World Exclusive! An Interview With: Carpsio

World-leader in biscuits, Gentleman-Adventurer and Piggynap’s desk-sharer, Paul Carpenter has agreed to be interviewed in the Interests of Science and All Things Pointless. Ten difficult, probing questions on SEO were asked and his answers will surely set the tone for SEO in 2009.

Hi Paul. Thanks for agreeing to this interview. You’ve had a really varied career path…how did you get into SEO?

I was a caretaker originally, which was basically a batshit idea to mark time while the band I was in tried to make it big (hint: we failed). My real interest was in writing though, which landed me a job as a copywriter/technical author with software house in Leeds which doomed itself by basically doing the opposite of everything Joel Spolsky would recommend. The best thing about that job was working for a month in Seattle on the basis that I could “code HTML.” Those were the days! It all went bust in 2002, and I slipped into a jack-of-all-trades design and PHP programming role for a while with a couple of small companies. The programming aspect started to get a bit complicated for me, so I toyed with either doing pure design (and I was sensationally good at CSS back in the day) or trying to get into copywriting. The MD at 9xb asked me to R&D an online marketing offer and I began to get into the SEO/marketing side of things, which has kept me busy for the best part of the last 3 years. I’d still rather be a zookeeper though.

What do you like the most about the job, and what do you dislike?

I like the variety of learning about markets. There’s so many queer little niches out there with tonnes of knowledge to learn and digest, and I’m a sucker for anything obscure. The thing I dislike the most is clients who don’t appreciate the value you bring to their business. SEO is probably like most branches of marketing these days – there’s people who get it, and people who view it with a kind of relentless suspicion but, like a moth to the flame, want it to deliver them the earth. Hint: get off the damn phone and let me do my job!

Write me a poem!

I say I am an SEO
You look at me and then say ‘oh’.
Then brush past me to get to the cheese
Because nobody knows what SEO means.

You’re a bit of a technical wizard. How important do you think technical skills are to an SEO?

Want to see my wand? (Ed: No) SEO is becoming more and more of a marketing discipline, so you’d have to say that the technical aspect is lessening in importance. More companies take the time to build websites properly these days so there’s less margin in the whole ‘perform technical optimisation’ part of the job (which doesn’t stop some companies charging umpteen grand for it). Having said that, you need to know your way around a website so you don’t get scammed by developers, so I think it will always play a role. There’s a kind of technical understanding you need to decipher the SERPs, but a lot of it is just reading the entrails in my opinion.

What is your favourite biscuit?

Traditional digestive – it’s a good multitasker, being suitable for dunking plain or for carrying materials as diverse as jam and cheese. Lovely. The exotic charms of the fig roll aren’t far behind though.

You grew up in the hotbed of cultural activity that is Leeds. Why do you think Leeds and surrounding area has so many internet companies/SEOs?

Maybe all the financial and legal services that have flocked to the area over the last 15 years has something to do with it – they’re the kind of companies that have budget and understanding of marketing. There’s also this totally other number of students in the city, and you know what kids are like for tech. And of course if there’s one thing that motivates Yorkshiremen it’s money.

So: money + youth + prospect of more money = SEO/Web startups

What’s your favourite SEO tool?

I’ve got a soft spot for Yahoo! Site Explorer (bless their cotton socks). It mightn’t be perfect, but you can get a great feel of almost any market by running the top performers through it and seeing how they’re getting their rankings. Also great for divining those ridiculous auto-generated site networks, which reminds you of how far Google have still got to go to ‘rid the world of spam’ or whatever they’re driving for these days.

Are Google our Orwellian overlords?

I’ll pass you over to my Google account manager for an answer to that.

Sum up SEO in one sentence

Making products and services interesting enough to be linkworthy, whilst hiding a small cough behind your hand.

Eat Me Crunchy was your greatest success and some say the peak of your career. Where do you go from here?

Probably home to bed to reflect on that very fact.

I’d just like to say thanks to Carps for taking the time out of his busy day to answer my questions. Next week on Piggynap: Breaking News From Dave The Cleaner.

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