Announcer: [00:00:00] Edge of the Web on the road at SMX.
Erin Sparks: [00:00:03] We had a great time at SMX West this year and we were able to sit down and talk to some fantastic thought leaders in the digital marketing space. Huge thanks to Third Door Media, who opened the door for Edge of the Web to be there at the conference. Uh, we sat down to talk with Morty Oversteen, CMO of Rank Ranger and the host of Be In Search SEO podcast, my brother from another mother. Now give it a watch ane listen. We had a great time.
Announcer: [00:00:28] Your weekly digital marketing trends with industry trendsetting guests. You’re listening and watching Edge of the Web, winners of Best Podcast from the Content Marketing Institute for 2017. Here at Seymour and Edge of the Web Radio.com. Now, here’s your host, Aaron Sparks.
Erin Sparks: [00:00:46] We’re here at SMX West 2020 interviewing a number of key thought leaders in digital marketing and lo and behold we come across a, a, a comrade in arms here. We got Morty Oversteen of the In Search SEO podcast, and we’re gonna have a little bit of an inception here, because we’re actually going to have a show about doing shows.
Morty Oversteen: [00:01:09] It’s like watching T.V,, but they’re watching T.V. on T.V.
Erin Sparks: [00:01:14] Morty is with the Rank Ranger, a fantastic product of, of SEO optimization and rank tracking. So Morty, tell us a little bit about Rank Ranger first. And uh, the tool set you have in there.
Morty Oversteen: [00:01:24] Yeah, so, we’re one of the, you know, rank tracking tools. Though we’re not really just rank tracking.
Erin Sparks:[00:01:28] Yup.
Morty Oversteen: [00:01:28] I hate that label, because, oh you just do rank [crosstalk 00:01:31] check a lot of-
Erin Sparks: [00:01:31] It’s in your name, man.
Morty Oversteen: [00:01:32] Yeah. I know.
Erin Sparks: [00:01:34] [laughs].
Morty Oversteen: [00:01:34] I’m sorry.
Erin Sparks: [00:01:34] It’s okay.
Morty Oversteen: [00:01:34] But,there’s a ranger part too.
Erin Sparks: [00:01:36] There is. Hey. Absolutely.
Morty Oversteen: [00:01:37] And that means, no, um, we do a lot of custom stuff, so you create custom graphs, custom dashboards for yourself, um-
Erin Sparks: [00:01:42] Right.
Morty Oversteen: [00:01:43] We have a really cool thing that no one else has, actually
Erin Sparks: [00:01:45] Mm-hmm [affirmative].
Morty Oversteen: [00:01:45] We track rank above the fulls. We tell you if you are or not above the full for various screen sizes.
Erin Sparks: [00:01:49] Yep.
Morty Oversteen: [00:01:50] Uh, but, you know, com … uh, competitor analysis, surf feature analysis-
Erin Sparks: [00:01:53] Right.
Morty Oversteen: [00:01:54] Obviously rank tracking, integrations, all sort of digital, um, [inaudible 00:01:58], um obviously your Google analytic and search console, but tons and tons of integrations. You can bring it in and we let you do like custom comparisons. You can track like, um, my Google answers, my Bing answers, my email marketing campaigns, which one is my … has greater return on investment and that sort of thing.
Erin Sparks: [00:02:11] Okay.
Morty Oversteen: [00:02:11] So-
Erin Sparks: [00:02:12] Huh, a-as I remember I’ve used the tool before and you had a really good uh, you were an early adopter of, of geo-targeting rank.
Morty Oversteen: [00:02:20] Yup. Yup.
Erin Sparks: [00:02:20] And you still have a really good [crosstalk 00:02:22].
Morty Oversteen: [00:02:21] Yeah, we have a lot of that. We have a new one, we didn’t officially announce it yet, it’s called the geo insights report.
Erin Sparks: [00:02:25] Huh.
Morty Oversteen: [00:02:26] So it’s basically visiting your tracking rom. Let’s say you’re doing um, you know, SEO for ah, Domino’s pizza.
Erin Sparks: [00:02:30] Right.
Morty Oversteen: [00:02:30] Right, so you have locations all across the globe or all across America let’s say.
Erin Sparks: [00:02:34] Right.
Morty Oversteen: [00:02:34] So you will, like we’ll show you on, on a map, how you rank for each location and then what you can even set it up and say where you win feature snippets based upon which location.
Erin Sparks: [00:02:43] Oh, wow.
