January 27, 2009
Please provide us with your biography.
Tell us about your background and your role in the company?
I started my first company alongwith 3 of my friends when I was 17. We were doing a 4 year computer course in National Institute of Information Technology and wanted practical experience. That company sold few software copies. Later, I started another company with a friend. This friend had Mango farms and he wanted to sell Mangoes online (as corporate gifts). After creating his website, I started thinking of ways to promote the website. This is when I came across Search Engine Optimization (SEO). There was no industry at that time.
I used to hang out at WebmasterWorld forums. I made many friends there and one such friend encouraged me to start my own company. Hence, after a couple of years experimenting and learning SEO, I started eBrandz in September 2003. Over last six years, we have grown to have offices in New York, Singapore and Mumbai. Our current employee strength is 250. And we have executed more than five thousand (5000) SEO projects in last six years. We also have working relationships with 150 agencies across the world which outsource Search Marketing projects to us.
I currently am CEO of eBrandz but I am not involved in day to day running of the organization. My current responsibilities include strategic planning for growth of the company as well as interacting with Press and Media. I also write articles in industry magazines and speak on topics like Blended Search, Social Media and Online reputation management.
What are your main services?
Search Engine Optimization accounts for majority of our revenues. Our Private Label Search Marketing Service is also very popular. Many Search Marketing agencies want to focus on generating sales. Hence they outsource most of the work to us. Among new services, we started Social Media Marketing and Viral video creation last year. We also have affiliate marketing, SEO friendly Web design and development service so that clients can have one stop solution.
What makes your firm different from other companies competing in your industry?
I think eBrandz Inc is one of the very few companies which offers Private Label Service. We also change our deliverables twice a year to match changes in Search Marketing industry. We are currently working on 1500 SEO projects. Working on such high number of projects gives us a bird's eye view of any changes happening in search algorithms. We also have a lot of experienced SEO project managers. Most of them have successfully executed hundreds of SEO projects. And we have very good customer support system in place. We also place a lot of emphasis on training and have monthly brainstorming sessions.
Tell us more about your firm's success story?
I started eBrandz. In last 6 years, we have grown to 250 employees, offices in New York, Singapore and two offices in Mumbai. We have successfully executed more than 5000 Search Marketing projects. We have more than 100 Case studies and testimonials which we have put up on our website. We have another 100 odd testimonials and case studies which have not yet got time to upload on our website.
Digit Magazine says that eBrandz is one of the best SEO companies in the world. We have been shortlisted for two consecutive years by B2B Magazine for their “Marketers Resource Guide” (2008 & 2009). TopSEOs have said that we are Best SEO company from India. But apart from all this, we have got many consultants who are Search Marketing Evangelists for eBrandz.
According to you, what are the most important questiona a potential customer should ask a company before choosing a vendor like you?
I think these are some important questions to ask:-
1) What is your experience in SEO/ SEM?
2) Do you have any successful case studies/ Testimonials?
3) Can I talk with some of your clients ?
4) What kind of customer support do you have ?
5) What are your working hours ?
6) What are your payment terms? Are there any discounts ?
What are some of the myths in your field ?
Reciprocal links are bad – While the effectiveness of Reciprocal links might have decreased over time, it still has place in overall SEO strategy. Of course reciprocal links has to be logical. And too much reciprocal linking is not good.
Putting reciprocal links on your website will lead to loss of your PageRank and rankings – While theoretically there can be a loss of PageRank, there is no evidence to show loss of rankings if you use reciprocal links in limit.
Guaranteed SEO rankings – Some SEO companies have Guaranteed SEO rankings as a sales pitch. This makes most customers feel that SEO is a 100 % guaranteed service. While you can guarantee quality of service or certain deliverables, offering 100% SEO guarantees on results is misleading for customers and unethical.
How do you develop your skills in this continuously changing environment?
We have paid memberships with groups which share SEO research with SEO agencies. Plus our teams constantly monitor websites like WebmasterWorld, SearchEngineLand and SearchEngineWatch to check latest updates. We are also lucky that Google provides us training by sending their reps to our office (every other month). They train our staff on new features of Adwords or setting up Google Analytics. And we have internal training videos we have created to teach beginners. Apart from this we have regular team meetings and Brainstorming sessions.
What do you see as the future of the industry? What will be the challenges; do you anticipate any drastic changes?
I anticipate Search Engines trying to incorporate more data types in Search Results. There will also be a change in the User Interface of Search Results (based on Blended Search results). We already have seen that user behavior of scanning search results has changed after Blended Search (Universal Search – In Google's lingo). Social Media strategies will become more and more integral part of SEO strategies. Personalized search will also be a challenge. SearchWiki which lets users comment on Search results will be a big challenge for online reputation managers.
Where do you see your firm in the next 5 years? What about you personally?
eBrandz has been profitable from day 1. So one thing, I am absolutely sure is that eBrandz will be a profitable company even 5 years from now. We currently have excess cash with us and hence expansion is not a problem for us. But few years down the line, we would like to go public and list our company on public stock exchanges.
I personally am happy the way things are. I am really enjoying growing this company. It has been a great experience and I hope I continue doing this for many more years. I am personally interested in how Search Marketing can help us in our own Corporate Social Responsibilities. I might devote more time to this in future.
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