Interviews - Get to know the real Mark A Preston

Listen to some of the various SEO, marketing and business podcasts, webinars and shows Mark A Preston has been interviewed on, to get to know the real Mark.

Please note - Mark has transitioned from being dedicated to SEO over to a Customer Growth Coach & Speaker over his career because many things outside of SEO actually impacts the SEO success. Hence - customer growth.

What Gets Measured Podcast (Humanizing Marketing Strategies) hosted by Jake Sanders

Questions Jake Sanders asked Mark A Preston on the What Gets Measured Podcast

What is the strategic piece missing from marketing?
Why are marketers forgetting people?
What do you tell to marketers who say they don't have time to talk to their customers?
How do you break marketers out of the just doing stuff cycle?
What does the future of SEO hold?
What was your thought about the Google data leak?
How does getting a solid grip on data help marketers?
How can the quest on data confuse marketers?
How can marketers get their ideas and strategies approved?
How often do you see a marketing team communicating with other departments within the businesses?
Why aren't people talking to one another within a business or agency?
What about marketers who don't bring new ideas to the table in case it gives them a lot more work?
Do you have a personal marketing success and horror story?
Do you think getting marketers and businesses geared towards understanding that nothing lasts forever?
If you could give one piece of marketing advice, what would it be?

No Bullshit SEO Podcast (Digital Roots) hosted by Callum Morris

Questions Callum Morris asked Mark A Preston on No Bullshit SEO Podcast

How are you feeling about going into the last 12-months of your semi-retirement plan?
What got you into the world of SEO and business back in 2001?
How long was you doing SEO before you realised it was actually called SEO?
What is your objective when it comes to SEO?
What has always been your ethos when it comes to SEO?
Do you see any commonalities when going into businesses as an advisor?
What is your process in determining what is and can work well?
Has there been any times when you have gone into an agency and they have rejected your advice?
Is there any consistency that teams are not paying enough attention to within businesses?
How did you develop your own communication skills in order to train marketing teams?
How did you feel going from running your lead generation business to starting and growing an agency?
How long was the process of building and managing your agency team?
How did you find managing people who were not dedicated to their job?
How did you find the confidence to become a public speaker?
What do you need to understand when speaking on stage?
What industry changes would you advise agency and marketing teams to look out for within the next 12-months?

Unscripted SEO Podcast (Fulltime SEO to Semi-Retirement) hosted by Jeremy Rivera

Questions Jeremy Rivera asked Mark A Preston on Unscripted SEO Podcast

What are you going to do now that you no longer host the Unscripted SEO Podcast?
Are you currently working on any new projects?
What is your semi-retirement goal?
Have you moved away from the charging by the hour model in order to allow yourself to semi-retire?
What's your opinion on SEOs going down the percentage of revenue growth model with clients?
What are your thoughts on taking a percentage share of a business opposed to just taking a percentage of the new business generated?
Do you think SEO consultants need to learn about the actual business they work with?
How do you personally manage to secure shares within the businesses you work with?
What are your thoughts on SEOs growing their own website portfolio to increase their income?
Has it been challenging for you to manage the link between the sales and marketing teams within a business?
Why are you just going to semi-retire and not fully retire?
How do you get value on your time?
How can SEOs do marketing for their own career growth?
Do you have any final thoughts?

Business Story of the Week (Mastering SEO) hosted by Joshua Laurie

Questions Joshua Laurie asked Mark A Preston on Business Story of the Week

What initially drew you to the world of SEO back in 2001?
How do you overcome challenges when teaching SEO?
What separates your unique perspective on SEO when coaching businesses?
Why is SEO high impact considering the effort required?
How do you get into the technical aspects of SEO to get Google to work for you?
How do you navigate the SEO journey?
How do search engine algorithms work?
Do keywords still matter in SEO?
Does Google rank the purpose of your content?
How do you navigate the constantly changing landscape of SEO?
How should businesses change their SEO strategy to stay ahead?
What does the future of SEO look like?
Where does Mark A Preston stand in the mist of the world of SEO?
What are your future aspirations?

The Agency Growth Lab Podcast (Mastering Client Growth) hosted by Rohin Dua

Questions Rohin Dua asked Mark A Preston on The Agency Growth Lab Podcast

How did you shift from being a mechanic into SEO?
Do you drive leads in both the UK and USA?
What are the most effective strategies for SEOs to bring in new business?
Do agencies need to use PPC to generate quality leads?
Do agency owners need to pay for LinkedIn Premium in order to drive leads through that channel?
What do SEO agencies need to sell?
Is it useful for agency owners to attend local networking groups?
How do you structure client growth plans to generate scalable results?
What are your thoughts on agencies who over promise?
What are the best agency practices for client retention?
Is AI going to start wiping out SEO agencies?
How should SEO agencies approach content?
What advice would you give to someone with minimal capital who is just starting a new agency?
What is the best lead generation tactics for brand new agency owners?

