{"id":15844,"date":"2019-05-20T14:46:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T12:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/?p=15844"},"modified":"2019-05-21T07:24:57","modified_gmt":"2019-05-21T05:24:57","slug":"digital-marketing-is-dead-jono-alderson-yoast-interview-the-future-of-marketing-advertising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/en\/digital-marketing-is-dead-jono-alderson-yoast-interview-the-future-of-marketing-advertising","title":{"rendered":"Digital Marketing is dead. Jono Alderson brings the future of Online Marketing &#038; Advertising, at GPeC SUMMIT May 27-28"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fcbkbttn_like \"><div class=\"fb-like fb-like-button_count\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/en\/digital-marketing-is-dead-jono-alderson-yoast-interview-the-future-of-marketing-advertising\" data-colorscheme=\"light\" data-layout=\"button_count\" data-action=\"like\"  data-size=\"small\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jono-alderson-digital-marketing-is-dead.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-15840\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jono-alderson-digital-marketing-is-dead.jpg\" alt=\"Jono Alderson - Digital Marketing is dead\" width=\"450\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jono-alderson-digital-marketing-is-dead.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jono-alderson-digital-marketing-is-dead-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jono-alderson-digital-marketing-is-dead-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jono-alderson-digital-marketing-is-dead-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jonoalderson.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Jono Alderson<\/strong><\/a> is a Digital Strategist, Marketing Technologist and Full-Stack Developer, with almost two decades of experience in Web Development, SEO, Analytics, Brand Strategy and Conversion Rate Optimization.<\/p>\n<p>Jono has been a leading figure in the SEO world for a really long time.\u00a0In 2018 alone, he was named:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>SEO World Champion<\/strong> at the SEOktoberfest conference<\/li>\n<li><strong>Best SEO Specialist<\/strong> by Serpstat.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Last year he joined <a href=\"https:\/\/yoast.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Yoast<\/strong><\/a> (one of the most popular SEO plugins for WordPress around the world) in its quest to make the web a better place, to improve the quality, accessibility and performance of websites, and solve technical SEO.<\/p>\n<p>Jono will come for the first time in Romania at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/en\/gpec-summit-may\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>GPeC SUMMIT May 27-28<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to meet with Digital Marketers and SEO professionals in Bucharest and talk about the changes that will affect the way the industry thinks about marketing and advertising.<\/p>\n<p>We are looking forward to his keynote speech on May 27 and his Google Tag Manager Masterclass on May 28. Until then, here&#8217;s an exclusive GPeC interview with Jono on the state of SEO and Digital Marketing in 2019.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key takes from the interview:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The brands who dominate the big sectors in SEO all chase perfection.<\/li>\n<li>Canonical URLs, hreflang mapping, server response codes, handling JavaScript &#8211; we spend <em>far<\/em> too much time reinventing the wheel in these areas.<\/li>\n<li>Produce educational and assistive resources for audiences who\u2019ll never buy your product, but who might say how useful you are.<\/li>\n<li>In ecommerce, differentiation is a must.\u00a0You have to be more than just a retailer.<\/li>\n<li>If your store lists 100,000 products, that means that you need to create and maintain 100,000 <em>excellent<\/em> pages (good enough to outdo Google\/Amazon, and to win hearts and minds). That\u2019s a huge ask. [&#8230;] Less can be a <em>lot<\/em> more.<\/li>\n<li>The digital revolution is that we don\u2019t control the environment in which our content is consumed.<\/li>\n<li>We\u2019re seeing a <em>huge<\/em> shift in behaviour, as our devices change how we interact with brands. Voice search gets a lot of attention, but that&#8217;s just the tip of the iceberg. What\u2019s really changing is that we\u2019re relying more and more on external devices and systems to <em>handle our decision making<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Next level digital marketing means your marketing and brand strategy needs to consider your reputation, your <em>pricing<\/em>, your <em>availability<\/em> and your <em>suitability<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Read the entire interview below for more insights on the future trends for online businesses and make sure you <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/en\/registration-gpec-summit-may\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>book your seat at GPeC SUMMIT May 27-28<\/strong><\/a> by the end of the week (May 24) to see Jono live on the GPeC stage.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Q: What\u2019s your view on the current state of SEO and search in general?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: I think that we\u2019re starting to mature as an industry, which really excites me. Once upon a time, it was very much about tactics, reverse-engineering the latest updates, and finding ways to stay ahead of Google. Now, SEO is more frequently a strategic consideration, and much more closely aligned to \u2018brand\u2019, \u2018quality\u2019 and \u2018product\u2019. That enables us to have more interesting conversations, to get the right level of buy-in, and to do genuinely improve the websites\/content\/companies we\u2019re working with.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jono-alderson-yoast-distance-to-perfect-seo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-15846\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jono-alderson-yoast-distance-to-perfect-seo-1024x538.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"910\" height=\"478\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jono-alderson-yoast-distance-to-perfect-seo-1024x538.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jono-alderson-yoast-distance-to-perfect-seo-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jono-alderson-yoast-distance-to-perfect-seo-768x403.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jono-alderson-yoast-distance-to-perfect-seo.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 910px) 100vw, 910px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: In another interview you were talking about the concept of distance to perfect. How do you scale that in terms of SEO?