About Matt Santos
We have Matt Santos on the show today. With over 11 years of omnichannel marketing experience, Matt leads all organic efforts at NPXL, the small business division of NP Digital which focuses on SEO, email marketing and CRO. With a background in digital marketing Matt has learned how to create strategies to get more search traffic. He knows keyword research, audience targeting, analytics, measurement, lead gen and overall marketing optimization.
Listen in today as we go through the history and evolution of search engines and how that helps us understand how and why we do SEO.
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Who is Matt Santos?
Matt Santos was born and raised in the Bronx, New York. He lived there for about 10 years before moving upstate about an hour and a half north. He got to experience the “concrete jungle” of the city and having a backyard in a more suburban area.
Growing up in New York Matt was surrounded by a diverse group of people from different backgrounds, cultures and walks of life. As a kid he knew he wanted to be successful, make good money and help people in some way even if he didn’t know what he wanted to be when he grew up.
Early Internet Exposure
In the early 90s the internet wasn’t a big deal yet, it was still a military tool just coming out to the public. Being from the Bronx Matt didn’t have much access to the internet. It wasn’t until around 1998 or 1999 when he was about 7 years old that his family got dial-up internet at home.
Digital Marketing Journey
At 17 Matt graduated high school and moved to Utah to attend BYU. He explored different majors from communications to finance but ultimately found his way in marketing. Through friends working at a Utah based company called Boostability Matt landed an interview and his first job in SEO as a Spanish speaking account manager.
Despite Spanish being his first language Matt’s vocabulary was more conversational Spanish with family rather than marketing terminology. He would keep printouts of translated marketing terms in his cubicle to reference during client calls.
From there Matt has worked his way up over the past 11 years to now being the Senior Vice President at Neil Patel’s agency managing a team of 85-90 people doing marketing for hundreds of brands across different industries.
Current Projects Matt is Working On
One of the projects Matt is most excited about is finding ways to offer services at more affordable price points to more small to medium businesses. Having worked with SMB focused agencies his whole career Matt knows the challenges these businesses face with limited marketing budgets.
By creating new products and services in the $1,500 to $2,000 per month range Matt hopes to open the door for more businesses to be able to invest in professional marketing services. While still a big investment for small businesses it’s more manageable than the $5k-$7k/month minimum many agencies require.
Matt loves helping small niche businesses grow their online presence and revenue in ways they may not have been able to do on their own. Seeing wins for these types of clients is what keeps him excited to keep innovating and improving the agency’s offerings.
Industry Trends vs Client Needs
Another thing that drives Matt is balancing industry trends with client needs. By staying up to date on new technologies and search trends he tries to create products that use the latest and greatest and are still accessible and effective for the businesses they serve.
SEO Advice from Matt Santos
Understand Google’s Mission
Matt emphasizes the importance of keeping Google’s core mission in mind when approaching SEO: “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” By understanding the intent behind the search algorithms, we can better align our own efforts to create positive user experiences.
Early Days of Search & the Impact of Ranking Manipulation
In the early days of search engines, results were primarily based on matching query keywords to page content without much sophistication. Savvy marketers quickly figured out they could manipulate rankings through tactics like keyword stuffing (even hiding keywords in matching font colors to background) and spamming backlinks from anywhere.
While these tactics initially worked due to the rudimentary nature of the algorithms, the resulting search experience was not great for users. Irrelevant, spammy sites were ranking simply based on gaming the known ranking signals rather than providing quality content.
Pivotal Algorithm Updates: Panda & Penguin
Google’s Panda and Penguin updates in the early 2010s were game-changers in the battle against spam. Panda targeted low-quality and thin content, while Penguin took aim at link spam, looking at the quality and relevance of backlink profiles.
These updates caused massive ranking shifts and penalties for sites engaging in manipulative tactics, setting the stage for the more quality-focused algorithms we have today. While painful for many in the industry, Matt sees these as necessary steps in Google’s mission to improve search.
