Darrin Ward was the founder of SEO Chat which he sold in 2003. He has delivered presentations at SEO conferences and is one of the pioneers of SEO.

Name: Darrin Ward
Aliases: Chico_Loco
Single or Married: Single
Home Site: www.darrinward.com
Memberships: WebMasterWorld
Contact info: darrin@darrinward.com

How did you get into SEO?

Much like most other early starters, I imagine. In the mid-late 90’s I started a website that was dedicated to one of my hobbies (radio broadcasting & electronics). I came to realize the true value and potential of search traffic, and so I sought to understand more about it and how I could manipulate it to my advantage.

SEO wasn’t something that I was informed about, it was something that I discovered for myself, which made for a much more intense learning curve. Instead of reading about past successes and theories on forums, it was more about finding out the variables in the search algorithms for myself through trial and error and understanding how to exploit them.

I am an extremely fast learner, and once I learned the core of SEO I was hooked and excelled rapidly.

What other areas do you specialize in?

I’ve traveled many interesting roads in my 24 years, and I have several specialties. I’ve done electronics, applied mathematics, programming and physics. But, insofar as internet marketing goes, my specialties are website architecture, performance enhancement & usability. I don’t consider myself a programmer, but I did learn how to program (Perl) because it is vital to understand how digital devices work and communicate.

I also spend a lot of my time on business, which is great because now I know a lot more about how to tie both websites and business ideas together to create financially successful projects.

In short though, my specialty is creating websites from the ground up that reach their maximum potential, in both technical & monetary terms, with progressively more focus on the business management aspect.

How do they compliment your SEO efforts?

I think that the niches I have studied perfectly compliment each other. Math has helped me understand everything about SEO. What you must realize that is that SEO is nothing more than the optimization of a mathematical equation (algorithm). Visualizing SEO in terms of algebraic variables and their relationships to each other s a great way to excel in SEO, in my humble opinion.

On top of that, programming experience brings a great understanding of how those mathematical models are implemented on computers and what the programming limitations might be.

The business management specialty complements SEO the most because you understand what sectors efforts should be placed on, and how to achieve optimal monetization, which of course is the primary objective of the majority of SEO’s.

Any favorite projects you’d like to share?

For the past few years I’ve been working on a Content Management System (CMS) that is completely proprietary and, of course, optimized for search engine performance.

It’s extremely interesting and although the CMS has been in use for quite some time, it’s over the next few months that I’m about to unleash its full potential and use it to hopefully generate significant income in several competitive markets.

What part of SEO drives you nuts?

I’ve started quite a few conversations with people in bars, only to later find out they do SEO. Once I mention my name again they give me the raised eyebrow and then tell me they know me from SEO. It drives me nuts that SEO has become quite that big, because it brings several inherent problems.

The more noticeable of the problems is that some people with not enough experience are claiming to be experts, getting nice contracts, and not delivering the service. That gives the industry a black eye, since companies are reluctant to go with other SEO’s. It’s getting better and prospects are coming to realize that they need to research in-depth those offering SEO as a service.

What’s your favorite part of SEO?

I like that it keeps my mind busy, because it’s always changing.

Another thing I like is that the industry has some very intelligent people, which makes it easy to collaborate.

Where do you see SEO going over the next 5 years?

Predicting where SEO will be in the future is a tough thing to do. I think that search engines are becoming more intelligent about how they evaluate the worthiness of sites and pages. A well optimized website is easy to spot, and many of them have been dropping like flies. I think that’s a conscious effort by search engines to limit their exposure to manipulation. As a result of that, many websites that couldn’t be considered optimized by conventional metrics are ranking well.

So, does that put SEO in jeopardy? No, I don’t think so, but SEO is indeed changing. I think that SEO is going to become even more like (and perhaps re-titled to) "content optimization". As search engine optimizers discover new ways to manipulate rankings artificially, search engines find ways to fight back. A good example of this is linking. It used to be very easy to get great rankings by getting a lot of in-links. That’s still somewhat true, but as links approach a state of being completely manipulated, their use in SEO may deteriorate.

Ultimately, it will come down to one thing: Who has the most well prepared, comprehensive, accurate, relevant and original content.

Any favorite tips or advice?

Read as many scholarly papers, publications and articles as possible. They might not provide definitive answers, but rest assured that it will help devise potential optimization techniques.

Apart from that, get as much original content as possible. Do not scrape content, it gives everybody a bad name and it will only lead to an industry collapse.

How has SEO benefited you the most?

Well, I really think it’s benefited me the most financially, though I’m nowhere near being wealthy. Ultimately, the primary reason we do SEO is to generate income, so that would seem the obvious answer.