The GYFT Show (Money Matters) hosted by John Burns

Questions John Burns asked Mark A Preston on The GYFT Show (Money Matters)

What is you most unwise expenditure you've made in your business life?
What is the most productive expenditure you've made in your business?
Was there ever a point where you thought, do I have the money to put food on the table?
Was there a time in business where you had to make people redundant?
What advice do you have for people who are thinking about starting their own business?
Where do you see business owners throwing money away in poorly executed expenditure?
What advice do you have for entrepreneurs who want to invest in SEO and paid Ads?
Where do you see your business growing and developing over the next 12 to 18 months?
If someone has a massive mortgage but wants to start a business, what advice would you give them?

Training SEO Agencies To 8/9 Figures hosted by Charles Floate

Questions Charles Floate asked Mark A Preston on Training SEO Agencies To 8/9 Figures

What's your background, Mark?
What are your thoughts on AI when it comes to SEO?
Is AI going to replace a lot of human writing tasks?
How can agencies future-proof themselves moving forward?
What are the most common things that agencies are getting wrong?
Do the agency SEO team need to be involved in the pre-sales conversations?
Should agencies get their various teams to work together more?
Do you see much value in doing reward based systems for agency employees?
How important is it for agency teams to get along with each other?

Make Marketing Great Podcast hosted by Alain Machado

Questions Alain Machado asked Mark A Preston on the Make Marketing Great Podcast

What does Mark A Preston do?
What made you become fond of SEO?
When did you start in SEO?
Did you have to learn SEO by yourself when you first started?
Is there anything in your background prior to SEO that has helped you to progress forward within the SEO industry?
How do you go about looking at SEO from a mindset point of view?
What do SEO clients actually want?
What would you say to those SEOs who are struggling to stay motivated?
Have you adjusted your SEO training due to AI?
Have you come across any businesses who are scared of AI?
What would you say to individuals who are looking to get into SEO?
What can the people do about learning SEO who struggle to network?
How do you talk to businesses who are thinking if they should invest into SEO?
What are the biggest challenges you have faced with businesses to convince them to invest into SEO?
How do you set expectations with SEO clients?
What have you found to be the biggest weaknesses within agencies when you train their team?
Do you think SEO teams within agencies start to lose sight due to having tunnel vision?
How did you get into becoming an author and teaching others SEO?
What gives you a good kick out of the SEO industry?
How do you help individuals grow their career and move up the ladder within SEO?
What are you top three SEO tips for 2023?

UNmiss Live Show hosted by Anatolii Ulitovskyi

Questions Anatolii Ulitovskyi asked Mark A Preston on the UNmiss Live Show

Who is Mark A Preston?
How can an SEO find keywords that help with sales?
If you have a list of thousands of keywords to choose from, how do you prioritise that list?
What SEO tools do you use to kind quality keywords?
How can SEOs use AI tools in a smart way that will help them?
What type of prompts do you use in ChatGPT?
How do you use your whiteboard within your SEO training sessions?
What are your methods of teaching SEO?
How can an SEO perform link building that is more specific and focused?
What is the biggest SEO mistake you have done in the past, and what did you learn?
If you was just stating out in SEO today, how would you approach it?

untitled SEO podcast hosted by Andrew Laws

Questions Andrew Laws asked Mark A Preston on the untitled SEO podcast

What does an SEO mindset coach do?
Why do SEOs need to move away from having a checklist mindset?
Does having SEO perfection in technical SEO hold things back?
What should you prioritise for a new SEO client?
What questions should you be asking a new SEO client?
What do you need to be thinking about when it comes to SEO?
Is the business owners passion a good foundation for SEO?
Is generating a high number of leads for a business a good thing?
What SEO holistic things do you need to think about?
Can SEO be done in isolation?
Should your SEO tasks be dictated by what Google say?
How important is it for an SEO to work with good businesses?
How do you approach coaching within SEO?
What do SEOs need to be mindful of when it comes to using SEO tools?
What are your thoughts on SEO educational material?
When it comes to content, what should SEOs be mindful of?
Do you think SEO will eventually dissolve and not be a thing?
What are your thoughts on unethical manipulation SEO tactics?
How did you discover a love of public speaking?
Have you had any formal training to become a professional speaker?