Morty Oversteen: [00:02:43] For other surf features as well, but [inaudible 00:02:45] being the most important one.
Erin Sparks: [00:02:47] That’s a huge amount of data pulling, uh, from, from, from those local re-those regionals. So you have to de-designate each and every one of those [crosstalk 00:02:54] regionals.
Morty Oversteen: [00:02:53] Yeah you got to set that up but once you set it up, that’s all there.
Erin Sparks: [00:02:55] That’s sweet.
Morty Oversteen: [00:02:55] Yup. That is sweet.
Erin Sparks: [00:02:56] So, kudos to Rank, Rank Ranger. You’ve been doing a bang up job and you’re one of the top tools in the industry for that. Um, you, you turned around and, and just recently, you, you rolled out a podcast.
Morty Oversteen: [00:03:06] Yeah.
Erin Sparks: [00:03:07] The In Search SEO podcast.
Morty Oversteen: [00:03:08] 60 episodes, something like that.
Erin Sparks: [00:03:09] Yeah.
Morty Oversteen: [00:03:10] Yeah.
Erin Sparks: [00:03:10] Congrats.
Morty Oversteen: [00:03:10] Thank you.
Erin Sparks: [00:03:11] Tell me, tell me why in the world, why the hell would you want to do that?
Morty Oversteen: [00:03:15] Because I like to talk. [laughs]. And it was a great way to bring my love of schmoozing …
Erin Sparks: [00:03:20] Yup?
Morty Oversteen: [00:03:20] … into my professional life.
Erin Sparks: [00:03:22] I can appreciate that.
Morty Oversteen: [00:03:23] But also, not to take shots at other podcasts, definitely not Edge of the Web.
Erin Sparks: [00:03:27] Well, thank you.
Morty Oversteen: [00:03:28] You were an inspiration rather.
Erin Sparks: [00:03:29] Gratuitous plug, thank you so much.
Morty Oversteen: [00:03:30] Yeah, absolutely. Um, I hate podcasts that sound like this, and today we’re going to be talking about your backlink profile and all the ways you can build your backlink profile.
Erin Sparks: [00:03:38] Kinda like true balls from uh …
Morty Oversteen: [00:03:38] I would rather jump off a building and stab myself on the way down five times.
Erin Sparks: [00:03:41] [laughs].
Morty Oversteen: [00:03:42] So we wanted to put a little bit of fun into it, ’cause I just thought it would be fun to do that.
Erin Sparks: [00:03:46] Absolutely.
Morty Oversteen: [00:03:46] And it worked out really well in the end.
Erin Sparks: [00:03:48] Yup.
Morty Oversteen: [00:03:48] Yeah.
Erin Sparks: [00:03:49] So how, I mean you’re certainly getting a good following there and also colors the personality of Rank Ranger. Right?
Morty Oversteen: [00:03:55] Uh, we, we sort of feel like, you can do solid marketing, solid reporting, solid data …
Erin Sparks: [00:04:03] Mm-hmm [affirmative]-
Morty Oversteen: [00:04:04] … but you don’t have to be dry.
Erin Sparks: [00:04:04] Right.
Morty Oversteen: [00:04:05] Like you can have personality.
Erin Sparks: [00:04:06] Well I mean als-SEO analytic uh, professionals, tend to be a little bit introverted sometimes. You really can’t spice up SEO that much, can ya?
Morty Oversteen: [00:04:15] Yeah. Sure you can.
Erin Sparks: [00:04:16] Absolutely you can.
Morty Oversteen: [00:04:17] First off, you have the ultimate enemy, right?
Erin Sparks: [00:04:18] [laughs]
Morty Oversteen: [00:04:19] You have Google. And I think [crosstalk 00:04:22]
Erin Sparks: [00:04:21] They’re listening right now, you realize that.
Morty Oversteen: [00:04:22] I know and that’s fine. And then you have like the idiot par excellence, which is Bing. Right? I mean uh-obviously I like being, you know, a little bit like hyperbolic about this but, there, there’s a lot of, there is a lot of personality and there’s a lot of inter dynamics and can have a good time with it.
Erin Sparks: [00:04:34] Yup. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, so we were talking right before we got on stage here, about something that you’re doing right now that’s really, really interesting regarding connecting organizations that need assistance with, with analyzing their data and marketing initiative.
Morty Oversteen: [00:04:50] Yeah.
Erin Sparks: [00:04:50] So, that was, that’s what really was the impetuous of the entire thing. Unpack that for me. What’s going on?
