Rhea Drysdale Interview

Published by Your SEO Mentor under Monday Interviews, SEO, Your SEO Mentor Podcasts

Sep
23
2008

Rhea Drysdale was willing to spend some time with me even during her busy week with her big announcement that you will hear or read about within the interview. Rhea has had a ton of experience in the SEO industry in such a short amount of time and is very willing to share some great tips about how to stay organized and where to go for great information. Thanks for your time Rhea!

Check out the interview by listening above or reading the transcript below.

Garrett: Hello everyone, this is Garrett Pierson here. Today I have the wonderful opportunity of interviewing Rhea Drysdale. How are you, Rhea?

Rhea: I’m very well, thank you. How are you doing?

Garrett: I’m doing great. It’s good to have you here. Today is Monday, September 22, 2008. I’m just going to give a ‘quick Rhea’ in twenty seconds that I found from her blog. I’ll give a little overview of who she is. She says, “I’ve worked with some of the best Ruby on Rails developers in the world, managed internet marketing for a Fortune 1000, and SEO for a top 200 internet retailer. I’ve also chaired a local non-profit, blogged at Search Engine Journal, and I love SEO.” Is that all true, Rhea?

Rhea: That certainly is. I’ve had a lot experiences in a very short period.

Garrett: That’s great. Everybody can check out more about Rhea at RheaDrysdale.com. I’ll have a link to that so you can check her “About Me” page at /blog/about. Rhea, why don’t you just tell us a little bit about yourself, your background? I know you have an announcement that you announced last Friday. Why don’t you tell us about your background in the SEO and online marketing industry, or anything about your family, your hobbies or anything else you want to talk about?

Rhea: Okay, great, I fell into the industry when I was in college. I went to school for advertising. Everyone said, “You’re not going to get a degree in advertising.” I liked Web work, designing, and I’d been playing with PhotoShop my whole life. I went on a job interview while I was still in college and it was for an online-hotel marketing company. I thought it was for a Web designer position. They were really hiring an SEO specialist. At the time, they didn’t know how to advertise that because nobody really knew what it was. That was in 2004. SEO was definitely a huge industry, but not really in Jacksonville, Florida.

I showed up, they trained me on-the-job, and within a couple of months, I was loving it. I had about thirty clients I worked with. From there I grew into account management. I would chalk that job up to a huge learning experience. It was very fast-paced. There was a ton going on. I worked with over one hundred clients. Some of them were large corporate hotel companies. From there I learned so much that my brain almost exploded! I needed to cool down and take a break.

I almost considered getting out of the industry until I landed a job with a top-200 internet retailer, which was Venus.com. They sold swimwear and that was a huge learning experience as well. I loved the group of people. There is a whole different set of problems with SEO when it comes to eCommerce. That was a huge learning curve, but I’m the type of person who really wants to have a lot of properties that I’m working on at one time.

When MPS Group called, and they’re a Fortune 1000 staffing company, I really wanted to go there and work with tons of websites. I quickly found it was like triage. They have so many websites that it gets overwhelming if you’re one of a few on that team. Again, it was a huge learning experience. I’ve always wanted to know every single role so I can figure out what I really want to do.

From there I worked with Less Everything. They’re a Ruby on Rails development company, a startup. They build some of the most incredible applications I’ve ever seen. Both guys, Alan Branch and Steven Bristol, are amazingly talented. Everything they did was brilliant and overwhelming. I’ve been looking for a move. My husband wants to do documentary production work.

When Jim and Pat called, it was kind of the perfect timing. Jim is Jim Boykin of We Build Pages. He recently hired Patrick Sexton. I can’t get too detailed, but they’re developing something exciting. I’m the first hire after Pat. I know they’re going to be expanding to include several more really big personalities in the SEO industry. I can’t wait to get up there and start working with them. They’re the best and it doesn’t get better than that.

Garrett: That’s wonderful. You’re down in Florida now, right?

Rhea: I am in Jacksonville, Florida. I have a beautiful beachfront home. I’m sitting here in my bedroom just looking at the waves crashing. Moving to Troy, New York is going to be a bit of a shock.

Garrett: Congratulations on your new position with We Build Pages. That’s awesome. Do you have kids or family? You mentioned your husband.

Rhea: We got married in November, so I don’t have the kid thing yet. We’re thinking in the next couple of years, potentially, but it’s not happening too soon. This subject always makes me a little nervous.

Garrett: I totally understand. My wife and I just had our first little girl. She turned four-months old yesterday. It was nerve racking at first, but it’s been really fun. You’ll do great.

Rhea: I’m the type of person that that’s a project for me. If I started having kids, being a little project-oriented, it might be a little scary if I have one. From the time they’re born, I’d be playing Mozart and doing everything I can, to warp their brain.

