Put your hands together for the Real Madrid of SEO: Search marketing’s dream team

Dream teams are not uncommon. The US has a basketball dream team comprised of season favourites and Europe does much the same with soccer. Cricket and rugby pit World XI or World XV teams against various top performing nations. So, we’ve applied the principle to SEO and created a fantasy SEO agency of industry experts (or rock stars, if you prefer).

A task of this magnitude is fraught with danger. The inclusion of some stars automatically necessitates the exclusion of others and the risk of bruising egos and evoking the ire of fans is ever present. In addition, SEO experts can’t be pigeon-holed, very few specialise in only one aspect of SEO, cross-over skills are omnipresent and there is the risk that people will see preferred skills handed over to rivals and be placed in areas not of their choosing. But that is their fault for being so damn good.

Danger aside, we present our ideal SEO agency for your judgement. Praise, condemnation and differing opinions are welcome, but please, try to keep it clean

Writers

Lisa Barone is one of the most obvious choices for the writing department. She’s eloquent, likes grammar and punctuation and knows how to keep it fresh, as well as controversial. Never one to mince her words, Ms Barone is a no-brainer in our SEO agency. We’ve followed her from her days as a mere minion in other-owned search agencies but since establishing Outspoken Media with cronies Rae Hoffman and Rhea Drysdale she’s become an SEO heavy-weight in her own right. For those who’ve been living under rock, you can find Lisa on Twitter or read more about her role in Outspoken Media (an apt name if ever there was one).

Darren Rowse writes a blog about blogging, ProBlogger. This is the man you want managing your company blog and that makes him perfect for our dream team. He knows more about the blogging process, optimising blogs, looking for topics, fine tuning topics, attracting readers and blog writing styles than any of us could hope to learn in a lifetime. What’s more, he walks the walk, as opposed to many self-proclaimed experts who simply theorise and piggy back on the ideas of others. Follow Darren and keep up to date on ProBlogger news on Twitter.

Patricio Robles is one of the most insightful voices to come out of E-Consultancy. He knows his way around search engine news, social media and search marketing in general. He’s not afraid to challenge accepted thinking or the opinions of established industry greats and is willing to tackle any topic from the foibles social networks to Google’s market share and paid advertising. You can follow Patricio Robles on Twitter where you can find out the latest E-Consultancy news, or get a sneak peek at what makes Mr. Robles tick.

Links

Eric Ward is the King of Links. His link building philosophy – based on merit – has been praised by Google’s Matt Cutts and even Danny Sullivan has seen fit to give Eric his golden stamp of approval. His informative blogs are much anticipated by SEO agencies the world over and his link building podcasts are dedicated to all of your FAQs. He’s generous with his knowledge, sharing hard won lessons through training courses and advice dished out over Twitter.

Wiep Knol is the next obvious choice when it comes to filling the link building department. He’s young, he’s cool and he’s a link building genius. His site provides nifty link building tips and important information about link baiting, link building strategies and the continuing importance of links in an increasingly social/content driven world. His Twitter stream is a nice blend of personal and business.

PPC

Jon Myers’ background in search marketing includes SEO and PPC. He’s one of the UK’s biggest names in all things search with even Yahoo! seeking his advice. He’s a regular on the SEO conference scene, presenting at search marketing events throughout the UK, Europe and all the way across the Atlantic in the US. He makes our list because, basically, he’s a PPC genius. You can follow his interesting news, views and conversations with other SEO agency big guns on Twitter.

David Szetela has devoted his company, Clix Marketing, to PPC advertising. He’s also spent time on the search marketing conference circuit and has a following on a number of SEO/PPC networks, including MediaPost, Search Engine Land, Search Engine Watch and Marketing Sherpa. His weekly radio show, PPC Rockstars, is just one of the reasons why he snatches a position in our SEO agency. Follow his Twitter stream for invaluable PPC tips, news and developments.

Social Media

Mashable was co-founded by Pete Cashmore, who is a serious contender for best SEO all-rounder. Pete is only 24-years-old but has already nominated as one of Forbes top 25 Web Celebs. Mashable has passed the coveted one million followers mark on Twitter and is fast approaching 1.5 million, and it’s largely thanks to the work and high online-profile of Mr. Cashmore. Pete is one of social media’s most respected figures, which makes him our first choice.

