Wil Reynolds Founder of Seer Interactive Interview At SMXL MILAN 2018

“I’ve been doing SEO for 19 years and I don’t trust my gut anymore.” 📊

At SMXL Milan 2018, right after his keynote, I sat down with Wil Reynolds, founder of Seer Interactive, to talk about big data, links and the future of SEO. 🎙️

📊 In this episode, we unpacked:

• 🤝 Clients first, and the flaw in best practices
• 🎯 Content that matches intent
• 🛠️ The two tools few SEOs use
• 🔗 Do you still need links?
• 💰 PPC or SEO first?
• 🚪 Turning 404 pages into help

🎥 Watch the full episode:

🤝 Clients First, and the Flaw in Best Practices

Wil describes Seer’s brand simply: do the right thing, help clients succeed, and never let making money get in the way of what’s best for clients and the team. 🤝

His keynote grew out of that. Once he started working with big data, he saw how often he relied on best-practice articles that might fit 90% of clients but not the other 10%. Bigger data sets let him build best practices for each client and industry, not generic ones. For another data-driven SEO, read Bill Slawski’s interview. 🔗

🎯 Content That Matches Intent

He expected Google to keep getting better at understanding intent. He cited Brian Dean, whose post on getting high-quality backlinks briefly ranked for “how to get high” on domain strength alone, until user signals showed searchers wanted something else and Google dropped it within about a week. 🎯

So write content that truly solves the user’s problem. It’s getting harder to trick Google with links and keywords on a page that doesn’t help. He noted some countries still tolerate lower-quality tactics, so pull data per market: “cloud computing” in India may need different moves than in the US.

🛠️ The Two Tools Few SEOs Use

Wil uses the same SEO tools as everyone else, but pipes all their data into a data warehouse. “Don’t use the tools that everyone else is using.” 🛠️

His two picks: Power BI for visualizations and joins (he prefers it to Tableau, where free use can mean public data, which won’t work with client data), and WebShrinker to categorize thousands of ranking domains by topic, with a confidence score. For bigger clients, he found topic clusters with strong internal linking got them much of the way. For more on link data, read Dixon Jones’s interview. 🔗

🔗 Do You Still Need Links?

Links still matter, but Wil asks what the data says, not what everybody says. Marcus Tober’s research showed you need fewer links in medical than in e-commerce, where people rarely link to product pages naturally. The question is now: in this vertical, do I need links? 🔗

The bigger his clients, the less they needed new links and the more they needed to route internal link flow to deep pages. High-authority domains like Wayfair or Target are hard to beat on head terms, but you can beat their thin, low-quality sections in the long tail with better content. Asked for the number one ranking factor, he refused to guess: he pulls data client by client and studies who consistently outranks you. For a broader SEO view, read Craig Campbell’s interview. 🔗

💰 PPC or SEO First?

If you have the funds, Wil recommends starting with PPC. It gives keyword-level conversion data, so you know which keywords make money. With SEO, you know a page converts but not exactly which keywords drive it. 💰

No budget? Start with SEO. Either way, let the data steer you.

🚪 Turning 404 Pages Into Help

First, understand what triggers your 404s. For e-commerce, if a product is out of stock, how good is your recommendation engine at offering the next closest thing? 🚪

For B2B, add a search box or pop up a chat window: “What are you looking for? A person here will help you find it.” For more e-commerce conversion ideas, read Van Oakes’s interview. 🔗

📝 Key Takeaways From the Wil Reynolds Interview

• 📊 Build best practices per client, from data
• 🎯 Match content to real user intent
• 🛠️ Warehouse your tool data and visualize it
• 🔗 Link needs vary by vertical
• 💰 Start with PPC if you can afford it

❓ FAQs About Wil Reynolds

Who is Wil Reynolds?

The founder of Seer Interactive, who had been doing SEO for 19 years at the time of this interview.

Which tools does Wil Reynolds use that others don’t?

Power BI for data visualization and WebShrinker for categorizing domains by topic.

Should a new business start with PPC or SEO?

With PPC if it has the budget, because PPC shows which keywords convert; otherwise with SEO.

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• Matthew Woodward Live Interview At AWA Asia Bangkok About SEO
• Tips For Bloggers (2023) 🔥Expired Domains, Backlinks With @JitendraVaswani

Do you trust your gut or your data for SEO? Tell me in the comments. 💬

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