An Interview with David Castle or better known as CTABUK

I haven’t done an interview for a while so I thought I better get a guest who has been in the SEO/Internet Marketing business for a lengthy period. And boy did i strike gold. Heck this guys username is probably one of the most respected around the online community. His name … David Castle but you can call him CTABUK!

Me: You want to tell me a brief history of yourself and what lead you to starting T.I.P also better known as The SEO Forum?

David: Crikey, Oh hum. I joined WebPro World around 6 years ago. In those days I was using PPC and knew nothing whatsoever about Natural Search - but I kept reading and learning over at WPW - I guess my new style approach to marketing on the Internet began to interest a few of the more staid members.

I hit on the idea of Google Alerts and together with a poster named faglork between us we devised a RSS style feed for placing new content daily on to a website. It was based on content and relevance.

WPW went through a few changes and some of us were getting a wee bit tired of answering the same old questions - so a guy who posted as Global Hostings Group and I split away from WPW and formed The In Place or TIP as it is better known.

Next thing I knew, loads of WPW members followed us over to TIP and I guess Admin in WPW must have noticed this. Indeed some Admin members came over as well! A compromise was reached and the two forums complimented each other and I moderated at WPW and still do to this very day.

Me: Your involved in the Mortgage business on-line - highly competitive market to rank well organically - have you noticed differing tactics recently?

David: Well CTAB are not General Mortgage Brokers - we operate in a defined market. We are Brokers to the UK Government Open Market Home Buy Scheme - so from an SEO standpoint I have created pages on my main site Council Tenants Mortages with separate pages Anchor Text to various search terms, then I link those pages based on links in and links out to authoritative sites ie .gov’s and Directories with the correct sections and that are Google friendly.

In todays SEO market Google is God so always think Google. I backed my own site SERP up with a number of mini sites with topic related URL’s - these compliment my home site and now we have something like 3,000 different keyword combinations all topic related that find at least one or two of our sites on page one of all UK Search Engines

Me: Why is it you don’t command a higher on-line profile. You probably have forgotten more than a majority of optimisers know. Why is it I don’t see your avatar at places like Sphinn, David?

David: I’m on Sphinn, somewhere! also on Digg, del.icio.us, Stumble and loads of others Facebook etc etc

Me: I guess with guys like Tim on-board you’ll know the benefit of social media optimisation. I have at times found it clumsy when first getting a foothold with these social sites. What’s your take on them?

David: They are very Americanised, but I also Moderate in the fastest IT marketing forum on the planet - the renowned Warriors - it was quite an accolade to be asked to moderate there. So I get dozens of invites from some of the best IT marketers on the planet - Kevin Riley - Asianlunatic and I have a heap of friends around the globe who ask me to endorse this and endorse that - I guess I get on well with the USA IT community.

Me: What’s your take on all this Anti-SEO/Marketing groups which are present at places like digg and Stumble? Do you think our little cottage industry is in for a hard time during 2008?

David: That’s a good question - my take on it is that most of the ‘SEO knockers’ simply cannot hack the discipline of constantly linking and promoting their websites - so they probably rely upon Adsense and PPC - really they are missing out.

I tend to read them and just think ‘more fool you mate’ Actually it does the industry no harm at all - if you think about it Google grew as large as it has by people paying for advertising - if they cannot be bothered to learn SEO methods then the more natural search results we get! 75% of people prefer Natural Search results - why? Because they assume that Google recommends the site.

So no - we are cool in SEO!

Me: LOL, You have mentioned you have been moderators at Web Pro World, TIP and Warriors. Have you seen any real bad flame wars and how do you act as pacifier when something gets really nasty?

David: Oh, where do I begin - Michael Martinez is a friend of mine, never met the guy but I have followed his advice and have benefited by listening, learning and implementing changes. But Michael gets attention wherever he posted and certain forum members simply love to pounce - I can think of two such guys IBrian and PhilC and there is no excuse for posters in major forums to use ‘gang tatics’ they think it both clever and amusing to find the slightest chink in someones armor.

In all cases where I see flamers there is ultimately only one winner - the Moderator who can defuse the situation - make certain people feel somewhat churlish, but without ever sinking to their levels. It gives you a buzz!

Me: Cool! 2007 was an interesting year for those of us (SEO’s, SEM’s, Webmasters, etc…) that work under the Google flag. What with the introduction of Google Blog Help, the disappearance of the Supplemental Results, Google’s Payola and Google Universal certainly made life interesting.

What do you expect from them this year? Or rather what would you like to see?

David: There is always an element of risk when looking at ‘What Google are doing for the SEO community’, Matt Cutt’s seems a nice enough guy and I know that Mike over at WPW has met him and interviewed him for WPW News and has said that he is a really nice guy - I have no need to doubt that.

However, Google pays his wages - and Google keep things pretty close to their chests. Personally I am fascinated by the rumour that Google is about to take on SKY TV and create a search and watch type system. That will be interesting especially if they start to show brand new movies that are at the cinema on a pay per view basis. Because I own the URL titles that they will need!

Me: Sounds like Death of the DVD/Video Stores to me.

David: It could well be.

Me: What is you favorite spots on the web that you visit to catch up on SEO related matters?

David: Favorite spots – Well, because I mod over at WPW we get an alert system on either spam posters, flamers etc etc - So I tend to pop in there first, then over to my place and onto Warriors - but I also use Google Alerts, and I keep a tag on my username and the all forum watch systems.

I really do love Warriors - they are so well behaved and thoughtful. If the people of this planet all belonged to forums I reckon the crime rate would plummet.

Me: I luv your humour!

David: Without humour all is lost - I use it in life so I use it in forums. It breaks down barriers.

Me: We are a young company here at North South Media and would largely like to start networking at some of the search marketing shows this year. Would you recommend any and why?

David: Ah, I never do shows and in all honesty they can be a complete waste of time - I used to, not in SEO but in Mortgages. Conservative Party Conferences - Housing conferences - etc etc - Waste of money - stick to forums and blogs etc …

Me: What do you feel about the commentators reporting that we are in the beginning of the death throes of the search engines (as we know it today), that the social interaction will play a major part in how our search results will be displayed (personalised results, social voting, hot links etc…)?

David: For as long as new films keep referring to ‘Google it’ and showing people logging on and searching - then Google will rule.

BUT - I’m on YouTube and I get a buzz from that - I’ll market my sites in any format that searcher trends dictate - I created the concept of using forum usernames as potential links to your sites. So if some guy sees me playing guitar on YouTube and searches my username - who knows they may be looking for a mortgage in my sector - rule out nothing - market anywhere that people visit.

Me: Finally David, why don’t you blog more. You have so much knowledge to give your blog would be an instant hit. Or are you content in forum participation?

David: I have 6 blogs and I HATE the Wordpress log in system, I will probably take your advice and blog some more.

Me: Thanks David, I really think the TIP is an excellent place for advice for SEO and Internet Marketing.

David: Many thanks - now for some more posting.