Get to know Brandon Prettyman, SVP of Digital Marketing, Mack Media Group

My name is Brandon Prettyman. I am the SVP of Digital Marketing at the Mack Media Group, a full-service digital marketing agency in Connecticut. I have worked in agencies, in-house teams, for start-ups and as a freelance SEO professional.

Ten years is a long time in the history of SEO. Probably the largest overall change during the time period has been the gradual transition to more natural search results.

Google no longer relies as heavily on keyword-use within site content. In 2012 Google launched the Knowledge Graph, which helped its algorithm develop a better understanding of semantics and key phrases in context. The following year, the Hummingbird update prioritized more natural language queries. Even more recently, Google’s Rankbrain introduced machine learning to the consumption of site content. Keyword stuffing, keyword density measurement, and similar tactics are now better abandoned.

The transition to more natural content followed the transition to more natural links. Over the years, link building schemes have fallen one after the other, with some schemes meeting a very public demise (think MyBlogGuest in 2014). While link building is still a valuable part of SEO, paid link farms, cheap outsourced SEO, blog networks, and article spinning have been tossed to the scrap heap. Their replacement has been the quality content creation and promotion to encourage natural linking.

Other large changes in the past ten years have included: SEO becoming a local search ranking factor for the Map Pack, the more recent movement to mobile (and voice search), and more frequent, smaller algo updates in contrast to Panda and Penguin in 2011 and 2012. But, the largest overall change in the past 10 years of SEO’s history has been the gradual move to more natural SEO in both content and links.

I studied marketing and graphic design at university. After taking a class on digital marketing I decided it was going to be my career path. I participated in a few different digital marketing internships with different companies. During one of my first internships, I was asked to ‘SEO’ the website I was building for the company. I didn’t know what that meant, so I started doing my own study and got hooked. After graduation, I took a job as an SEO Account Manager in a marketing agency.

The Mack Media Group offers web design, digital marketing, video production and aerial photography services. More specific to SEO, we offer search engine optimization for local, national, eCommerce and lead-based businesses throughout the United States.

As in the past, there is no one prevailing strategy for SEO. There are a bunch of important strategies that need to be considered.
Here are a few strategies for 2018 that you need to be on top of (if you aren’t already).
Structured Data/Schema Markup – I am not sure why, but webmasters are still not taking advantage of structured data like they should. It is far easier to add useful schema markup to your website than to acquire quality links to your site. If it is completely under your control, take advantage. Once Google’s machine learning really takes off, reliance upon webmasters for markup will decrease greatly. So, make use of it while you can.

Mobile Friendliness & Site Speed – The growth of mobile is not slowing down. Your website definitely needs to pass Google’s mobile-friendly test. But, go beyond that. There are always UX issues that can eat away at your site’s conversion rate. Get them fixed. Coupled with site design, your page speed also affects your mobile-friendliness. Review your site for caching problems, image file sizes, the number of file requests, etc. If your hosting allows it, take advantage of HTTP/2. Also, if you haven’t made the jump yet, switch to HTTPS. The Chrome browser will soon be punishing non-secure websites with some unfriendly warnings in the browser bar.

Voice Search – If you are keeping your eye on the horizon, you’ll see voice search is coming up fast. Google Home and Amazon Echo may not be adopted by everyone, but mobile devices already have been. Voice Search volume will continue to grow. Webmasters should be researching the most common questions on voice search and building out answers in their content.

To start, dip your toe in all the different fields of digital marketing so you have a basic understanding of what they entail. Seek out internship opportunities for your resume and then spend your own time learning the different tactics and software you need. Build your own website and then start working on its SEO. Take advantage of free cash promos from Adwords to test out PPC. Spend a little cash testing out the Facebook Business Manager.

After a general overview, dedicate yourself to a specific field and become a specialist. Pick your passion. It can be search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), social media marketing (SMM) or one of the other host of specialities. This specialization will make it easier for you to find an entry-level job in the industry. After you get your first job, make sure to look for opportunities to work in projects in other specialities. Over time you will become a more well-rounded marketer and increase your likelihood of advancement.