Today we have selected Nicholas Man to take his interview. He is CMO & Partner of International Internet Advertising Services Inc.
First of all, how are you and your team doing in these COVID-19 times?
We did suffer a bit initially because we offer our services to a diverse number of industries. Some companies, like travel agencies, couldn’t afford to spend money on marketing because they were forced to shut down for a while. What was interesting was that some businesses decided to double down on their SEO campaigns. Our culture has remained strong, and we’re proud and grateful that we could keep everyone as part of our team. We’re fortunate enough to be in an industry that is always going to be needed.
Tell us about you, your career, how you joined this digital marketing company?
The first business I ran was a painting business when I was 18. At the time, It was one of the toughest things I did but also the most rewarding. It opened my eyes to the world of business. A couple of years later, I decided to start an SEO agency. I started this agency in 2015 and dropped out of school because it took off. In 2017 I partnered up with Mike at ideas, and it’s grown a lot over the years because we offer a service that helps businesses.
I realized how important marketing was in business when I was running my own painting business. One of the most common issues with businesses is that they don’t have enough leads coming in. Google is the #1 search engine with over 5.6 billion searches a day. The first place people turn to when they need help or service is Google. We’ve grown at a fast pace, and our clients usually stick with us for their lifetime.
We focus on SEO, SEM (Google Ads), and Website Design. One thing that I know is that if you’re not working with a company or someone who specializes in SEO, there’s a very low chance you’re going to get any results from Google. We eat, breathe and sleep SEO and practice what we preach. We have several number one rankings for our agency site for the City SEO keywords, for example, “surrey SEO” or “Burnaby SEO.”
How does your company stay on top of all there is to know about search engine optimization?
I am part of several mastermind groups, and everyone in these groups knows SEO and practices it for their agencies across the world. There are hundreds of us testing and experimenting with what works on our test sites and sharing the data. These networks help us stay on top and know exactly what’s working or not.
These SEO techniques that make an impact on rankings are not available for free. It’s impossible to Google your way to becoming a great SEO. It takes years of tinkering and testing on thousands of sites to learn what’s needed to improve rankings. Our team has those scientists! We are always staying on top of Google algorithm updates and testing new methods to ensure we are ahead of everyone in SEO. We are drop-dead certain that you will not find a more capable and dedicated SEO team than iias.
A lot of people ask: How do I know my SEO is getting a return?
That’s a fair question. I get that question often, and when I look at a website, many times, there isn’t anything that’s been done. Even the most basic on-page SEO, like meta titles or descriptions, aren’t completed, let alone optimized.
The main difference between having great SEO where you’re getting a return vs. not having good SEO is getting calls, forms filled, leads and sales. Ask the company a simple question: if SEO is my highest priority, should I go with you? If they can’t say they’re the best, probably don’t go with them for SEO. Search engine optimization requires a lot of knowledge. They can prove it by showing rankings they’ve achieved for their clients and the rankings they have for their site. You should at the very least see your keyword rankings increase and the traffic to your site increase within the first 6-8 months.
Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?
Being in such a mysterious and complex industry, we’ve had to work hard to explain our process in a way that made sense and eased our client. SEO is constantly changing, so it’s really hard to audit someone’s work if you’re not an expert yourself. This allows bad companies to take advantage of a business by hiding behind confusing terminology and jargon that makes people feel like an idiot and stop asking questions.
We’ve successfully done show results and explained the most important things in SEO so that our clients know we’re doing the right things and they can see that in the way we communicate and with the results we’re showing them. Having clear communication isn’t easy, but it cuts through the noise and sets us apart from the other 95% of SEO agencies.
Your final thoughts
Ideas is a company that has always strived to help great businesses grow. We focus on helping businesses because they’re the backbone of our economy and fundamental to living a quality lifestyle. The better the quality of businesses in our economy, the higher our standard of living. We support great businesses because we want to achieve the maximum level of happiness for our team members, clients, suppliers, and the communities that connect us all.
- Spokesperson: Nicholas Man
- Company: International Internet Advertising Services Inc
- Website link: https://iias.ca/search-engine-optimization/