Having just seen Marcus Tandler present at Friends of Search Amsterdam 2014 a few weeks ago with SMX Munich at the end of this month I reached out to Marcus for a quick email interview. Marcus is the MD and partner at Tandler.Doerje.Partner with his main focus on SEO. He is a well known industry figure and known for supporting great campaigns such as #SEOsforCharity which started back in 2008 over some mulled wine with Bob Rains . #SEOsforCharity is a great idea and has raised more than 100,000 euros in donations for charity since it started and is something worth getting involved in as it’s a bit of fun. Marcus has been frantically working on some new features to his companies SEO platform OnPage.org and obviously getting ready for his next presentation at SMX Muenchen so here is the interview.
Your SMX Munich session is on the future of Google Search (Hummingbird, Google Now, Knowledge Graph) is there still hope for SEO?
As long as there are some sort of organic results within search results, there´s going to be SEO!
Should marketers be focusing on Google Now or Knowledge graph more?
I don´t know if it makes much sense to focus on either one of these Google services. I wouldn´t try to compete with Google when it comes to informational search queries.
Like Bill Gates once said – “the future of search is verbs” – so people looking for action, wether they´re looking to book a flight, cure a hangover or book a table at a restaurant – these are the kind of queries you want your company to show up in the SERPs for.
Are there any companies/brands you think that are leading the way and riding the Google Now/Knowledge graph wave all the way?
I would say Wikipedia, but Google is rather scraping their stuff then sending more traffic to them via the Knowledge Graph. So the answer is a definite no > Google Now and Knowledge Graph really only help one single company, and that´s Google!
You recently spoke at Friends of Search Amsterdam was there any insights or tips you picked up from other speakers that you thought need to explore that idea?
Bastian Grimm shared some great tips on how to secure your WordPress installation. With automatic WP hacking still on a rise, it´s more important then ever before to make WordPress blogs more secure. You can view his presentation on Hardening WordPress below on Slideshare.
Thinking about wearable tech I don’t see you as a Google Glass user? Am I wrong?
I´m not owning a pair of Google Glasses yet. Being a huge geek I will definitely buy me a pair as soon as they are officially released, but I don´t necessarily need to be a paying beta-tester. Although I would have loved to wear them during my wedding.
Do you think marketers need to be using wearable tech to understand the benefits and implications that it might have on the future of search?
It´s definitely an eye opener, since you´re searching a lot differently when you´re searching via a wearable device. Conversational search is the key here, cause people aren´t searching just with keywords anymore, but rather use natural spoken queries, which Google needs to be able to understand and interpret correctly. This is why Google is trying to move from strings to things.
Were you surprised about the attention your TEDxMünchen video generated? When is the next one happening?
Absolutely! I received to much great feedback from all around the world, I´m really humbled that people enjoyed my over 200 slides so much! I don´t know when I will get another chance to wow a TEDx audience, but I would definitely love to!
What is the main ideas/points that you hope people to get from attending your session?
I want to tell my audience the whole story on hummingbird and Googles quest to move from strings to things, so people can understand where Google is coming from and their strategy moving forward. Being a SEO you should never change algorithms and search updates, but rather think a bit further to really provide sustainable SEO.
What are some of the other sessions/speakers at SMX Munich 2014 that you are looking to see?
There´s quite a couple sessions that I´m really looking forward to. Rand Fishkin always does fun and entertaining keynotes, so that´s a no-brainer. But I´m really excited about the Big Data session with Microsoft OSS Evangelist Frank Fuchs and Anirudh Koul, who´s THE Big Data guy at Microsoft and probably one of the smartest guys around. I think this session will definitely be one of the highlights at SMX munich. SMX munich is really one of a few conferences I´m actually sitting in most of the sessions, unlike other conferences where I will just hangout and chat after I´m done with my talk. There´s always something you can learn!
So where can people found you if people want to follow/engage with you online?
If you want to learn more from Marcus you can find him on Twitter @Mediadonis and on Google +MarcusTandler and also find some great posts on his personal blog that cover all sorts of business and personal topics.
Thank you Marcus for your time in answering these questions and congrats again on the progress of OnPage.org into Zoom and I hope everyone enjoys your SMX presentation which is on Day 1 from 3:30pm in Panel 2.
So if you want to catch Marcus Tandler speak and save €€€ on tickets for SMX Munich 2014 you can use our discount code LOSTPRESSSMX and you can register and find out more here.