Mobile-First Indexing & the Importance of Mobile Experience
With the rise of smartphones, mobile internet usage has surpassed desktop. Google has responded by implementing mobile-first indexing, meaning they now use the mobile version of pages for indexing and ranking.
Matt stresses the need to ensure your site provides a mobile-friendly experience beyond just responsive design. Regularly test your pages on various devices to check for issues like unreadable text, badly sized images, and difficult to tap buttons. Poor mobile usability can now directly impact your rankings.
Adapting to Algorithm Updates
When asked about mistakes search engines have made, Matt points to the harshness of some algorithmic penalties and manual actions. While the intent is to fight spam, real businesses can suffer disproportionate consequences from factors like an out-of-date site build or link spam from a prior SEO agency.
He advises search engines to continue refining algorithms but to avoid unduly severe or overly broad punitive actions. For site owners, staying on top of SEO best practices and maintaining a quality site and marketing strategy is the best defense against algorithm updates. There will always be some collateral damage with big updates, but playing by the rules mitigates your risk.
The Future of Search According to Matt
Looking forward, Matt sees a continued focus on user experience signals, brand authority, and the rise of alternative search platforms.
The Impact of Conversational AI Like ChatGPT
Tools like ChatGPT have sparked a shift towards a more conversational search experience. Rather than presenting pages of results, these AI assistants engage in a dialogue to discern your query intent and provide a succinct, synthesized answer.
Google has responded with developments like their Multitask Unified Model (MUM) to power features like the “Things to know” and “Refine this search” panels. While not as chatty as ChatGPT, it’s clear Google is moving towards more natural language understanding and satisfying user intent in fewer clicks.
Matt believes traditional search engines will continue evolving to better interpret queries and meet user needs without as much back-and-forth. He anticipates features powered by natural language AI becoming more prominent in search results.
The Growing Importance of Trusted Brands & Social Proof
With so much information (and misinformation) available online, searchers are increasingly drawn to trusted brands and socially validated content. Matt cites this as a reason behind Google’s emphasis on expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) in their quality raters’ guidelines.
Features like the knowledge panel and “highly cited” label in search results further underscore the value placed on authoritative sources. Matt also points to Google reviews and aggregate review schema as ways the algorithms incorporate real user feedback and opinions into the rankings.
Noting platforms like Amazon requiring reviewers to post photos of products, Matt predicts continued initiatives to collecting user-generated content to boost authenticity signals. The upshot for marketers is that brand building and reputation management are crucial to SEO success. Untrustworthy information, negative reviews, and a lack of online credibility will make it harder to gain search visibility.
SEO Beyond Google
Finally, Matt encourages marketers to expand their conception of SEO beyond just optimizing for Google’s search results, but for visibility and engagement across various platforms.
With younger generations increasingly turning to the likes of TikTok and Instagram for discovery, “SEO everywhere” is about considering how your brand shows up when people search for relevant terms or content across social networks. Creating compelling, keyword-optimized profiles and content for these channels is becoming table stakes.
Matt also advises keeping an eye on disruptors like ChatGPT (now integrated into Bing search) and monitoring market share, as Google’s longstanding dominance may continue to be challenged. While a mass exodus from Google seems unlikely, optimization for alternative search engines may become increasingly important.
How to Get in Contact with Matt Santos
To connect with Matt and learn more about his work:
- Check out his agency’s website: NP Digital
- Follow him on Twitter @MattSantos
- Connect with him on LinkedIn
Conclusion
Matt’s insights from over a decade in the search industry provide valuable perspective on where SEO has been and where it’s heading. Understanding the core intent behind search engines’ algorithms – to satisfy users with quality content and good UX – is key to sustainable optimization.
As search evolves to be more conversational, mobile-centric, and brand-driven, marketers must adapt their strategies while staying true to the central goal of providing relevant, trustworthy information to searchers. By keeping user needs at the forefront and diversifying optimization efforts across platforms, we can future-proof our SEO in an ever-changing digital landscape.
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