How did you get involved in web marketing?

I have been developing websites for a couple of years now and I saw the need of not just providing quality websites but by ensuring unique targeted users actually visit the website.

You started you own web marketing firm early last year. What has the response been like and how aware are individuals and companies of their need for web marketing solutions?

Most companies in South Africa are waking up to the fact that their businesses can no longer do without a strong web presence.  Web Marketing is no longer just a tool for big businesses with a lot of financial backing. Marketing your businesses website properly on the internet will give your business a definite edge over your competitors.

Most companies we have dealt with have realised that web marketing is an essential business tool as it can provide significant and highly trackable return on investment (ROI).

What exactly is a “Human Web Consultant”?

A web consult advises you on the structure of your website and can provide you with important facts and information regarding the optimization and online marketing strategies for your business.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation is the methods used to optimise your website.  The main focus of SEO is to increase the visitors to your website and to get your site listed on search engines and business directories. 

Tell us a little about page rank?

Page rank (PR) is a voting system that tells Google how important a page is. A link to a page counts as a vote. The page rank of a page is calculated by the number of pages linking to it and the quality of those pages. Google assigns a numeric weighting from 0-10 for each webpage on the internet. Higher page rank means higher rankings for your keywords and your site.

There is currently a big debate whether page rank is still valid. I would say yes but to a much lesser degree than it once was. Currently my advice is not to worry about the page rank of a page but rather pay attention to the contextual relevancy of the sites/pages linking to you. Links must come from websites that are relevant to your own.

What areas do you think are currently the most important in organically ranking a site?

Making sure all the on page SEO elements are in place.  Some of the elements that on page SEO covers are “search engine friendly urls, keywords, meta descriptions, title tags, correct usage of a stylesheet, heading tags, file structure, etc”. Off page SEO techniques also plays a vital role as it covers how targeted users will find your website.  This includes, the submission of your website to category specific business directories as well as building one way back links for your website.

We often hear the term “Black Hat SEO”. Please explain?

It is the unethical, under the table method of search engine marketing.  In simpler terms, it is the wrong way of getting your website ranked higher on the search engine result pages (SERP).  Examples of these methods are hidden text, link farms, keyword stuffing, etc. These methods will ultimately get your website banned from the search engines.

What are your views on the concepts Web 2.0 and semantic search?

Social media marketing is definitely the future as it enables people to index your pages instead of search engines.  This means that industry specific news is syndicated immediately by anyone, anywhere. 

Semantic search can better understand associations and concepts related to what people are searching for. It is therefore important to ensure that your websites topics are all in context with each other.

For example if your search term is rugby it would be considered relevant to blue bulls, jersey, loftus versveld etc...  

You blog about web marketing and SEO on a regular basis. How do you stay motivated?

I have a keen interest in the internet and new technology trends so staying motivated is not a problem at all.

What is your all time favourite website? Most hated website?

I would rate http://www.seomoz.org as my favourite website as it contains a lot of valid SEO resources.  Most hated website would be any website that practices Black Hat SEO methods.

Have you started using Gatorpeeps yet? What do you think of the service?

Yes, I have been using a couple.  Afrigator is most likely my favourite.  It is a great service as it syndicates your content (blog) directly as soon as new content is created.  There’s a couple of other RSS aggregator websites that I regularly use as well.

For more on SEO visit Open Circle Solutions or Anton's blog: www.opencircle.co.za