Today’s guest at MikeShakin.com is Loren Baker, Editor in Chief of world famous SEO resource Search Engine Journal. This interview was originally given for my Russian blog Shakin.ru but i decided to publish it’s English version on this blog. I appreciate that Loren took time to answer my questions.

Loren, thanks for the interview. When did you first get involved with search marketing?

Thanks for interviewing me. I first got involved with search marketing in 1999 when I was a university student. I was looking for an internship in advertising and marketing as I was majoring in both fields. A lot of students were taking jobs at large businesses, but I found an opportunity interning for a small online marketing consultant, and took a chance in a field which was it its infancy at the time, but I knew it would be a challenge and would result in a lot of opportunity.

Now, search marketing is a huge industry and almost all businesses use search to gain customers or sell products. It was a good choice.

How many hours do you work daily and what are your daily tasks?

I really do not clock my hours, but I would guess that I more or less work about 12 hours a day.

I usually wake up in the morning and check email, reply to tweets, check rankings, analytics and drink coffee for about an hour. then I review blog posts in draft mode on Search Engine Journal, moderate comments, track search news and view some forums for another hour or so.

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If you are looking for Search Engine Optimization Company in Boston, Massachusetts, you can use my list below. Web design and other companies whos main specialization is not SEO are not included.

The Visibility

The Visibility is a Boston-based search engine optimization and online marketing company. We help companies to improve organic search engine results, manage Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns, design websites, promote business online, increase web presence and visibility.

Address: 172 Newton St. suite 4, Brighton MA, 02135

Website: www.thevisibility.com

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Paid directories are great for link building and getting high quality backlinks. Usually paid directories receive huge traffic and give you the most benefit for your submission.

Paid directories charge a fee to limit number of submissions or spam submissions.

Submissions in paid directories also give a higher PR and higher positions in Google search results.

Here is my fresh list of 10 best paid directories for your site.

Yahoo Directory - has to be the most popular directory to be listed in. It’s expensive but is worthwhile especially if you have a potentially profitable site. Basic fee is $299 per year. Yahoo Directory has Google PageRank 8 and thousands of quality backlinks including edu and gov. For more information about submission check here. Yahoo Directory was founded in 1995.

Business.com - is a very successful general directory that has been online since 1998. Annual fee is $299. Google PR 7. For more details check here.

Botw - the original “Best of the Web” got its start in 1994. Google PR 7. Annually recurring charge $149.95, one-time only charge $299.95.

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There are few ways to get found in Google’s real-time searches. The main idea - you have to get people talking about your website.

Google’s real-time search is all about Twitter and Facebook, so go ahead and join by opening up Facebook and Twitter accounts. Without it you couldn’t get in real time search results.

1. Integrate Twitter with your website

The first thing you have must do - add a Twitter retweet button to your site. It’ll help to spread the word about your content. I prefer Tweetmeme retweet button. You can also integrate your Twitter conversations with your website. The best way to do that is to add Twitter gadget. The more tweets you get - the more chances your site has to appear in search engine’s result pages.

2. Use Twitter #hashtags

Seacrh engine optimization will now play an even bigger role in real-time search. Twitter hashtags will now appear in search results, and if your tweets are tagged - they can drive additional targeted visitors to your website and help to get quality backlinks.

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