Garrett: Thank you for that overview. It sounds like you’ve had a wonderful experience with all the jobs you’ve had. It sounds like you got thrown into it – baptism by fire. Is that right?

Rhea: It was. My family is so funny. My step-mom hates every time I call saying I’ve got another job. She says I’m the luckiest person on the planet. I really manage to fall on my feet. I haven’t had to look hard for a job; it’s always been a phone call or something that fell into my lap. I think We Build Pages is the first time I’ve really said, “Okay, I’m going to sit down and think about this. This is exactly what I want. It’s good for my future.” I’m looking for a long-term commitment from them to really knock it out and see what we can do, to build something amazing and hopefully build a better reputation for the SEO industry as a whole, as well.

Garrett: Since you’ve been in the online-marketing industry, what do you really enjoy about it?

Rhea: I would say that’s constantly changing. I’ve got a bit of an attention-span problem. It’s hard to keep my attention for very long. I am one of those people where as soon as I learn something or figure it out, I’m ready to go to the next thing. I get bored very quickly. In SEO, it’s constantly changing, whether it’s updates with video or new browsers like Flock or Chrome Universal Search Mode, social media; there’s always something popping up that we have to give attention to and try to figure out. In that sense, I keep using the word ‘overwhelming’ but I think this industry overwhelms me emotionally, mentally, and everything else. It’s just so much fun. I love everything about it. I love the fact that it’s unpredictable.

I was talking to Todd Friesen at SMX Advanced this year. I was interviewing him for Search Engine Journal. That interview still needs to go out on the SEJ, but I remember talking to him. I asked him, “What’s the future of search look like?” He basically said that there haven’t been too many big waves lately. We’re all kind of waiting around for something to happen. I think social media was the last big one. For now, we’re all just sitting and twiddling our thumbs waiting for the next foot to fall. We’ll see what happens. I think that makes it exciting and fun.

I think also being able to balance the creative with the scientific. I love science, understanding the way people think. My background is actually in Primatology. I started doing a lot of studies when I was in high school. I was set to be the next Jane Goodall. That’s why everyone calls me ‘monkey girl’. That’s very flattering when you’re in high school and trying to get a date. I love that you can balance people and bots. You should always be thinking about the people, but you have to consider the bots and vice versa. In that sense it’s very fun and challenging. I love it.

Garrett: That’s wonderful. It’s great that you love it. When you do something you love, you do a good job at it. It sounds like you have been. That’s great. If you could give someone coming into the industry, or somebody that’s new, and you give them one or more gold nuggets of advice, what would that be?

Rhea: I would definitely say to take the time to balance your time. Going into it from the beginning, it’s a lot. Once you start getting successful, you’ll start receiving so many emails and calls. You can always blog more if you have something to say, but Twitter is such a huge distraction. If you’re in the social media space you’re probably getting IM’d daily, hourly, or by the minute. If you start to give so much of yourself, you’re going to see a loss in productivity with your work. It’s very important to say, “I’m shutting everything off right now, and do nothing but work for the next couple of hours.” I have to do that. I compromise my understanding of the industry sometimes because I wasn’t on Twitter right when someone was talking about a blog post on the latest drama on Sphinn, but it has to happen in order to be successful. I can’t imagine someone at a bigger level than myself, like Michael Gray, how does he even possibly balance everything from there. He’s huge about getting things done. In that sense, I think you need to really take the time to figure out how you’re going to put everything into little compartments, and give the proper time, attention, and detail to that.

From there, make sure you’re balancing work and family. What’s the purpose of working so hard if you’re not giving attention to your family and friends? You need to definitely take that time.
Also, from there I would say to have a list of trusted resources. You don’t have to be an expert at knowing where to find everything. There are certain people out there like Lisa Barone at Bruce Clay who do an amazing job of consuming every single blog post, every day. Why do I need to do that job as well? I trust Lisa, I know her. I know that she’s going to be writing about the biggest things in our industry. If I look at her posts I can be fairly up-to-date. Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, they do a great job as well. From there, my RSS feed just includes sites like Google and Yahoo. I go straight to the source. Then, I have major gurus that I trust, like Jane and Robot – they don’t post often but when Vanessa puts out a post, it’s the most meaty, beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. It’s the same thing with Rae Hoffman, Michael Gray, Stephen Spencer, Jim (Boykin)– when he does post he’s amazing. You should just have those trusted names you can go to for the information you need to be successful. They’re not always going to be giving away the secrets; that’s something you should be learning on your own. You have to stay informed about the industry, but you don’t have to be overwhelmed by it.

