According to tradition, we continue to receive valuable experience and information from Digital Marketing and TOP SEO experts. This time we interviewed Shane Barker!
Shane is a Digital Strategist, Brand & Influencer Consultant with 20+ years of experience. Also, he is a UCLA Instructor, Intl Speaker, Author: Forbes and RE Investor.
Shane shared his digital experience and practise cases that helped him provide and create new developing strategies. He also talked about how he helps companies to grow their revenue with Digital Marketing Strategies.
To know more about Shane Barker projects, follow his Twitter page.
So let’s start! Enjoy and get new insights with Sitechecker and Shane Barker:
1. How many years of experience in digital marketing do you have?
I have over 20 years of experience in digital marketing. I specialize in helping businesses drive more targeted traffic and boost conversions with proven content marketing, influencer marketing, and SEO tactics.
2. In which branch of digital marketing do you have the strongest skills?
Umm… I would say content marketing. Authentic and engaging content is the pillar of all of my marketing campaigns whether I leverage email, social media, SEO, or influencers.
3. What projects are you proud of?
I’m proud of my influencer marketing campaign for Zoe Rodriguez, a fitness influencer. My team and I helped them grow their sales from $400K to somewhere around $1.6 million in less than one year all through influencer marketing.
I believe in implementation and real-time analysis. That’s the best way to learn which tactics work well for your brand and which don’t.
Shane Barker, Digital Strategist, Brand & Influencer Consultant
We relied solely on effective influencer collaborations to drive sales. Zoe had great products and an amazing collection of before-and-after pictures that helped us attract people to try out her fitness guides.
It was a wonderful experience working on that campaign!
4. What do you do to further your own SEO knowledge and skills?
I believe in implementation and real-time analysis. That’s the best way to learn which tactics work well for your brand and which don’t.
The same applies to SEO. I always track, monitor, and analyze the effects of every SEO strategy I implement to improve my search rankings. This helps ensure that my search marketing efforts are on the right track.
Another practice that helps me enhance my SEO knowledge is reading about the latest trends and Google algorithms and networking with experts in the field.
5. Is there any marketing or SEO blog you like most of all and why?
I really love the content they publish on Search Engine Journal. In fact, I think it is one of my favorite go-to blogs when it comes to discovering the latest search news and the best SEO practices.
First things first, I would credit the popularity of my blog to the quality of content. As they say, there’s no substitute for great content.
Shane Barker, Digital Strategist, Brand & Influencer Consultant
6. What are the TOP-3 errors you made at the beginning of your digital marketing career?
When I started with digital marketing, I learned a lot of things the hard way. That’s because I started my career without a mentor.
Another big mistake I made during my initial years is to overlook the significance of a good work-life balance. I used to work too much. I still do sometimes, but thankfully, my team has my back now, which helps me enjoy a much healthier work-life balance.
For the third mistake, I would say that I sometimes partnered with the wrong people at the beginning of my career. But now that I look back, I consider them as lessons and stepping stones that eventually helped me reach this far.
7. Your blog on Digital Marketing is among the most popular ones. What is the most powerful thing about your blog’s popularity?
First things first, I would credit the popularity of my blog to the quality of content. As they say, there’s no substitute for great content.
Not many SEO professionals focus on leveraging social media or content syndication to promote the content they create. But, you should.
Shane Barker, Digital Strategist, Brand & Influencer Consultant
However, it’s important to note that consistency, frequency, and volume have also played crucial roles in making my digital marketing blog this successful.
8. What SEO tactics do you think are underrated?
Along with publishing great content, you also need to spread the word about it.
Not many SEO professionals focus on leveraging social media or content syndication to promote the content they create. But, you should.
When we talk about search rankings, social signals such as likes, shares, and engagement also help you improve your rankings in the SERPs. However, effective social media content promotions are one of the most underrated SEO tactics.
9. Do you believe that back-links are Google’s past? Is link building important for increasing the website’s positions nowadays?
Building high-quality backlinks can definitely help you improve your website’s position in the SERPs.
I frequently contribute to top publishers such as Inc.com, HuffPost, Forbes, CoSchedule, and over 100+ more websites. This has helped me build trust and credibility, improve my link profile, and rank higher in search results.
If you want to improve your search rankings, you should create insightful content that people will love to link to.
10. In your opinion, does the technical health of the website affect the ranking positions in search engines?
Yes, it is important to ensure that your website meets all technical SEO parameters if you want to achieve higher search rankings.
Building high-quality backlinks can definitely help you improve your website’s position in the SERPs.
Shane Barker, Digital Strategist, Brand & Influencer Consultant
Google really values websites that deliver a good user experience. That’s why you need to optimize your website for factors such as page speed, easy navigation, and mobile responsiveness.
11. We all know about the June update from Google. Some websites rose, some of them fell. What do you think about the new algorithm? What are the main new rankings factors SEO and Marketing specialists should pay attention to?
Based on my analysis, I can say that sites with poor link profiles suffered from Google’s June update. Also, I noticed a fall in search rankings of sites that used less branded anchor text in backlinks.
As a search marketer, you should use branded anchor texts in place of exact keyword matches. You should also focus on building high-quality backlinks from relevant and authoritative publishers.
For link building, you should consider the following parameters:
- Ahrefs Domain Rating (DR) should be greater than 40.
- Majestic CF/TF ratio should be less than 2.0
- You should leverage branded anchor text.
- You should ensure that the link is a part of the body of the content.
Another important tip that can help marketers improve their search rankings is to publish more content on their own blogs. You should create content that people will love to link to. This will help you gain natural backlinks and, thereby, help your website rank higher in the SERPs.
12. How do you see the future of SEO (in 5 years)?
The future of SEO lies in AI and machine learning. I think that search engines will use machine learning to remember patterns and understand the content so that they can display more accurate results.
However, great content and user satisfaction will continue to be the top-ranking factors. So, you should focus on creating content that is informative, engaging, and capable of addressing users’ questions/problems.
13. What services/companies/apps have inspired you the most this year?
I’m a big fan of Fareness.com, one of the best websites for airfare. I use this website a lot as I travel a lot for my speaking engagements and workshops.
Fareness.com makes it easy to find and book flights on the lowest-priced travel dates and destinations. You can quickly find airfare deals for different travel dates and similar places (such as Paris vs. Barcelona).
Booking with them can help you travel for much cheaper prices. Also, they ensure that you have a simple and hassle-free booking experience.
14. From your posts, it is clear that you are a big fan of SEO Tools and you review them on your blog. Which ones do you recommend as a must-have for every SEO specialist?
When we talk about SEO tools, SEMrush and Moz Pro are a couple of prominent ones.
Other than these popular ones, I really like to use SpyFu for competitor research and analysis. It helps you identify keywords for which your competitors are ranking and how many clicks they’re getting for those keywords.
You can even identify which websites are linking to them, and use that information to improve your backlink strategy.
15. What advice can you give for those who are just starting their career in digital marketing?
If you’re starting your career in digital marketing, you should find the best digital marketing blogs and subscribe to them. I would also like to advise that you take some classes in Udemy to educate yourself about digital marketing before you get started.
