I had the pleasure of meeting John at the SEER Interactive Moz Event. He is passionate about photography, hacking excel, and of course SEO as a consultant in NYC for Distilled. He is a great SEO with some great advice so without further adieu I give you John Doherty.
So how did John Doherty get into online marketing?
I was helping run a book publishing company in Switzerland in 2009. I had a lot of books, but no idea how to get them found on the Internet. They were English books which I had to market from French-speaking Switzerland.
So I started digging around on the Internet and I happened upon SEOmoz, SEObook, and Distilled. I started reading everything I could, and I realized I had a knack for it from my web development, software consulting, and blog writing backgrounds. I got my first full-time SEO job in October 2010 for a small marketing firm in Philadelphia, and I haven’t looked back!
What do you love most about your job?
I love seeing companies turn around and start doing good work that builds their businesses, and then seeing them get excited about it.
Success is contagious!
On an SEO level, I love fighting hard for a keyword that matters and finally overtaking large competitors. I like to root for the little guy, and working hard to outwork a big strong site gets me amped.
What advice would you tell someone who is starting out in SEO?
Read everything you can, then go do it on your own. Don’t just take the advice of experts – go test stuff for yourself. Question everything, as that’s how you learn the most.
Since Distilled is hiring how does someone stand out in an interview?
Show that you’re creative and curious. We’ve had people bring infographics of their work to interviews before. We have a high bar set for people, but what we’re looking for is creativity, curiousity, and a good culture fit.
You can teach people SEO – you can’t teach them to be cool.
I personally put people through a mental Sunday afternoon test. Would I want to hang out with them on a Sunday afternoon? If not, no go.
Being the excel whiz what do you use it for the most?
I mostly use Excel for spotting new opportunities for clients, and using the data to put together strategies for what content to create first. I’m a very visual person, so I use a lot of trendlines and graphs to visualize data so that I can see what is really going on.
Hows the book coming? Can you tell us more about it?
I’ll be honest – I’ve been slacking on it. I’ve had a lot more going on recently at work than in the past few months, so keeping my head above water has been a challenge. But it’s coming slowly but surely.
I want to take people through a “Start here, then do this, then think about this, don’t do this stupid thing” sort of story through marketing. You can’t do everything at once, but say you have a good solid SEO foundation and you’re doing real person stuff and getting links. Then what? Emails? Products? This is what the book is going to cover.
If you’re interested you can sign up for John’s ebook here
Seems like you are constantly reading! What books are influenced you the most?
I’ve recently been reading How To Win Friends and Influence People, which is amazing. It was written a long time ago, but it’s such a great read for anyone wanting to learn how to get along well with others better.
I’ve also been reading Brand Against The Machine, which is basically talking about a new way to think about company branding. It’s basically Branding 2.0.
The Nitty Gritty
Mac or PC?
PC for work. I used to be a Mac guy in college, but started doing SEO on a PC and so I’ve stuck with it. I do have an iPhone and an iPad though.
Droid or iPhone?
iPhone for now, but I’m considering getting a Galaxy S3.
Tweetdeck or HootSuite?
Tweetdeck HTML5 web version. Twitter App on my phone.
Drink someone can buy you at conference?
I’m a microbrews guy. So usually a beer is best (Guiness in winter, something lighter in summer). I’m a wine guy too, but I don’t drink wine at conferences.
About Benjamin Beck
I work as a SEO Associate for SEER Interactive where I tackle getting my clients better rankings on search engines. I like finding creative new ways of marketing online through SEO and social media. When I am not working I enjoy micro-lending and checking tasks off of my bucket list.