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: I love the concept of \u2018distance to perfect\u2019. Many business functions &#8211; marketing in particular &#8211; generally try to find a balance between minimum investment, and maximum return. That means that everybody tends to settle at \u2018good enough\u2019 across all of their outputs, as they start to encounter diminishing returns on their spend.<\/p>\n<p>In SEO, you can get outsized results from chasing perfection. It takes some bravery from stakeholders, but closing that gap to perfection on content quality, depth, site speed and other areas can have a <em>huge<\/em> impact on visibility. If 99 of the websites targeting a particular set of keywords are only \u2018good enough\u2019, having a <em>perfect<\/em> website means winning big. It takes some investment to get there &#8211; you can\u2019t \u2018test\u2019 building incredible content at scale, or fixing your bloated, slow website &#8211; but it really works. The brands who dominate the big sectors in SEO all chase perfection.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: There are approaches to the website that are more effective than others on different competitive levels. What would be your top 3 approaches for technical SEO and top 3 for link-building?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: I find it insane that people still invest time and effort into technical SEO. These are problems which have been <em>solved<\/em>. Canonical URLs, hreflang mapping, server response codes, handling JavaScript &#8211; we all spend <em>far<\/em> too much time reinventing the wheel in these areas. Too many people fetishize building and maintaining custom platforms and websites, and earning a living from fighting through years of technical problems which they don\u2019t need to. Unsurprisingly, I think that everybody should just adopt WordPress (and, Yoast SEO, obviously)!<\/p>\n<p>As for link building? Have a better product. Improve your brand messaging. Train your customer service team. Lower your prices. Surprise and delight you visitors. Produce educational and assistive resources for audiences who\u2019ll never buy your product, but who might say how useful you are. Break down organizational silos and encourage collaboration and internal disruption. Have a website and content which is worth linking to. I ranted about this a bit more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jonoalderson.com\/conjecture\/how-to-do-seo-in-20xx\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: What are the biggest 3 SEO mistakes e-commerce websites still make in 2019?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: I see a lot of sites which still don\u2019t do a great job of handling faceted navigation. If each of your products is available in multiple categories, colours, sizes and so forth, that can very quickly become a bit of a crawl nightmare. Consolidation, pruning and crawl\/index control can have an enormous impact. But people get caught up in wanting more links or ranking for vanity keywords, and they overlook the fact that their website is a tangled mess.<\/p>\n<p>More strategically, differentiation is a must. If your ecommerce site just \u2018sells stuff\u2019, Amazon and Google are coming to eat your lunch. You have to be more than just a retailer. You have to own the entire product chain, do something which Amazon and Google can\u2019t\/won\u2019t compete on, or, win the hearts and minds of your audience to the point where you become the platform and they associate you with the solution.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, sell less stuff. Many ecommerce websites started out as digital reflections of their physical counterparts. But realising that there are economies of scale on selling <em>more<\/em> stuff in the online than offline store, stakeholders got greedy. If your store lists 100,000 products, that means that you need to create and maintain 100,000 <em>excellent<\/em> pages (good enough to outdo Google\/Amazon, and to win hearts and minds). That\u2019s a huge ask. What if you only sold 100 products, and made each of those products 100 times better? Less can be a <em>lot<\/em> more.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: We talk a lot about \u2018Mobile first\u2019 and \u2018Mobile only\u2019 in e-commerce. You, on the other hand, say websites need to be device agnostic. Can you explain a bit your take on the matter?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: We started out as \u2018desktop only\u2019. Then we entered the mobile age, and started talking about \u2018mobile first\u2019. I think that we mischaracterise that shift, though, when we call it a \u2018mobile revolution\u2019. It\u2019s not that we live in a mobile world now, it\u2019s that we live in a world where your content is consumed on any number\/type\/shape\/context of devices.<\/p>\n<p>Only thinking about \u2018desktop\u2019 and \u2018mobile\u2019 precludes smart watches, TVs, home hub devices, and whatever comes <em>tomorrow<\/em>. The revolution is that we don\u2019t control the environment in which our content is consumed. Sometimes that\u2019ll mean it\u2019s on a small screen, sometimes it\u2019ll mean that it\u2019s on low bandwidth, sometimes it\u2019ll mean that it\u2019s only available in black and white. Our products, services, content and presentation needs to anticipate that it could be consumed anywhere, in any format, and that it needs to be flexible enough to handle that.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FGPeCro%2Fvideos%2F299069807635503%2F&amp;show_text=0&amp;width=560\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: \u201cDigital Marketing as we know it is dead\u201d. Why do you think that and what comes next? How will businesses connect with their customers in the new Digital Marketing age?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: I think that we\u2019re seeing a <em>huge<\/em> shift in behaviour, as our devices (mobile phones and personal assistants in particular) change how we interact with brands. Voice search gets a lot of attention, but I think that it\u2019s just the tip of the iceberg. What\u2019s really changing is that we\u2019re relying more and more on external devices and systems to <em>handle our decision making<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Whether it\u2019s activated by voice, or just something that my phone does automatically in response to my behaviour, we\u2019re increasingly relying on external systems to do things for us. To search. To act. To <em>filter<\/em>. And that\u2019s the key change. The \u2018results\u2019 for queries like \u201cHey Google, find me a nearby restaurant\u201d, \u201cHey Google, order me a taxi\u201c will increasingly <em>filter out<\/em> results. They\u2019ll choose which brands I <em>don\u2019t<\/em> see.