Garrett: That’s great. Those are some great tips. I love your tip about taking time out of your day to get things done. As you said, it’s so easy to get distracted, especially with the new social media trend.
You were speaking earlier about how the industry is kind of at a standstill. What do you see coming as a new trend in SEO and search-engine marketing, and social media?

Rhea: I would say there’s not a huge change in SEO itself right now, it’s more about how we’re able to access and interact with search results that are impressing me right now. I love seeing the new browsers coming out, like Chrome and Flock. Everyone makes so much fun of me for using the Flock browser, but I love it. I love that I can open it up and see all my tweets. I see people posting new pictures. It’s like FriendFeed, but built into the browser.

I haven’t experimented a lot with Chrome. I’m kind of boycotting it until they come up with a Mac version. I don’t know how they could release that without having a version for Mac. Hopefully that will happen soon. I did put it on my PC. It’s my job to be aware of it, but it frustrates me.

I also love Google Gadgets. Now that I’m about to work with Patrick Sexton, who is a wiz at that, I can’t wait to see what he’s able to do. I love seeing everything get pulled together, from one area to the next, just making it that much easier to be in touch with everybody.

I would say Twitter and sites like that, where I can post a question instantly and get feedback. I would also say, in terms of trends, it’s better languages. I just worked with amazing Ruby on Rails developers. It was incredible to see what they could do. In one weekend we built an amazing application. I say we; it was definitely a lot of builders behind it. I just added some fluff here and there.

Having languages that are out there, that make it so much faster to build an app, you can build it in hours or even days, where before it would take months. It’s great to see that development. I can’t wait to see what that community builds in the future. It’s also product management and productivity tools that make it so much better and quicker to get the job done. With things like Basecamp, my company built something called Less Projects, Remember the Milk, Twitter, and video chat; all of those things let you stay in touch and make it easier to get through your day.

Garrett: Those are some definite things coming, some are already here, but that’s a great trend coming into the industry – to make life easier.

What is your favorite social-media site online, and tell us why?

Rhea: I would definitely say Twitter or Facebook. I love Twitter. It’s instant. You can get feedback in seconds. It’s easy to access. If I’m on the road and I have my mobile telephone; my husband won’t let me get a smart phone like an iPhone or Blackberry because he knows he’ll lose me. I’ve still got my Razr. The mobile version of Twitter is great. There are tons of applications that work with it and it’s super easy to track with sites like Summize, which Twitter purchased. In that sense, I love that I’ve had some products from our company go out on it, and they’re hugely successful. It’s great for customer service. It’s great for me, in terms of staying in contact with people in the industry and getting information and knowledge from them when I need it. I could make love to Twitter if I could. [laughter] Yeah, I’m a little personal. I’m like that. If you follow me on Twitter I apologize. I’m not nearly as bad as Ray, but I definitely get close to that.

I would also say Facebook just because the adoption rate on that is insane. I don’t think my mom is ever going to be on Twitter, but as of two days ago, she’s on Facebook. Heaven help me.

Garrett: That’s great. I think a lot of people would agree. You already mentioned some people that you follow online. But, if you could give us five to ten people that you would suggest other people following, and people that you follow, who would they be?

Rhea: I would say there are definitely established gurus. I love Michael Gray just because he stirs the pot and makes everyone all flustered. Sometimes I have to question his motives for doing it. If I don’t have a lot of time in my day, I’ll see a Michael post and go, “Eh…” I know he’s making a point. Every once in a while he has a gem. I know he blogged a while ago about plug-in for WordPress. I continually go back to that just to see what he’s using. He spoke about the latest upcoming one, which is for putting your upcoming speaking engagements on your blog. So, in that sense, he’s someone I really trust, Rae Hoffman as well. They’re like husband and wife in the SEO industry, practically. She upsets people. She gets very abrasive, but there’s nobody who gives more than she does when she puts a quality post out there. It’s amazing to see her put everything together in a concise little blog post. There’s so much meat to it.

I would also say Jim Boykin. He hasn’t blogged too much. I think that’s part of bringing Pat and myself and others in. Quality Gal is now blogging on his blog as well. For a while he kind of stepped back and now it’s going to be picking up.

I’d also say Stephan Spencer. Every once in a while you just get a gem of knowledge. He’s a mad scientist in the SEO world. With every post he puts out, I sit there waiting to get a tidbit out of it.

Everyone from Keyrelevance, Christine, Lee Evans, Bill Slawski, and Matt McGee – that whole team is brilliant.
There are also the new gurus. I’d say Chris Winfield, Tony Adams, who just got a job at Yahoo so congratulations to him. There are some new guys like Bryan Chappell, the whole Search and Social team. They’re the type of guys who are still putting out meaty posts with a lot of examples, “This is exactly what we did. This is how it worked.” It’s great to see they haven’t gotten jaded by the industry yet. You can get a lot out of them. It’s always great when people are willing to share.

