Aleyda Solís, up close and personal

by Gianluca Fiorelli

Aleyda is a highly experienced International SEO consultant, she has been included in Forbes top 10 online marketing experts to follow in 2015 and at Entrepreneur as one of the 50 online marketing influencers to follow in 2016.

Aleyda Solís, up close and personal

 

Gianluca:

Hi Aleyda!

Have you ever calculated how many days do you spend flying from town to town for talking at conferences or visiting clients during the year?

 

Aleyda:

Last year I lost count! This year will be quieter.

It’s been great because it gave me the opportunity to know so much people, way of working, doing SEO, and from all of this very interesting collaborations started.

Moreover, all these frenzy also inspired the remoters.net project, which I am developing with Elisa and Christian and that focus the so-called digital nomads and professionals, who work remotely.

With my company - Orainti - I offer SEO consultations to businesses all over the world, in different timezones and regardless of my physical location… it’s amazing!

 

Gianluca:

¿What do you remember of your beginnings as an SEO?

 

Aleyda:

The SEO industry was less mature and it’s incredible how much it evolved during the years.

I remember that we were longing for the Google PageRank updates like now we do for the Penguin ones, and the search results were only textual.

Everything was very much basic!

 

Aleyda Solís, up close and personal

 

Gianluca:

Talking about “frenzy”, this seems being one of the characteristics of the digital marketing world.

Of the many changes we have lived along these past years, which ones you consider the most relevant ones?

What do you consider were the changes that meant a radical change in how we do marketing and that are influencing the strategy of the next future?

 

Aleyda:

That digital marketing has evolved is definitely true.

We moved from searching only the buzz, even if it was not business focused and for which we didn’t establish any KPIs o relevant goals, to processes focused on ROI, multichannel metrics and for which we need to educate and evangelize less, because now exists more conscience about the opportunities every channel offers and about the importance of aligning strategies.

 

Gianluca:

On the contrary, what did not change and that still is has a great importance?

 

Aleyda:

The vision and focus of the influencers campaigns, for instance. There’s still long way to go from individuating them, deciding how to engage with them, select, planning the the campaigns and running them and measuring the goals of the actions we realize with the influencers.

 

Gianluca:

Whether you worked in-agency or in-house or - as it is now - working as independent consultor, you always had a global focus about SEO and web marketing.

After so many years working in the Search Marketing industry, what differences you noticed between a Spanish business company and not Spanish one regarding how to do web marketing?

 

Aleyda:

I don’t like to generalize, because the businesses’ landscape is very faceted here in Spain as well in other countries.

However, it is true that we can find some patterns.

The Spanish companies tend to invest less. They usually ask me for discounted prices, which never happens in the case of foreign ones (even if they are startups).

Moreover, the Spanish companies usually are more impatient when it comes to seeing results.

They are less mature when it comes to invest in SEO, if I compare them to US, UK or German companies.

Finally, the Spanish companies are less used to (and less open to) working with external remote consultants, and tend to distrust remote working… not believing it can be effective and that it is possible to admin a work process remotely if you have a good work methodology, communication and if everybody really get involved in the process.

No, they tend to prefer to see you working in-company or for meetings. Let say they are more “traditional” in this sense.

On the contrary, I did SEO consultation for companies in Germany, UK, USA, Mexico or Dubai and I never physically met my counterparts.

 

Aleyda Solís, up close and personal

 

Gianluca:

Imagine that I am an entrepreneur. What would you tell for convincing me that I need also SEO as web marketing channel?

 

Aleyda:

I would show you that you can invest in SEO for earning an organic and long-term scalable growth, which won’t depend on a continuous investment on a third party platform, hence having a better cost-benefit proportion.

 

Gianluca:

You convinced me!

Is it simpler to convince the entrepreneurs about the benefits of SEO, or to convince their developers to implement your recommendations?

I ask you this because, in my personal case, I often struggle more on the devs’ side.

 

Aleyda:

I hear you, Gianluca.

Sincerely, it depends on the kind of company, the existing dynamic between teams, how you fit in that dynamic and the strength of your in-company counterpart.

I work with big and distributed companies, where changes are slower but, when they are executed, they are efficiently committed following a given methodology and dev’s process that minimize the potential mistakes.

On the contrary, when working with smaller companies, I can experience a more direct communication, I am more involved, there are less constraints at a platform level, but also experience a poorer efficiency in terms of processes, methodology and I am more dependant on my ability in negotiating with the developers team.

It is therefore essential that from the beginning there is communication and coordination with all the involved parties, and that expectations are made explicit, as well when we are not fulfilling the terms: and stand that the final goals, which are what matter to the client - will depend on this.

 

Aleyda Solís, up close and personal

 

Gianluca:

Aleyda, you are one of the appreciated SEO globally, as being listed by Entrepreneur and Forbes as one of the marketers to pay attention to.

What it is true, though, is seeing SEOs working everyday more often in coordination with marketers of others disciplines like Social and/or Content Marketing.

What are the unique values SEO can offer to the other disciplines? On the contrary, what techniques and skills of Social and Content Marketing, SEO should use?


 

Aleyda:

The integration and alignment of SEO within a wider strategy and with other web marketing disciplines is fundamental. We live in a multi-channel world, where we interact with brand, services, products not only thought different devices, but also platforms.

SEO must contribute establishing a “findability” strategy and maximize the visibility of online presence of a business company independently of the platform (web, mobile app, social network).

And every SEO should collaborate with Social and Content Marketing specialists in order to identify the best opportunities for earning links and establishing the most effective link building process.

That means - IMO - that it’s more important having specialists working in synergy than adopting techniques and tactics from other disciplines, even though I know this is not something always possible, especially in the case of small businesses or startups.

 

Gianluca:

When someone asks me what will be the biggest future SEO challenges, I usually answer that they already exist:

  1. Über-personalization of Search and website’s experience;

  2. Glocalization (or going international but with a local focus);

  3. Ubiquity of Search;

  4. Predictive search;

  5. Vertical search engine optimization.

What do you think will be (or already are) the biggest SEO challenges?

 

Aleyda:

Here’s some:

  1. Multiplatform integration of Search (Web & Apps);

  2. Semantic Search evolution and “machine learning”;

  3. How search engines will be able to interpreter JavaScript.

 

Gianluca:

Last question.

Explain in a tweet why it would be fool not attending The Inbounder the next May 19/20 in Valencia.

 

Aleyda:

It will be the most international web marketing event in Spain, and it will bring together marketer I meet with in conferences in Europe and USA. And for a great price in Valencia! What else may you ask for? You cannot miss it!

 

Aleyda Solís, up close and personal

-----

Respecting the tradition of my old “Interview in Search”, I ask you to answer to the “Proust Questionnaire”.

What is your favorite word?

Chicken wings

What is your least favorite word?

“Can’t” - or are they two? doesn’t matter. I don’t like it.

What turns you on?

Growth

What turns you off?

Injustice

What sound do you love?

The sound of the sea

What sound do you hate?

Scratches

 

Gianluca Fiorelli
SEO Consultant
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