to nothing about online marketing.

Web 2.0 is everywhere, but what the heck is it. Was there even a Web 1.0? Kidding : ) What is Web 2.0 and how will it affect SEO going forward?

Jane: Web 2.0 is too big of a phenomenon to sum up quickly. Basically, I don’t think there is a “Web 2.0”; rather, there’s just the progression of the Internet. Unfortunately, we’ve already named our Web 2.0 Awards and branded them accordingly! In terms of how this affects SEO, it highlights how important it is to keep learning and not to become too attached to any particular way of doing things. The industry has changed remarkably since I joined and if I did the same things I did in my first month or two here, I’d be failing.

Social Networking is another popular buzz word with regards to the Web … what does it mean and what is its role in SEO?

Jane: Honeslty, social networking means far less to SEO than it does to SMM, or social media marketing. You can promote a brand very effectively with social network marketing, but we’ve found that search engines aren’t keen on using social networks’ data. Of course, they can’t even use Facebook data, and Facebook is by far the best social networking service. In terms of establishing oneself within any industry, social networking can be very useful, however.

What is the biggest myth about SEO?

Jane: That playing around on Digg all day is a legitimate SEO practice ; )

Free style time! This is your open forum to tell our readers about - well, about anything that’s near and dear to your heart. SEO, swimming, being a Kiwi, whatever - have at it.

Jane: Well! This sounds like a good place for a “things you don’t know about me” list, since I’m finding it tough to come up with a good paragraph!

1. I nearly didn’t open SEOmoz’s job post and apply for the job because it was 1am and I thought it might be time to go to bed.
2. I held the New Zealand record for the 200m breaststroke for four years. My mother ran for Great Britain in the 1970s and yet neither of us particularly like sport.
3. For two years, I lived in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
4. I have a degree in English, not marketing, computer science or anything related to SEO. I couldn’t even write basic HTML until two weeks after I began working here.
5. I haven’t been back to New Zealand in five years (my parents live in Florida), but I’ll get a few days in Auckland on the way back from SMX Sydney in April. It will be really strange to be surrounded by New Zealanders again.

Last question: What is your favorite Kiwi word/saying that most Americans may not have heard.

Jane: Ooh, gosh… I have to share more than one! Some of them are British as well.

1. Bob’s your uncle - translates as, “and there you go” or “everything will be okay.” Used in a sentence. “You stick the keyword in your meta keywords tag 42 times and Bob’s your uncle.”
2. Trolleyed: drunk.
3. Whinging Pom: Englishman who complains a lot.
4. Yank tank: Large American car.
5. Prang: small car accident, usually involving another car. Consider it a translation for “fender bender.”
6. Piss-up: party where everyone gets trolleyed!