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1,548 viewsCameron is an entrepreneur who has been involved in a number of successful startups. Most recently, Cameron is the founder of Vovia, a search marketing agency which has grown into a full-blown integrated media agency. Vovia is based next to the Rocky Mountains in Calgary, Canada, but services clients nationwide. At the core of what they do is search marketing and Cameron has taken a keen interest in both SEO and SEM, over the past fifteen years, and is currently managing the digital marketing team at Vovia.
Please introduce yourself and where you work.
Hi, I’m Cameron Prockiw, Founder and CEO of Vovia. I also run our digital team.
How do you think SEO has changed over the last 10 years?
I was around in the beginning, when Excite, Lycos and Altavista were all duking it out, only to be completely knocked aside by an upstart called Google, so I’ve seen a lot of changes over the years. Those weren’t great days for SEO though as the search engines were easy to game so there was a lot of meta tag keyword stuffing, hidden text, and many other abhorrent SEO practices. Sure SEO was easier then, but the user experience and SERP results were not great. Google has done a reasonably good job of weeding out these shady practices over the years, which has arguably made our jobs as SEO professionals harder, but oddly I also feel that the saying, “the more things change, the more they stay the same” seems appropriate. Despite all of the changes, rankings still depend mostly on quality content and links, the two main factors from day one for Google. If you can do those two things well, you won’t go too wrong.
How did you get introduced to digital marketing, more specifically SEO?
I started a websites design and development agency and a common question from our customers was, “how do we get found on Google?” I decided to find out, both to help our customers but also to help market our own business. The more I learned about it, the more intrigued I became, until I eventually decided to start up an agency which would specialize in SEO (Vovia). Our agency eventually morphed into a Digital Marketing agency and then more recently into an Integrated Media agency. I learned mostly by reading lots of blogs, attending some great conferences, getting together regularly with others in the industry, and also by experimenting (lots and lots of experimenting!).
What are the services you provide to your clients?
We’re an Integrated Media agency so we work with both digital media (SEO, SEM, Display, Social Media, etc.) and traditional media (television, radio, out of home, etc.). Our services include research, planning and execution of both digital and integrated campaigns, as well as analytics and reporting.
What strategy according to you will prevail in 2018 for SEO?
They say that content is king, but that’s only half the story – links are extremely important as well. I’d make sure that you’re not just producing a lot of content for the sake of it, but also have a plan on how you’re going to promote your content, get people to interact with it, and attract those valuable links. Also, make sure that you’re thinking of mobile first as it really has surpassed desktop both in terms of volume and also in terms of what’s important for rankings (Google is giving mobile factors more weighting in their algorithm all of the time).
What would your advice be to people who are looking to take up digital marketing as a career choice?
Put in the time and learn the basics on your own. Learn a bit about SEO, SEM, Social Media Marketing, and Analytics so that you can speak to how to use them – their capabilities and features. There’s lots of great free information and courses online. Just search for “SEO MOOCS”. “Digital Marketing MOOCS”, etc. and you’ll be blown away by the number of free courses available. Moz, Search Engine Land, and other industry blogs also have good Beginner’s Guides which are great to get you started. And to show that you’re really serious, get a couple of certifications as well. Google Analytics is a must, but also try to get Google Search and Display certified, as well as Facebook Blueprint certified. This will give you a good taste of what digital marketing is all about so that you can be sure that you want to make it a career and it will also help you stand out from the crowd.
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