Interviews
Below are print and online interviews with Vanessa. See Podcasts and Videos below for multimedia.
SEO Expert Vanessa Fox on What Startups Should Be Doing Now
Vanessa Fox is known as one of the country’s foremost experts in customer acquisition from organic search. She created Google’s Webmaster Central, which provides both tools and community to help website owners improve their sites to gain more customers from search and was instrumental in the sitemaps.org alliance of Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft Live Search. She runs her own company Nine By Blue and she just released a book, Marketing in the Age of Google.
Since search is such an important part of online business we asked Vanessa to speak at Deploy 2010, a conference for technologists designed to empower you with the technology know-how to make your startup a success.
TM Blog: Vanessa Fox: Marketing in the Age of Google
In a world where Google has become synonymous with search, businesses will need to learn how to use this in their marketing strategies. More and more consumers are finding their way to the web in hope of finding what they are looking for. Whether it is a new digital camera or the latest news stories, the internet has become the gatekeeper of information. As businesses start to catch on to the ways their consumers are finding their and their competitive services. The more they must realize the value of having a presence on the web and getting the consumer to their site.
Oreilly: What You Need To Know About Local Search
Online attention doesn’t mean much if you can’t convert it into something else: advertising revenue, event attendance, product purchases — whatever is most important to your specific business. This is particularly true with local search, where the combination of targeted queries, fast results and geographic proximity give merchants a great shot at serving customers.
Search expert Vanessa Fox has been following and shaping the search landscape for years, so I asked her recently for a handful of local search best practices. She’ll be expanding on many of these same points in her upcoming presentation at the Where 2.0 Conference.
Calcalist Interview
One of the most interesting commercials aired during the Super Bowl game last held in early February, it was a network of fashion Dokrs. Advertisement offered viewers to enter the lottery, which will be distributed for free thousands of pairs of khaki pants. The response was in accordance with: the millions of surfers sat at the computer, went to Google and searched “Free Dockers Pants”. Only one thing they did not find – the site that will allow them to enter the lottery.
Read the original article (in Hebrew)
Read the article with Google Translate
The Marketer IT
Newspaper Seattle Business “defined the Fox” Woman of Vision realm of cyberspace. Fox has nine by blue company, helps organizations to understand the behavior patterns of search users in understanding the behavior of expert surfers site traffic analysis regarding organic search, ie, traffic that comes naturally to sites, not on the basis of purchasing ads. Her past work at Google in charge of product and Google’s Webmaster Central, which provides analysis tools for web surfers to understanding behavior. Soon Fox will launch the book “Google’s market era” (Marketing in the Age of Google), will arrive next week to Israel conference to be held at the high school in Jerusalem Ltcnolgy (Heart Institute), for SEO and marketing professionals through social networks.
Read the original article (Hebrew)
Read the article translated by Google Translate
TopRank Online Interview
In this interview you’ll discover the importance of SEO strategy, dealing with CEOs and social media, search personas, operationalizing Social Media and SEO, thoughts on upcoming search innovations and her favorite search engine (not what you think).
Read the whole interview at TopRank Blog.
Vanessa Fox Interviewed by Eric Enge
So, any thoughts on that that [broad online marketing] you’d like to start us with, and how you design a site from a customer experience perspective?
Six Questions With Vanessa Fox
This time around, Vanessa Fox graciously agreed to let me put her in the hot seat and grill her on everything from common search engine optimization pitfalls, blogging, to what the heck she actually does these days.
Read more on the Bruce Clay blog
Women of Internet Marketing Wednesdays
Vanessa Fox made her entrance into the search marketing industry as the “face” of Google’s Webmaster Central team a few years back. I remember it quite clearly, thinking “Wow! A woman engineer at Google! And she’ll talk to us!” Vanessa started popping onto everyone’s radar, it was amazing.
Read more at Search Marketing Gurus
Why Did Vanessa Leave?
The effervescent, upwardly mobile Ms. Fox has announced that she’s leaving Zillow to become entrepreneur in residence for Seattle-based VC firm Ignition Partners. Vanessa will remain active in the search world, as a new features editor at Search Engine Land.
