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Tony Verre Knows His Weight In Keywords

By Site Strategics
July 1, 2016

When it comes to an expert in keyword research our latest #edgetalk guest is the go-to guy. Tony Verre who is the Founder and Owner of DreamFire Digital knows his weight in keywords. “Keyword research is a large chunk of what I do and I build strategies around that for clients,” said Verre.

One of his favorite things about his role at DreamFire is that he strategizes and provides that foundational level of search for clients. “I’m helping to create that solid base for clients, which we can then build bigger strategies from,” said Verre.

His Start in SEO

Before he was doing SEO, Verre was a public school teacher for three years. “Teaching is challenging and rewarding at the same time and it takes a special personality,” said Verre. “Education is everything so that background has really helped me.”

His ability to take fairly complex ideas and break them down into digestible, teachable concepts has served him well as a digital marketer. In addition, Verre also served two tours in the United States Army as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“I did two tours, which encompassed eight years of my life, and after that I wanted a change,” said Verre. Ten years ago is when Verre started getting into SEO and he stumbled upon it haphazardly when he befriended on the job a SEO tech. “I befriended him and he got me involved and showed me how to do SEO,” said Verre.

SEO through the Years

According to Verre, “Five to six years ago there was still the black magic shroud over SEO.” However, nowadays SEO has become more “mainstream” and Verre believes people buy into it a lot more than in the past. “There’s still a lot of education around SEO that needs to happen because there are posers out there,” he said.

SMX West 2016

Verre was one of the presenters out in San Jose for SMX West back in February. He presented on “Using Search Science for Keyword Research.”

“Danny and his team put on an amazing conference and my presentation was a little bit out there, but once you walk through it then you’ll start to understand,” he said. One of the things about keyword research that he emphasized was that it’s not a tool or a quick fix, but rather takes elbow grease and requires a large chunk of time. “There’s not a tool that can do it for you that keeps up with the fast pace of everything moving so you just have to get in there yourself and do it,” said Verre.

The Intricacies of Keyword Research

Keyword research is constantly evolving. After many years of doing keyword research, he started noticing patterns and behaviors. “You start to see personas developing as you’re doing your research and that’s what you should be using to pitch to clients throughout the customer journey,” he said.

When personas are developed, Verre then does predictive research that can be used to explore keywords. Yet, websites still need to evolve to the structured flow approach of the customer journey.

Still, he recognizes that it’s hard to do keyword mapping that moves the customer through the journey or targets his or her buying behavior. “The trick is building the content that fits the customer’s needs whether that’s a video or an infographic for example,” said Verre.

And as the customer journey becomes more fragmented and messy, it’s up to the marketing team to create those calls of action on the website that leads clients into the purchase funnel.

To catch the entire Edge of the Web Radio interview with Verre and hear all about human keyword research click here.