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11.08.06
Interview With Google's Adam Lasnik
 By
Lee Odden
Spotlight on Search - Interview with Google's Adam Lasnik
One of the fun things about being involved with the search marketing industry is getting to meet really bright and interesting people. Whether they are long time SEO gurus, CEO's of fast growing corporations or employees of the major search engines, this industry rarely disappoints with its variety of perspectives.
With the majority of search market share, most webmasters pay a significant amount of attention to Google. Google has done an increasingly good job of interacting with the webmaster community through the efforts of Matt Cutts and Vanessa Fox as well as Adam Lasnik. After having the chance to talk to Adam, I thought he and his job sounded pretty interesting and he agreed to do a short interview.
This interview clarifies Adam's role with Google as well as some of the most common webmaster questions/issues, his thoughts on the common sense of site optimization (think about the user!), long but satisfying days at the Googleplex, the Google Webmaster Help Group, the increasingly important role of Google Base and his thoughts on SEO certification.
Note: with the exception of one link to Matt Cutts' blog, all links were added by me.
Tell us about how you became a Google employee. What was involved with getting "recruited" by Matt Cutts?
I've been a fan of Google for quite some time, even writing up a "how to Google" tips article in early 2000 for a former employer's internal newsletter. Also, many of my friends have worked at Google since the early days, and I was impressed by what they shared about the corporate culture. Amazing amounts of trust, freedom, and goodwill.
I was particularly intrigued by the idea of strengthening communications between Googlers and Google users, amongst groups of Googlers, and so on. As a happy coincidence, Matt and the Search Quality group had been increasingly interested in extending these sorts of conversations as well, and so you might say we sort of found each other.
Matt's detailed the situation a bit more here: "Better Conversations"
So there's not much more for me to add. But about eight months later, I can say that it's been a great fit and I'm really pleased things worked out the way they did.
Please explain the webmaster liaison work you do. What sorts of questions annoy you the most? (besides that one) What have been some of the more rewarding interactions?
I think there's a misconception that my main role is "getting out there"… meeting with Webmasters, giving answers, solving specific problems, and so on. While - as someone who was Webmastering even back in'95 - I do enjoy the external aspects of my job, I think the most powerful part of what I do is internal. I'd say about 20% of my job involves interacting with Webmasters, SEOs, geeks, and even non-geeks at conferences, online, and otherwise. The remaining 80% is where the talk is translated into action. I am blessed with colleagues who care deeply about search and also about Webmasters; some of them are pretty well-known in the Webmaster community (including Vanessa, and - of course - Matt). But countless others work behind the scenes… the crawl folks, the Googlers working on indexing, and so on. I'm confident that I'm helping Webmasters most when I'm tackling both the urgent as well as important-but-long-term issues with my teammates, serving as both a Webmaster advocate and facilitator internally.
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About the Author:
Lee Odden is President and Founder of
TopRank Online Marketing, specializing in organic SEO, blog
marketing and online public relations. He's been cited as a search
marketing expert by publications including U.S. News & World Report and
The Economist and has implemented successful search marketing programs
with top BtoB companies of all sizes. Odden shares his marketing
expertise at Online Marketing Blog offering
daily news, interviews and best practices.
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