Scott Cowley is ZAGG’s in-house SEO Ninja. He’s very smart, very funny, and a really sincere person. When people asked him on Twitter in 2012 what he wanted from internet marketing, his response was:
“My wish for 2012 is SEO World Peace. Stop openly bashing other SEOs. Stop optimizing your site just to slander people and companies. , begin to treat conflicts like targets for compromise and resolution.”
As you can see, funny people also have great souls. I highly recommend getting to know him. you can find him on twitter @Scott Cowley, you can read his post on SEJ on his website Scottergories.com. Scott, thank you for your time, humor and great personality.
Could you briefly tell us about your work at ZAGG?
I am in charge of ZAGG’s organic search program. That means building and training an in-house SEO team to rival the best e-commerce sites. We also work closely with our PPC, social and conversion team leaders.
Do you get a lot of support from ZAGG? and/or how important is it for a company to support his SEO in their company?
The best environment for in-house SEO is one with available developers, content creators, a great boss who believes in SEO, a budget for education and SEO tools, and a well-known company with a great product. think. I have them all at ZAGG. Without them, I wouldn’t be so successful (and have less fun).
Tell us about some SEO tools you use or can’t live without.
The best SEO tool is always your brain. Google itself comes second, followed by the tools they provide. All the best link building comes as a product of relationships, timing, and creativity, so I have to say that Tweetdeck and Google Alerts are essential tools for me.
Being an SEO means you need to continually educate yourself. What are you doing to keep up with constant change?
When I was at SEO.com, it was easy to keep up with the changes. Among so many clients that work with so many SEOs, there has always been a “canary in the mineshaft” case that can be tested and verified. Now that we only have one site to worry about, we have to be more careful about what and how we test. If I hear something new, I often ask my team to spend a few hours to see what kind of traction it gets. I’m always trying to build a relationship with an SEO who’s working on my site.
To what extent is social media involved in ZAGG’s marketing? Impact?
Social Media Lead Drew Conrad gave a presentation on ZAGG’s social strategy and influence at SMX Social. The truth is that to differentiate ourselves in an industry that is perceived as “commoditized,” we have to do tough marketing. We do it through promotions, but these rely heavily on social sharing for distribution.
In a business of our size, SEO and social media integration compete with the best. We leverage social to pry open the heavy link building doors that remain closed to our competitors.
Do you have any other content strategy recommendations for SEO?
Trust your instincts. I would say our content marketing is 5x to 10x more successful using forward-looking, predictive keyword research than optimizing using the tool’s historical search volume numbers. “Skate where the puck goes, not where it was.”
ZAGG runs “Win an iPad” contests frequently, so it’s clearly working. Do you have any data you can share?
At first, giving away an iPad every week seemed ambitious, but we calculated the financial impact of increasing Facebook fans, Twitter followers, email addresses, and visitors to our contest landing page. You have identified the break-even point. point. In the end, it was so easy to justify iPad-a-Week that I pushed it to iPad-a-Day, and even Black’s iPad-an-Hour on his Friday. Thousands of dollars can be invested in campaigns as long as the numbers add up. Even marketers are psychologically intimidated by dealing with large campaign budgets. This is a fear instinct worth fighting for.
Any tips for selling niche products online?
Create content with a broader focus. We have started selling screen protectors. Imagine trying to write 50 blog posts about screen protectors. Created several levels of content. Gadget news was a natural progression, followed by general tech news. This has allowed us to drive more traffic to our site while maintaining our branding. We strongly believe that smart employees can increase the visibility of your business, brand and products. Start by making sure you or your marketer are representing the company at local events.
personal question
- Mac or PC? I love Apple, but PC suits me better.
- iPhone or droid? When I entered ZAGG, it was a garage phone. They said I would get his iPhone in 6 months because of the cultural pressures of ZAGG. The fact that I got any smartphone in half a year is actually quite impressive, but I bought a droid.
- Tweetdeck or HootSuite? tweet deck.
- what’s your favorite beer? root.
- Star Wars or Star Trek? Did Greedo shoot first? Star Wars. put your hands down