Morty Oversteen: [00:04:55] Okay. So we’re um, I’ll tell, I’ll tell you the back story behind it and it didn’t roll out yet, but it’s coming. So we had a bunch of clients approach us saying, you know we really love your data, but we would also love some deliverables. And this is not our thing, we are [crosstalk 00:05:11].
We are a data platform and that’s what we do. Um, but at the same time we really wanted to help our clients, ’cause that’s also what we do.
Erin Sparks: [00:05:17] Right.
Morty Oversteen: [00:05:17] So how do we fix this? So we decided we, we’re calling it Enterprise 360 …
Erin Sparks: [00:05:21] Mm-hmm [affirmative]-
Morty Oversteen: [00:05:21] … and it’s basically, we will walk you through the entire process. So if you’re doing SEO’s scale let’s say and let’s say you’re um, you’re in house team, you’re under funded and you’re understaffed. Sound familiar?
Erin Sparks: [00:05:31] Yeah.
Morty Oversteen: [00:05:31] Yes, probably. [laughs]. And you need help, so we will, we will vet agencies for you, we’ll, we have partner agencies that we can hook you up with. We’ll figure, we’ll walk you through and figure out, okay, what do you need? What kind of agency works best for you? And then we’ll monitor along the way to make sure you’re actually getting what you need from them.
Erin Sparks: [00:05:48] Huh.
Morty Oversteen: [00:05:48] And it’s working for you and if not let’s switch you around, let’s move you around. Or let’s say, you know what, you don’t need that level of support.
Erin Sparks: [00:05:54] Right.
Morty Oversteen: [00:05:54] You know you have a project you’re working on and you need to do X, Y and Z and it’s like, again, to small of a budget, not enough time, not enough manpower, whatever it is.
Erin Sparks: [00:06:01] Right.
Morty Oversteen: [00:06:01] So we’re having, uh, we have an expert hub, where we will connect you with people like Alatus Solis, Greg Gifford, um, Stephan Spencer.
Erin Sparks: [00:06:08] Wow.
Morty Oversteen: [00:06:08] Um, Eli Schwartz.
Erin Sparks: [00:06:09] There you go.
Morty Oversteen: [00:06:10] Plug for my … you have to meet my cousin by the way. So a little plug for Eli over there.
Erin Sparks: [00:06:14] [laughs].
Morty Oversteen: [00:06:14] [laughs]. Family discount for Eli. Um, but no favoritism in the hub.
Erin Sparks: [00:06:19] Absolutely not.
Morty Oversteen: [00:06:19] No, because, it’s you setting it up, so you can pick who you want. We’ll, again, we’ll consult with you. What are you looking to do? What might be right for you? Where do you want to go with this and then we’ll make the connection for you and go.
Erin Sparks: [00:06:30] Huh. So, uh, uh again, point to uh … which is a fantastic thing but, but, but non-favoritism, you are also not denominational of just using your platform [crosstalk 00:06:41]
Morty Oversteen: [00:06:40] No, I mean obviously the expert has complete access to Rank Ranger.
Erin Sparks: [00:06:43] Right.
Morty Oversteen: [00:06:44] And the training on Rank Ranger.
Erin Sparks: [00:06:45] Right.
Morty Oversteen: [00:06:46] And the, the client, our Rank Ranger client, you’re buying a data package. It comes all, it’s all one big bundle.
Erin Sparks: [00:06:51] Cool.
Morty Oversteen: [00:06:51] So yeah, I mean if your client, if the client’s getting Rank Ranger tools and they’re getting Rank Ranger reports then fine, but if, right, there’s a better tool that does something differently that you need, whatever it is, and the, and the, you’re the expert working with one of our clients …
Erin Sparks: [00:07:04] Yeah.
Morty Oversteen: [00:07:05] We don’t want you to, to use what we have, if you have something that works differently, that works a little bit, you know, more nuanced for this particular client.
Erin Sparks: [00:07:13] Or perhaps they maybe have a lot of in-investment into the, the editing and the, the categorizations that they’ve done on a particular tool.
Morty Oversteen: [00:07:20] Yeah, whatever it is, we want the, we want our clients to be happy.
Erin Sparks: [00:07:23] There you go.
Morty Oversteen: [00:07:23] And we want our clients to get the most that they can possibly get of their SEO efforts.
Erin Sparks: [00:07:27] Mm-hmm [affirmative]-
Morty Oversteen: [00:07:27] And we want to help you do that. So whatever works best, works best. Whatever … we want you to win on the surf.