SEO has taught me to be extremely hard working though, because it is something that is always changing and thus requires a lot of attention and effort.

Apart from the above, the respect that I have gained from others in the industry has been extremely welcome and it has certainly benefited me in other ways.

What industries do you work in?

For myself, I work in industries that interest me because it makes day-to-day chores much less monotonous. Some of the industries that I am working in right now include electronics, radio, cars and some other niche areas.

I generally don’t have restrictions on what I can do for clients though. In fact I have found that taking on some kind of industry that had never crossed my mind helps create a more wholesome picture of SEO. Industries usually have individual requirements in order to perform well in search engines – so diversifying helps me grow and learn.

Do you take jobs or just work privately?

I take jobs only in cases where I feel the client and I will mutually benefit from collaboration, and I don’t solely mean from a financial perspective. I am the leader in a small and private circle of elite professionals that do all the SEO/M operations, and if we’re all comfortable with something, we’ll usually go for it.

We all like to travel and have a developed sense of professionalism, so an ideal client is a corporation of mid-large size, since that is generally the environment in which we are most productive and efficient.

What is your SEO Philosophy?

I’m not sure that I have a philosophy, but if I did, I’m sure that it would be in a continuous rapid state of change. The search marketing industry is evolving at such a swift pace that one must never become reliant on a single philosophy or strategy.

If I was forced to give one though, I think it would be that every site must have unique content.

Darrin, you founded SEO Chat, which was purchased in 2003 by devshed. What was the experience of building an SEO resource like for you? Any tips or advice?

This was an extremely interesting venture, and I regret making the sale. I founded the "Google Dance Tool" and "SEO Chat" when I was in my late teens, and I have to admit, I think I got very lucky with their success. On the other hand though, I put in a LOT of effort, so perhaps it was a deserved success. Looking back at it now, the sale wasn’t a good deal for me, however I’m not bitter about it because I see each mistake as a learning experience. The important thing is to avoid the repetition of mistakes, and I can assure you that I will never make that kind of mistake again.

Actually building the SEO resources was so amazing. People on the forum were asking so many intelligent questions that hadn’t been definitively answered at the time, so I learned a lot by researching things and presenting results to the members.

Bottom line though, the forum would have never been a success without several key members and moderators. Rustybrick, dazzlindonna, EGOL, Nintendo, Gringo, Webby, digitalpoint and Phoenix are just some of the users (among many) that exemplify why the forum was so successful. They are extremely intelligent people, and their continued success until this day is well deserved.

Ed: I have had the fortune to encounter most of these people and some of them are part of the SEO Interviews!

Tips? A phrase that I use a lot: "Quality, not Quantity". If the material provided is of the highest quality, people will become engaged and stick around. You can learn more from one great thread than from 50 threads of crap. That’s my only piece of advice.

Finally, I see you are a speaker at some of the SEO conferences. What is this like? For those who have never attended a conference, what advice would you give to them?

Actually, I think that I’m renowned for being one of the few that isn’t present at all of the conferences. Sometimes when I do go, I don’t let anyone know I’ll be there and I just absorb everything. Few people know my face, so they don’t spot me! I’d like that to attend more though, particularly if I can get invited to speak or as a guest.

I’ll be speaking at a conference in September 2006 (Fri. 22nd & Sat 23rd). It’s called the "Web Jam Session" and it’s being held at the Adam’s Mark in Dallas, Texas. You can visit www.webjamsession.com for more info. It will cover a bit of everything, and I’ll be the speaker for SEO.

Conferences are a great way to hear about the latest developments, but much like reading a forum, you need to take that information and see how you can confirm its validity and expand on it. Conferences are fantastic for social interaction with likeminded individuals. I highly recommend that anyone who has not attended a conference go book one, right now.

Anything else?

Yeah. Just because I don’t post on forums or publish as many articles as I have in the past does not mean that I’m not still active in SEO. In fact, I would have to say that some of my most breakthrough innovations have come in the past 3 years, and that I’m better than ever.

Many people assumed that the sale of SEO Chat was the end for me, but quite on the contrary, that’s when I moved from spending time discussing SEO to actually doing it much more intensely on a daily basis. As a result, I have devised some incredibly well performing techniques, but of course I stay under the radar!

It has been a pleasure to answer these questions, and, hopefully provide some insight.

I welcome any email with comments, suggestions or perhaps collaborative proposals.

Warmest Regards…
Darrin Ward
CEO & President IBO-Tech.
darrin@darrinward.com
www.darrinward.com