John Rothra has brought his ministry online with the help of SEO.

Name: John Rothra
Aliases: jrothra
Single or Married: Married 7 yrs
Kids: Lauren, 4 yr old daughter
Home Site: John Rothra Ministries
Memberships: SEO Refugee
Contact info: jrothra@sbcglobal.net, 817-927-1724

How did you get into SEO?

While working for a local attorney, he introduced me to this new field called "SEO". He asked I investigate this subject, learn about it, and see if it can be used to help his sites be more successful. I researched a little and found a forum where many of the best SEO experts discussed the myriad aspects involved. I joined that forum, which was before I joined SEO Refugee, and learned much. I also read various e-books and used my own trial and error.

What other areas do you specialize in? How do they compliment your SEO efforts?

My primary focus is two-fold. First, serving God and his ministry. While my site is called "John Rothra Ministries," it’s more accurately "God’s ministry as done through his servant, John Rothra" but that doesn’t fit very well in the banner. I’m not really qualified, as I don’t consider myself a great theologian or highly educated, but I want God to be glorified. He uses my talents and skills to reach people. All I can do is hope I’m always usable, always seeking His glory and not my own, and that what I do brings people to be saved. It’s all about God’s love as shown through his son, Jesus.

Second, my specialty is my family. I love my wife and daughter dearly. Everything I do must benefit them. The greatest gift I can give them is God, second is myself. I take time to spend with them, though I wish I had more time to spend with them.

I’m able to use what I know about SEO, which is not much, to tailor the website, www.jrothraministries.com, to be found by more people. Rather than create a site and hope people find it, I can use SEO to generate greater traffic and, therefore, reach more people with the good news about Jesus and his love. My family supports my efforts, though my wife admits she is not familiar with SEO or how the site works.

John Rothra Ministries reaches people with the gospel of Jesus Christ through evangelism and discipleship.

Any favorite projects you’d like to share?

I’ve only got one real project: working on my site. I spend time trying to improve its usability, versatility, and accessibility. If it doesn’t look good or work properly, it’s of little use. I’m currently testing a new upgrade to the site programming. The people at SEO Refugee are helping me with the programming issues I do not yet understand. There are some technical bugs I’m trying to work out, but the redesign should resolve those.

With the upgrade, I’m hoping to increase the traffic. I’m always interested in someone who is willing to help me improve the site. You don’t have to agree with my faith, though I pray you do come to realize and know Jesus as your personal savior; all you have to do is realize and respect the site’s mission and be willing to help.

What part of SEO drives you nuts?

The tediousness of keyword research, gathering backlinks, and the ever-changing web programming techniques drive me craziest. Anyone who wants a site to be SEO compliant (if there is such a thing), must research keywords. It’s not fun and not quick, though it is necessary.

A successful site is dependent upon backlinks. No backlinks means no high rankings in the search engines for most keywords. The best backlinks are the toughest to obtain; the easiest to obtain are worth the least. It’s sort of a catch-22: if you can get it easily, it doesn’t help much. I’ll take any backlink I can get, because all of them have some value, but the ones that are the best are the hardest to obtain. I still work at those, though.

What’s your favorite part of SEO?

The best part of SEO is seeing the fruits of your effort. In everything we do, fruit should be produced. What I mean by ‘fruit’ is positive results. In SEO, the fruit is reaching number one in Google, Yahoo, and MSN—the top three search engines—for all your keywords. Of course, doing this is very tough. I’d be content to reach the top three in all three, especially Google, which is the toughest one in which to rank well.

I also find it fun to learn about how search engines work, what they look for, and which techniques help you rank well in those search engines. The fun is that these lessons not only result in a well-optimized page, but it results in higher quality design and content of the site. Whatever perception of SEO one may have, the improved site quality is a wonderful benefit. Even if someone isn’t interested in search engine rankings, following the basic SEO techniques is critical because they will improve your site’s usability and quality for your visitors.