Erin Sparks: [00:07:34] So, that’s, that’s, that’s laudable and that’s, that’s actually a very, I, I almost wanna say noble pursuit because you don’t see a lot of sass companies roll that out into and extend those type of services so, what, what was this impetus, why did you want to, outside of, of doing right for the clients, this is a whole other ex-extension outside of your, your wheel house.
Morty Oversteen: [00:07:57] Yeah. Um, well one of these, you know, over the years, we’ve developed a lot of nice relationships, a lot of people in SEO.
Erin Sparks: [00:08:04] Sure.
Morty Oversteen: [00:08:04] So it was always a natural segway, like hey, you know, we know all these different experts, we know all these different agencies, why don’t we just put that to good use?
Erin Sparks: [00:08:12] Kind of makes sense.
Morty Oversteen: [00:08:13] Yeah it just, it was the natural evolution of Rank Ranger so to speak.
Erin Sparks: [00:08:16] That’s cool, that’s cool.
Morty Oversteen: [00:08:17] Yeah, those are the best ways, you know, just kind of flows.
Erin Sparks: [00:08:19] All right. So, anybody who’s listening to this or watching this can certainly reach out to you …
Morty Oversteen: [00:08:23] Yes.
Erin Sparks: [00:08:24] … at Rank Ranger, but um, what, what thoughts would you give to that, that beleaguered marketing group inside of that enterprise that, that is, they’re wearing so many bloody hats, what kind of guidance would you give them just to, just to, to look out and, and find some hope there.
Morty Oversteen: [00:08:42] I mean look, everybody’s in the same boat as you, right?
Erin Sparks: [00:08:44] Right.
Morty Oversteen: [00:08:45] Everybody. I don’t care how much money you have and how much, you know, big of a team you have, everybody has to prioritize.
Erin Sparks: [00:08:50] Right.
Morty Oversteen: [00:08:50] And the truth, and the truth at the end of the day, if you prioritize the right way … look I can only speak for myself, right? I have a million things I need to do, there’s a million things I wanna put out there and there’s such … it’s not gonna happen.
Erin Sparks: [00:09:00] Right.
Morty Oversteen: [00:09:01] But if you prioritize what you need to do, what needs to get done, does get done. You just sort of move on by, yeah because you move on a little bit better, more efficiently. Grow a little bit faster, sure. But you’ll, it’s you know, slow and steady wins the race. It’s okay. So hang in there.[crosstalk 00:09:16]. Everyone’s in the same boat.
Erin Sparks: [00:09:17] And on top of it, just get it done.
Morty Oversteen: [00:09:18] Right. [laughs]. Get yer done.
Erin Sparks: [00:09:21] Yup. Get yer done.
Morty Oversteen: [00:09:22] I had, I had to go there.
Erin Sparks: [00:09:23] Absolutely. Morty thanks so much and good luck in the podcast.
Morty Oversteen: [00:09:25] Yeah.
Erin Sparks: [00:09:25] You’re gonna keep on doing it, right?
Morty Oversteen: [00:09:26] Oh, absol-I love it. We-we’re, we’re full on. I’ve, we’re stacked up with interviews for the next like three months already.
Erin Sparks: [00:09:31] Fantastic.
Morty Oversteen: [00:09:31] Yeah.
Erin Sparks: [00:09:32] It’s kinda, it’s kinda uh, infectious, isn’t it?
Morty Oversteen: [00:09:34] I love it.
Erin Sparks: [00:09:35] All right, all right. Good, good, good. Well good luck to you and uh, we’ll certainly uh, be a champion of Rank Ranger, you’ve been a tool. No uh, you haven’t been a tool.
Morty Oversteen: [00:09:42] I, I am a tool.
Erin Sparks: [00:09:43] [laughs].
Morty Oversteen: [00:09:43] That’s okay.
Erin Sparks: [00:09:43] Rank Ranger has been around, has passed muster … you’ve been around 15, uh 10, 15 years?
Morty Oversteen: [00:09:49] Uh 10 years, 10 years. You know look for us in search engine land every time someone mentions the surf usage data point.
Erin Sparks: [00:09:53] There you go.
Morty Oversteen: [00:09:53] It’s usually Rank Ranger.
Erin Sparks: [00:09:54] Fantastic. All right, man. Thanks so much. I appreciate the time.
Morty Oversteen: [00:09:56] Thank you man, appreciate it.
Erin Sparks: [00:09:58] Absolutely. All right.