Lee Odden, of course. Lee’s online marketing blog, TopRankBlog, serves as a virtual bible for those venturing in social media’s murky waters. Anything you need to know, from creating an in-house social media strategy to choosing an online savvy PR agency or PR savvy SEM agency, you can find on Odden’s blog. He even covers writing for social media or search engine optimisation. His ability to provide an holistic SEO/social media strategy is what makes him invaluable and earns him a place on our dream team. Learn more about the man behind the social media on Lee Odden’s Twitter stream.

We’d hate the southern hemisphere to think we’re biased towards the North, which is where South Africa’s Dave Duarte comes in. Dave applies his search engine and mobile marketing expertise to academia as well as commercial and non-profit ventures and has been voted one of the Top 100 Most Influential Media and Advertising people in SA. When not lecturing, running a multinational consultation company or working on his non-profit projects, he’s organising 27-Dinners (monthly meetings for people driving South Africa’s burgeoning online industry) and writing award winning blogs. Follow dynamic Dave on Twitter.

Developers

David Harry, aka The Gypsy, offers a range of internet marketing services, but his interest in the nuts and bolts of the SEO industry makes him one of our favourites for our SEO agency’s development department. With a business website (Reliable-SEO), an off-the-wall blog/SEO learning dojo (HuoMah) and Twitter account, he doesn’t lack online presence. He doesn’t shy away from lengthy blog posts but they make for compelling reading, at least if you’re an SEO geek.

Up next, we have Rob Kerry, who out-pseudonyms The Gypsy by going under the name, Evil Green Monkey, which is also the name of his search marketing blog. Rob is Head of Search at Ayima Search Marketing and can be found as search conferences and pubs all over London. As editor of Sphinn and former editor of Search Engine Watch, both respected sources of social media news, he has a proven track record in the search industry but his skills on the development side are what have earned him a place in our SEO agency.

Edward Lewis has been in search marketing, or internet marketing as it was known in the good old days, since 1995, that makes him one of the grand-daddies of search. It also means that he’s amassed the kind of knowledge that makes people sit up and pay attention. When he talks, you listen, and when he says ‘do’, you know that you’d better. His site, SEOConsultants.com, offers an eclectic range of information from finding search marketing companies in your vicinity to informative blogs about all things SEM and online advertising. You can enjoy his complete lack of sugar-coating on Twitter.

Strategists

Right at the top of the list is Gord Hotchkiss. In his Twitter bio he describes himself as a ‘student of human nature and search marketer’, two of the biggest understatements in the world. He’s a prolific writer, regularly appearing on Search Engine Land, MediaPost and Search Engine Guide, he’s got a personal blog (Out of my Gord) and he’s president of search marketing agency, Enquiro. His understanding of search behaviour (and human behaviour in general) forms the basis of his approach to search. His blog posts are among the most insightful in the industry. If we could only have one person in our SEO agency (with an option to outsource a bunch of stuff), Gord is who we would want.

Back to South Africa and we have Walter Pike, online marketer extraordinaire. Pike has a long history in marketing and advertising and is one of South Africa’s foremost early adopters, embracing online and all the opportunities it presents. He established South Africa’s first digital marketing academy and runs PiKE, a self-styled New Marketing agency. He also has a personal blog, where he writes bits and bobs about advertising and online marketing.

Analytics

Avinash Kaushik writes the highly acclaimed analytics blog, Occam’s Razor and is a self-proclaimed analytics evangelist for Google. He strives to make analytics, an avenue which can be daunting to the uninitiated, easily understandable and accessible to all. It’s to this end that he wrote his book, ‘Web Analytics: An Hour a Day and co-founded Market Motive’, which drives online marketing education. Proceeds from his book, by the way, all go to good causes – Doctors Without Borders and The Smile Train. He credits Andy Beal and Guy Kawasaki as the inspirational forces behind his blog and blogging style.

And there you have it, the perfect SEO agency, comprised of the best search marketing has to offer. Of course many big names are missing; Rand Fishkin, Matt McGee, Michael Gray, Jane Copland and Jill Whalen fans will undoubtedly feel aggrieved. If you think you can create a better dream team, go ahead. The floor is yours …

Tags: dream team, ppc, search marketing, SEO agency, Social Media