{"id":107466,"date":"2013-11-26T00:06:19","date_gmt":"2013-11-25T16:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seo-hacker.com\/?p=7466"},"modified":"2021-05-11T06:10:26","modified_gmt":"2021-05-11T06:10:26","slug":"interview-jason-acidre-sean-si","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seo-hacker.com\/interview-jason-acidre-sean-si\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to Back Interview: Jason Acidre and Sean Si"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sean-Si-Jason-Acidre\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s been a couple of years since I worked with Jason. We started out with SEO almost at the same time. He was looking for his way in the world at that time. I was looking for opportunities in business. Here’s the inside story of how Jason and I got to meet and work and his thoughts on SEO in the Philippines<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

SEO Sojourners<\/h3>\n

I was working in Hewlett Packard at that time – somewhere in Ortigas. My shift was from 9am – 6pm. Since they didn’t mind me staying at the office until 12am, I did so – and worked on SEO Hacker. This went on for months. I grew the blog from a personal SEO blog where I put in my learnings and experiments about SEO – to a niche blog that talked and taught about SEO to newbies.<\/p>\n

It all started when I got a tweet from a @kaiserthesage somewhere 2010. It’s just a short (heartfelt?) ego-boost he threw out.<\/p>\n

@SEO_Hacker<\/a> Hey Sean, you really are good with headlines \ud83d\ude42
\n\u2014 Kaiserthesage (@kaiserthesage) August 24, 2010<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We exchanged tweets and we decided to do a meet-up. I was a newbie, he was a newbie and we exchanged newbie ideas with each other. Hooray!<\/p>\n

Sooner than we expected, we were doing work together. The tough thing about it is the coordination. We were 3 hours apart by commute. And Jason didn’t carry a mobile phone. Don’t ask me why.<\/p>\n

Here’s a picture of our first ‘Team Get Together’ back in April 2011:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"SEO<\/a><\/p>\n

Jason is a brilliant strategist. A genius with beating the system and using loopholes to win. He’s great at what he does. And he is aware of his weaknesses – that’s what makes him very effective.<\/p>\n

Some time and a handful of good SEO projects passed us by and we bid our farewell to each other as teammates – he had his own set of growing projects to take care of and I focused on scaling SEO Hacker. Our respect for each other’s work and character only grew from then on.<\/p>\n

The thing is, I noticed Jason’s weak point at that time was that, in order to scale up, he needed a manager and someone who ran the operations well. I’m glad he found the right people for the job. He now runs a successful SEO company – Xight Interactive.<\/p>\n

So here we are – 2 content marketing-centered SEO specialists with extreme care for our brands but with different approaches to our holistic inbound marketing strategies. We agreed to do a back-to-back interview of each other. I finished my questions first.<\/p>\n

\"SEO<\/a><\/p>\n

So without further ado, please give a round of applause for Jason “Kaiser”<\/em> Acidre:<\/p>\n

1. What do you think will be the case of SEO in the Philippines as an industry in the next 3 years? <\/b><\/p>\n

Local brands and businesses will be more ready to and aware of how valuable SEO is as a marketing tool, knowing that digital marketing (especially social and mobile) are slowly being embraced by the bigger brands these days.<\/p>\n

SEO is far more powerful, in my opinion, compared to those 2 other areas of online marketing when it comes to acquiring new customers, and in generating conversions\/revenue.<\/p>\n

I guess the only thing that\u2019s lacking is how local practitioners can evangelize this marketing platform and somehow prove to local companies that SEO is a long-term investment that they should\u2019ve started to invest in as early as now.<\/p>\n

Another case would be the difficulty to compete with other agencies when you\u2019re an SEO service provider. The practice will continue to get tougher throughout the coming years, and it\u2019s possible that a high percentage of the current practitioners will most-likely quit and choose another career, which I believe is a better scenario for our local SEO scene.<\/p>\n

Our industry is constantly changing, and it\u2019s a survival of the fittest out there. The ones who really know what they\u2019re doing and the ones who can really provide results to their clients will remain.<\/p>\n

2. What is the direction you\u2019re taking as an SEO specialist to affect that? <\/b><\/p>\n

Personally, I still think that there are so many things that I need to learn (and I have no plans of stopping to learn new things and in challenging myself to become a better SEO and business owner).<\/p>\n

But right now, my focus is to continuously establish myself and our team in the international SEO scene, to make sure that our country will be in the best position in the years to come (not just an affordable option, but a country who should be known to offer world-class service from highly competent people).<\/p>\n

3. What is your vision for the SEO industry in our country? <\/b><\/p>\n

First is to truly earn to be one of the top 5 destinations for online marketing services (alongside US, UK, Australia, etc\u2026). Because the more foreign companies are investing their marketing budget to Philippine-based SEO companies, the more we can help strengthen our country\u2019s economy (and more job opportunities).<\/p>\n

Second would be for local companies (small and big) to start accepting inbound marketing as a viable investment that can help them grow their businesses exponentially.<\/p>\n

4. What is your favorite food? <\/b><\/p>\n

There are three actually (not in particular order):<\/p>\n