SEO Video Show hosted by Paul Andre (DRE) de Vera

Questions Paul Andre asked Mark A Preston on the SEO Video Show

In 1 minute or less how do you get on page 1 of Google?
How did you first get into SEO?
What made you interested in SEO?
How did you learn SEO?
What were your SEO resources when you started out?
Who are the SEO people you followed when starting out?
What is SEO mindset?
What are some tips to move towards with the SEO mindset?
How do you typically go about finding new prospects for SEO services?
What are the most important pre-sales questions when vetting a new potential client?
When presenting SEO services to potential clients, what strategies have you found to be most effective?
Can you walk me through your process for closing a deal with a client interested in SEO services?
In your experience, what approaches have you tried in the past that have not been successful when it comes to selling SEO services?
When calculating the ROI for a client's SEO investment, what factors do you typically take into account?
What are some different revenue models that you have utilized or encountered in the SEO industry?
How do you determine the appropriate price point for your SEO services?
When approaching a new prospect, what steps do you take to establish a connection and build rapport?
When creating SEO packages, what factors do you consider when setting the price?
How do you identify potential clients who understand the value of SEO and are willing to pay for it?
When working with clients who may not fully appreciate the benefits of SEO, how do you educate them and help them see the value in your services?
How do you ensure that the expectations of your clients are aligned with what you can realistically deliver through your SEO services?
When pitching your SEO services to a potential client, what kind of reaction do you typically receive?
Can you walk me through the process of putting together a contract for an SEO project?
How do you become an SEO professional?

Rankable Podcast hosted by Garrett Sussman

Questions Garrett Sussman asked Mark A Preston on the Rankable Podcast

What is your perspective on the SEO industry?
What role do you play at this point after being in the SEO industry for over 20 years?
What conversations are you having with people that are stopping them from communicating on social media?
Should SEOs be blocking out negative and disrespectful conversations on social media?
How has the business side of SEO changed over the past five years?
Do you think that the perception of SEO is changing at C-Suite level?
What is the common SEO perception at large corporate organizations?
Are you seeing any sort of theme or any real changes from the C-Suite when it comes to understanding the value of the marketing channel?
What should new SEO teams who work in-house be thinking about?
What are the first steps for a Head of SEO just joining an organization?
How do you handle barriers within an organization when it comes to getting your SEO recommendations approved?
How should Head of SEOs be communicating with the C-Suite?
Has the CMOs perception of SEO changed?
SEO takes time, so what do you do if the CMO says "we need results quick"?
What can a Head of SEO do if they face budget constraints due to economic downturn?
What does the Head of SEO need to do in order to get buy-in (budget) from the C-Suite?
What are the top 3 of something you love?
What is your best SEO or marketing win?
What are your top 3 SEO tools?
What is your best SEO trick or tactic?
What do you love most about SEO?
What are your best learning SEO resources?
Who are the top three SEOs or marketers that you most look up to?
What is your number one cause or charity that you want to promote?

Marketing Dribble Podcast hosted by Rob Boyle & Jonny Kenyon

Questions Rob Boyle and Jonny Kenyon asked Mark A Preston on the Marketing Dribble Podcast

What do you do in the SEO industry?
Do you talk to other SEOs who think they are an expert until they talk to you?
Why is mindset important when it comes to SEO?
What made you gravitate towards SEO?
Did you used to have over one hundred websites?
How has SEO changed since you started out compared to now?
What excites you about SEO now in 2023?
What does the future of SEO hold because of AI?
How can businesses use AI to improve their SEO?
What are some of the biggest mistakes you see at the moment in the SEO world?
Is it a good thing to add content to your website and make the text the same colour as the background?
What are some beginner SEO tips for people who are just thinking of coming into SEO?
Do you think new SEO executives are under pressure to just tick a box?
Does the right SEO mindset need to start at the top?
What is one golden nugget on how to drive more organic traffic?
If Google gave you free range to make any changes, what would they be?
As an SEO specialist, who do you follow and what resources do you read?