Finally, and definitely not least, the people I’ve met online who participate in SEO are top-notch. As with any industry, there are some out there who are not interested in helping others, but most people I’ve met actually care about each other. We may be competitors, but we compete against each other while helping each other. That sounds strange, but it seems to be true. This helps us all learn and improve our techniques.

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

Hopefully it goes to Texas because it’s my home state. Seriously, I see only subtle changes over the next few years. Search engines will alter their algorithms in order to best the other engines, current techniques will be improved, and the field will expand in its participation and influence. Sadly, I do not know the future; only the omniscient God knows that. If a major change occurs, it will probably come from or involve Google. It could be that Google makes a major change, dramatically altering the way SEO is done, or another search engine takes over the number one slot from Google. However, barring such things, SEO will likely only see subtle changes over the next five years.

Any favorite tips or advice?

For life, yes. I’ll just refer people to my site for that. For SEO, I have only five tips:

1. Make sure your onsite SEO is well done. This includes H* tags, titles that describe the content, and clean code.
2. Keep the content of your index page fresh. I recommend RSS feeds or similar content generators to place fresh content on your site regularly. On www.jrothraministries.com I use three forms of dynamic, updated content. First, there is a daily scripture section which changes every day. Second, the top Christian news headlines from a respected Christian site are posted on my site via RSS—this changes daily, Monday through Friday. Third, I have a blog I update every week or so. Using RSS, the index page displays a portion of the latest blog entry. These three sections give the index page fresh content nearly every day. Search engines like fresh, relevant content.
3. Get backlinks. Begin with a few in a forum signature or directory that is indexed. To see if a site is indexed, search for the domain name in the search engine; if found and it is the correct site, then it is indexed. These links will get your site crawled by the search engines. Next, go after high quality backlinks, as mentioned earlier.
4. Never stop learning. The minute you think you know all there is to know about SEO or anything else, you will discover how little you actually know. Always be a student and never stop learning.
5. Proofread. Once you’ve proofread your content, at least the content you can control, proofread it again. It’s never good to be unclear or have content full of spelling errors. It presents an unprofessional image and a lack of care on the part of the webmaster. The only exception to this would be forums. Here, misspelled words are more readily accepted by the general public, as they are seen as a different genre of website than most. However, unless your site is a forum, be sure to proofread your content. If it helps, have a partner or friend proofread for you.

How has SEO benefited you the most?

I’ve gained two benefits from SEO. First, the people I’ve met and the friends I’ve made. Second, it’s taught me more about web design and how people use the internet than I’ve ever known before.

What industries do you work in?

I’m the pastor of Union Hill Baptist Church in Alvord, Texas and a student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. I’m currently working on my Master of Divinity with Biblical Languages (M.Div.BL) and hope to be able to work toward a Ph.D. in evangelism. My primary mission is serving God by preaching the Bible and ministering to people. There is no higher calling than being a disciple of Jesus, the Messiah and Lord. My prayer is that I’m always usable, teachable, glorifying God, and praising the name of Jesus with all I do.

Do you take jobs or just work privately?

I mostly work privately. In the past I’ve taken jobs, but my busy schedule between school, ministry, family, and my own site leave little spare time. I’m not opposed to taking a job, but that’s not high on the priority list at this time.

What is your SEO Philosophy?

SEO philosophy? I thought philosophical thought was left to the great thinkers and religious people. I’m only kidding with you. My philosophy follows that of "white hat SEO." While the exact definition of this term is debated (see SEO Refugee for more on that), I define white hat SEO as simply creating a site with proper onsite SEO techniques and seeking quality backlinks. Tactics such as introductory/doorway pages, intentional redirects to mask keywords, keyword stuffing, hidden text, scraping sites, and the such are not techniques I choose to use. For me the key factors are content, site quality, and backlinks.

Anything else?

Only that I pray people are open to listen to the words of Jesus when he said, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:16-18, NASB)