<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t about voice search having only one singular result, and you working out how to win that &#8211; it\u2019s about systems ruling out your brand\/product\/service because you\u2019re a <em>bad fit<\/em>. If your taxi company has a bad reputation, is further away than a cheaper competitor, or <em>isn\u2019t open right now<\/em>, my device won\u2019t recommend you. That means that your marketing and brand strategy needs to consider your reputation, your <em>pricing<\/em>, your <em>availability<\/em> and your <em>suitability<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>It also means that you need to <em>prove<\/em> &#8211; to an unbiased system &#8211; that you\u2019re a good fit for my needs. And you need to have done so <em>before<\/em> I reach the point of decision-making and purchase. That\u2019s a very different way of thinking than anything we\u2019re used to.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: What do you think are the biggest challenges for online shops in the Voice Search environment?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: You\u2019ve got to have the <em>best<\/em> answer &#8211; and many brands just don\u2019t. To have the best answer, you need to understand your audience. You need to have a product\/service which is a good fit. You need a team who can articulate that. You need <em>perfect<\/em> content. You need structured markup. You need a solid technical platform. That\u2019s a lot of work &#8211; but, it\u2019s the only way to survive a revolution where you need to build brand recognition and preference with your audience.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: Tell us a bit about your Masterclass you&#8217;ll be teaching at GPeC SUMMIT. Who should attend it and what will they learn specifically?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: To unlock the kinds of investment which you need to do any of this, you\u2019ll likely need to be able to build business cases, measurements and forecasts. My Masterclass is going to show you how to get started on that &#8211; from installing tracking pixels, and work all the way up to creating sophisticated business dashboards. It\u2019s a lightning tour through Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Google Data Studio and Google Optimize. It\u2019ll make sure that you\u2019re in prime condition to monitor your performance as you work on closing the distance to perfect!<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>GPeC 2019 is an event powered by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fancourier.ro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FAN Courier<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Gold Partner<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vtex.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>VTEX<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Brought to you by: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orange.ro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Orange<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Event supported by<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cora.ro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Cora<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.logistics.dhl\/ro-ro\/home.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>DHL<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dpd.com\/ro\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>DPD<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/dwf.ro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>DWF<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/marketplace-leads.emag.ro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>eMAG Marketplace<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.frisbo.ro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Frisbo<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gts.ro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>GTS<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.luigisbox.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Luigi&#8217;s Box<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.newblack.ro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>New Black<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/cloud.oracle.com\/home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Oracle<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sephora.ro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sephora<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Official radio station<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kissfm.ro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Kiss FM<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Official hosting provider<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/hosterion.ro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Hosterion<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Limousine Service<\/strong>: <a href=\"http:\/\/citylimo.ro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>City Limo<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Official coffee provider<\/strong>: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/kafune.ro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">KAFUNE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Fine treats from<\/strong>: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.haagendazsicecream.ro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">H\u00e4agen-Dazs<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.napolact.ro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Napolact<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nestle.ro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nestl\u00e9<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fcbkbttn_like \"><div class=\"fb-like fb-like-button_count\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/en\/digital-marketing-is-dead-jono-alderson-yoast-interview-the-future-of-marketing-advertising\" data-colorscheme=\"light\" data-layout=\"button_count\" data-action=\"like\"  data-size=\"small\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><p>Jono Alderson is a Digital Strategist, Marketing Technologist and Full-Stack Developer, with almost two decades of experience in Web Development, SEO, Analytics, Brand Strategy and Conversion Rate Optimization. Jono has been a leading figure in the SEO world for a really long time.\u00a0In 2018 he was named SEO World Champion at the SEOktoberfest conference and Best SEO Specialist by Serpstat.<\/p>\n<p>Jono will come for the first time in Romania at GPeC SUMMIT May 27-28\u00a0to meet with Digital Marketers and SEO professionals in Bucharest and talk about the changes that will affect the way the industry thinks about marketing and advertising. We are looking forward to his keynote speech on May 27 and his Google Tag Manager Masterclass on May 28. Until then, here&#8217;s an exclusive GPeC interview with Jono on the state of SEO and Digital Marketing in 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[491],"tags":[390,352,3186,309,2695,3188],"class_list":["post-15844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gpec-interviews","tag-digital-marketing-en","tag-gpec-summit-en","tag-jono-alderson","tag-seo-en","tag-voice-search-en","tag-yoast"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15844"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15858,"href":"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15844\/revisions\/15858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}