Garrett: That’s a great list of people you just spoke about. Speaking about the guys at Search and Social, they’re putting on the Scary SEO conference next month. I heard you’re speaking there, right?

Rhea: I am.

Garrett: That’s great! I just booked my tickets to go there. I’m excited to meet you. So, tell us a little bit about what you’re going to be speaking on.

Rhea: I need to take a closer look at that. I got the email a while ago. I think it started out as a small conference, and I’m amazed it’s grown into this groundbreaking industry conference. It was a small little thing that’s exploded with some amazing speakers. I just floored that I’m on all the panels. SMX is great, SES is great, but there’s nothing more affordable than Scary SEO. I think it’s two-hundred dollars to go. I think it’s going to be fun because it’s smaller. It seems like most of the people there have a very strong grasp of SEO. We’re all kind of mid-range SEO’s except for maybe Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal. He’s a genius. I think it will be less of a ‘how-to’ SEO and more of an informed, educated discussion among current SEO’s.

I’m speaking on link building, online reputation management, and analytics beyond click-stream data. I don’t quite don’t know what my presentations are going to be yet, between now and then I’ll also be at ThinkTank in San Diego, California. I’m not speaking there, but there’s a top-secret event that I’m running, that I can’t give details on, but it’s going to be amazing, fun, and I’m very exciting to be a part of both of those. Hopefully it will be informative and entertaining, to say the least.

Garrett: That’s great. Again, I’m exciting to watch your presentations, as well as everyone else who is going to be speaking there. Everyone who wants to go and watch Rhea speak, and a lot of other great minds in the industry, Scary SEO is next month. I believe it’s October 24th-25th. Everybody should head over there and check that out.

You’re also a contributor at Search Engine Journal. What’s been your favorite subject or blog post that you’ve written on so far?

Rhea: To be fair, I haven’t blogged very much there. I know Ann Smarty is knocking them out of the park, as well as Eric Lander. Lauren has an amazing team of writers there. I kind of come in every once in a while and add my two cents. Because I’ve been so busy I’ve had to tell him that I’ll do the conferences, but I have a hard time going beyond that. Every once in a while I’ll pull a post out, but I really have to cut back on my time consumers.

I’d say my favorite topic, by far, was at the first SMX Advanced conference in 2007. I got to sit down with Matt Cutts in the pressroom. It was so funny; I just started talking about Page Rank. From there, the post Page Rank and Play-doh evolved. It’s something that when I meet people they go, “Oh, yeah, you’re the one who wrote that post.” I’m a very visual person, so every post I put out usually has images.
When Matt sat down with me, he talked about what Page Rank is, and the concept of canonicalization. If you visualize it as a big lump of Play-do, it’s easy to split that apart and show people, even big directors of a company or VPs and presidents. Just say, “Here’s your lump of Play-do. This is your website. If we’re not redirecting this or that, and www versus non-w, then take your Play-doh and split it in half.” In that sense it was a fun post. It explains a complicated situation for anyone who is not in SEO. I just got a lot of attention. I wasn’t looking to be super advanced with it, but to just make it easy and fun. I think that’s what it accomplished.

Thanks to Matt for sitting down and talking to me about it. We got pretty technical later on in that conversation, speaking about major C’s and all kinds of things about the algorithm. As I mentioned before, I love the science behind it. I love understanding that stuff. I think that was loads of fun.

Garrett: I’ll make sure I put a link to that blog post as well as to your main website. If my listeners or anybody who runs across this blog post at YourSEOMentor.com wants to find out more about you, Rhea, where would they go?

Rhea: I would say my blog, but I try not to blog very much. I’m pretty tight lipped when it comes to anything I am actually doing. But, you can go to RheaDrysdale.com for my blog. The best way to find me is on Twitter, at twitter.com/rhea, or go check out WeBuildPages.com. I should be putting a couple of blog posts out, but I will not be a full time blogger. That’s just going to be my home and work and everything combined. I have a feeling Troy is going to get pretty cold. Todd Malicoat warned me “You’re going to do nothing but work.” So, if anyone wants to find me, check out webuildpages.com. We’d love to have them as a client.

Garrett: Thank you for your time. I know you’re really busy getting ready to move, and everything that’s going on, but congratulations again. Everybody, go check out Rhea on Twitter and see what she’s talking about. Thank you for your time, Rhea.

Rhea: Thank you. I appreciate it.

To find out more about who transcribed this interview check out Tamara Bentzur!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 at 8:12 am and is filed under Monday Interviews, SEO, Your SEO Mentor Podcasts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.