We’re excited to have interviewed Minneapolis SEO expert Will Tjernlund from Goat Consulting for the next installment of our Featured SEO Expert Series!
Goat Consulting is one of SEOblog’s Top SEO companies in Minneapolis.
Will Tjernlund is the co-founder and a managing partner at Goat Consulting. Tjernlund is a notable figure in the eCommerce industry, speaking at conferences around the world, including the United States, Europe and Asia. He started his career at his family’s 80-year-old manufacturing company with the goal of expanding the eCommerce and Amazon presence. The efforts by Tjernlund quickly made Amazon the No. 1 sales channel for his family’s business, which now grosses tens of millions of dollars annually.
What would you say is unique and/or challenging about the Minneapolis SEO industry?
“A unique thing about the Twin Cities is how many large corporations are based here compared to the size of our city. We are a fairly small metropolitan area but we have large companies like General Mills, 3M, Target and Best Buy headquartered here. This means that there are constantly new brands to work with and new brands stopping into town to pitch the large retailers.”
How does your SEO agency stand out in a crowded market like the Twin Cities area?
“From what I have seen, we are the only Amazon specific agency in Minneapolis. There are other advertising agencies that dabble in Amazon SEO or Amazon marketing. No one seems to have an Amazon-specific agency that looks as an entire Amazon holistically.”
What is the best advice you ever received in business?
“The best advice I have received is to stay focused. I am an entrepreneur at heart, so it is easy for me to get distracted by the next thing and want to create a business out of it. I have to remind myself to stay in my lane and stay focused. Staying focused over years is where the compounding effect will happen.”
What do you think is the most important quality that makes an SEO agency truly great?
“Having intense expertise about the subject. I truly think that we can help businesses more than our competitors just because they do not eat,sleep and breathe the topic like my team does. Everyone is obsessed because they love the topic and everyone is thinking about it all day. This makes it so we build a culture of subject expertise instead of a culture of learning just your specific role.”
Any predictions for the future of SEO?
“I would be curious to see in the future if they use the signals from Amazon’s share buttons to really increase the listings ranking. I believe a share on social media is the strongest signal a listing can give since it shows that the product is naturally viral.”
What is your reaction when you hear that “SEO is dying”?
“SEO in Amazon is still in its early days, so it is doing anything but dying. Amazon is looking closely at how google does it and is doing its best to take things slowly and make sure that the customers interests are always put first.”
What do you think is the most important contributor of keeping clients happy?
“Knowing their expectations and going above and beyond to meet them. We talk to our potential clients a lot about expectations. Having aligned expectations and being able to meet them and then some, is the key to long-term amazing relationships.”
Interested in being considered as an SEOblog “Featured SEO Expert”? Reach out to our team at [email protected]! We’d love to hear from you and give you a high-traffic platform to share your SEO agency’s story and insights.