Democratizing SEO Podcast hosted by Austine Esezobor

Questions Austine Esezobor asked Mark A Preston on the Democratizing SEO Podcast

How did you enter this very interesting and dynamic industry?
Why did you regret starting your own agency?
What was SEO like back when you started over twenty years ago?
Why do CMOs need SEO training for their wider marketing department?
What are the different ways your SEO training helps brands?
What does business development SEO mindset mean?
Should brands focus more on PPC or SEO?
How can the CMO of a brand sell training for their marketing team into board level?
In your experience, how long does SEO take to show results?
Have you always thought a little differently towards SEO, or is it something that has changed throughout your SEO career?
What prompted you to write your book, the business side of SEO?
If you were to write another book, what would it be about?
What is holding you back from publishing a novel?
Do you think SEOs focus too much on techniques and technical, rather than understanding the business and soft skills side?
Do you think that a lot of SEOs focus their energy on the wrong things?
What should a brand who are looking to hire their first in-house SEO be mindful of?
Do recruiters need to understand SEO if they are recruiting for SEO roles?
What frustrates you the most about the SEO community?
What makes you stay in the SEO industry after two-decades?

The GYFT Show hosted by John Burns

Questions John Burns asked Mark A Preston on The GYFT Show

How can I ensure my webpages move from obscurity to visibility?
How can I ensure my website appears on page one of the search engines?
How important is it to understand your client avatar?
Is it important to ask questions to your customers and clarify the information?
What tools can I use to understand my audience better?
What is important when building your website?
Do you need to include testimonials on your website to give credibility?
How do you need to think about content when it comes to your website?
In terms of your website and SEO, how can a consultant stand out from their competition?
Are video testimonials more effective than adding written testimonials to your website?
How does a video testimonial need to come across?
How important is it to have a call-to-action on each of your web pages?
What do you need to understand in order to gain new leads through your website?
What are your thoughts on Google Ads or other forms of paid promotion to drive traffic to your website?
How does Google Ads fit into SEO?
How can you ensure you don't waste money through Google Ads?
How important is it to regularly update video testimonials on your website to keep them looking fresh?
What should I be aware of when it comes to competition levels?

#SEOSLY Podcast hosted by Olga Zarr

Questions Olga Zarr asked Mark A Preston on the SEOSLY Podcast

What is your SEO story?
What technology were you using to build website when you started back in 2001?
What type of industries were you building websites for when you started?
Were you doing lead generation or affiliate marketing on the sites you built?
What level of traffic were your best sites generating?
What SEO techniques were you using twenty years ago?
What was your experience with being an agency owner?
What type of agency did you run?
Is the agency you built still going?
What type of companies have you worked with over the years?
What type of SEO training do you provide?
How do you change the mindset of a marketer when it comes to SEO?
What common flaws do you see in your training sessions when it comes to SEO processes?
What specific things can SEOs focus on to move the needle?
What type of events do you speak at?
How big are the events and conferences you speak at?
How do you manage to secure new speaking gigs within the business and corporate world?
How much do you get paid as a professional SEO speaker?
Do you also advise companies on specific SEO problems?
What is your book (the business side of SEO) about?
What are some of your biggest failures within your SEO career?
Do you currently own an agency or are you kind of freelance now?
What area of SEO do you like the most?
Why and how did you rebrand yourself from Mark Preston SEO to Mark A Preston?
How long did it take you to change everything during your rebrand?
How does your normal day look like?
Besides your own, what other books should SEOs be reading?
What are your thoughts on AI and ChatGPT?
What will the future of SEO look like because of AI?
What area of SEO should we be focusing on this year?
What are your thoughts when it comes to new SEO trends?

SEO Career Mastery hosted by SEO For Hire

Questions Josh Peacock and Daris asked Mark A Preston on the SEO Career Mastery

What are the common themes that need to be improved when you mentor SEOs?
Do you mentor more junior SEOs rather than mid to high level SEOs?
When it comes to SEO mindset, do junior SEOs need to have a different mindset than senior SEOs?
Have you had a lot of experience hiring SEOs?
What was the big thing you were looking for when hiring SEOs?
How did you approach training existing SEO team members when you ran your own agency?
Do you think providing a great training plan for your SEO team led to a high retention rate?
What type of client do you provide your training and coaching services to?
How did you grow your digital marketing franchise business?
What are your top tips for agency owners?
What was your biggest challenge when hiring SEOs?
Where do you see the SEO industry heading due to the recession and mass redundancies?
Where do you see SEO heading due to AI and ChatGPT?
Are you using AI much in your SEO processes?
How important is it for SEOs to go to events?
Besides the standard SEO conferences, what other type of events should SEOs be attending?
How important is it for an SEO to build a personal brand?
Is there a specific reason you went down the unscripted route with your podcast?
Why did you write your SEO freelancer guide?