Reputation Engineering on the Marketing Technology Blog with Douglas Karr
“Real recognize real and you lookin’ familiar“ – Jay-Z
While Kris Reid and Douglas Karr may not have greeted each other in Jay-Z fashion on the Marketing Technology Blog podcast this week the sentiment of “real” was certainly in play. Douglas Karr, host of the podcast and founder of the Marketing Tech Blog has a storied history in digital marketing, and he chose to sit down with Kris Reid, founder of Ardor SEO, to talk all about his philosophies on on digital marketing, the concept of authority marketing, and Kris’ own brand of reputation engineering.
The Dao Of Digital Marketing
There is always a lot to learn when two respected members of the digital marketing community go back and forth about the methods and madness of their field. At its core, marketing is all about understanding people. What are their habits? What are their desires? Google’s purpose as a search engine is to take what people type and match them as closely as possible to what is in their heads. It sounds simple at first, but quickly becomes more complex as Kris explains some of the nuance behind how local businesses might view ranking nationally with Google.
“Generally, most local business aren’t looking for a national listing. If you’re looking for a plumber you aren’t going to grab one from New York if you’re in California.” – Kris Reid
Now that google takes into account where the searches are coming from, it can greatly shift an entire content strategy. For example, people searching for “Cambodia Mekong river tours” from the U.K. are probably not planning on jumping on a boat in Southeast Asia in the next several hours while people searching from Cambodia might be. Understanding digital marketing means accounting for that fact.
Authority Marketing
One area that Douglas really praises Kris during the podcast, is in how he and Ardor SEO value the concept of “authority.” According to Kris, when Larry Page first designed Google in the 1990s, he drew from his academic background and created a sort of thesis effect around web based content. The idea is that the more works that “cite” a source, the more important that source is in regards to its subject, or the more authority it is has. In other words, good authority marketing means lots and lots of quality backlinks.
“Backlinks provide authority but authority…is building that absolutely beautiful content that is going to sustain ranking and win ranking because people are mentioning you.” – Douglas Karr
For Kris Reid, authority marketing is about building up credibility and trust. As with all things trust, there is no easy road to earning it. It takes time and consistency in order to build authority as well as a deep understanding of what your specific business goals happen to be.
The Ardor SEO of Reputation Engineering
According to Douglas, where Kris Reid and Ardor SEO really outpace the pack is with their understanding and promotion of what Kris calls “reputation engineering.” Douglas even goes as far as to say he’d never heard the term “engineering” used in that way before, but he absolutely loves it.
Next, Douglas outlines a true story about a client of his that suffered as a result of a slanderous political campaign despite being exonerated of any wrongdoing. The negative content sent his personal reputation into a state of gridlock that in turn harmed his ability to do business. Suddenly, we see how marketing is about more than just getting sales – it can affect one’s entire livelihood.
When asked how to handle such a problem, Kris wastes no time going into how important it is to be proactive in the type of story your business generates. He goes into detail about how the strength of one’s content is integral to defending against any attacks before they happen. Especially for those in the public eye, reputation engineering is an absolute must.
Real Recognizes Real
The respect between Douglas and Kris makes for a timeless interaction filled with excellent information for anyone looking to improve their understanding of why marketing is so important. It takes, time, energy and planning to truly build a high ranking site, but the rewards for being successful could make or break even a local business. Kris Reid’s interview on the Marketing Technology Blog podcast gives us a wonderful opportunity to see the “real” recognize each other, and we are all a little better for it.