Vanessa Fox talks about Webmaster Tools and Duplicate Content
When at Google, Vanessa Fox created and developed Google Webmaster Central, which provides tools and information to help site owners understand their sites in the context of the Google index and with search engine optimization. She also managed the Google webmaster central blog and the Google webmaster discussion forums.
Read more at Stone Temple Consulting
8 Googler Alternatives To Superstar Matt Cutts
Vanessa, product manager of Google Webmaster Central, knows tons that will help site owners and SEOs. So do many other Googlers who make it out to conferences.
Read more on Search Engine Land
A Conversation With Google’s Webmaster Central
Google’s Vanessa Fox and Amanda Camp are blazing a cyber-trail here in the Emerald Forest that connects Website owners from around the world with the Internet’s leading trailfinder — the Google search engine. The trailhead begins at Google’s Webmaster Central in Kirkland.
Interview with Vanessa Fox of Google Sitemaps
I wanted to kind of do a different spin on Sitemaps information by looking at what about Sitemaps was different for and specific to bloggers. Of course, I asked some general questions to be nosy. 
Read on to find out what the differences are for bloggers, whether or not using Sitemaps can hurt your indexing (as claimed by some) and to find out why Fiesta Giles is hanging out at the Seattle Google offices.
Follow-up On Google Sitemaps With Vanessa Fox
Somehow Vanessa found time in her crazy busy schedule to answer some follow-up questions. Thanks Vanessa. If you have not yet tried Google Sitemaps, you are missing out.
Google Sitemaps Team Interview
Google Sitemaps was launched in June 2005 to enhance Google’s Web crawling process in cooperation with Webmasters and site owners. Collaborative crawling takes Webmasters into the boat to some degree, and both sides did learn a lot from each other in the last months. Google’s Sitemaps Team does listen to Joe Webmaster’s needs, questions, and suggestions. They have implemented a lot of very useful features based on suggestions in the Google Sitemaps Group, an open forum where members of the Sitemaps team communicate with their users, handing out technical advice even on weekends. The nickname Google Employee used by the Sitemaps team makes it regularly on the list of This month’s top posters.
Read more at Smart IT Consulting
Podcasts And Videos
Below are multimedia, such as podcasts and videos that Vanessa Fox has done.
WebPro News: Google I/O
Vanessa takes a moment to talk to WebPro News about the accuracy of Search Results and HTML5
Avvo Webinar: Marketing in the Age of Google
Vanessa joins Conrad Saam to talk about search and her book.
Watch the Video on the Avvo Blog
SEO site review session from Google I/O 2010
Vanessa Fox joins Matt Cutts, Greg Grothaus, and Evan Roseman on a Site Review session at Google I/O
Watch the video at Matt Cutt’s Blog
Vanessa at TEDx
Vanessa’s talk at TEDx, Tamaya.
Watch the video
Wordpress Community Podcast
Vanessa is guest host on Webmaster Radio’s Wordpress Podcast with Joost de Valk from Yoast and Frederick Townes of w3-edge.
Listen over at Webmaster Radio
Duct Tape Marketing Interview
Vanessa is interviewed by John Jantsch about her book, Marketing in the Age of Google.
Listen to the entire interview at DuctTape Marketing
Seattle Public Library Podcast: Technology and Its Impact on the Future of Libraries
Library Board trustee Eric Liu moderated a discussion on the future of libraries featuring panelists Mike Crandall, Debbie Cook, Vanessa Fox, and Monica Guzman on May 8, 2010 at The Seattle Public Library.
Listen to the audio: Technology and Its Impact on the Future of Libraries
WebExpo Forum, Brazil
Vanessa is interviewed at the WebExpo Forum in Brazil.
Oreilly Media, Where 2.0
Vanessa is interviewed at Oreilly’s Where 2.0
WebProNews at SMX West 2010
WebProNews talks with Avinash Kaushik, the Analytic Evangelist for Google AdWords & Vanessa Fox at SMX West
MIT Enterprise Forum: The Semantic Web
Vanessa joins the MIT Forum to talk about the emergence of the Semantic Web.
Marketing Should Be About “And” Rather Than “Or”
You’ll often notice than when a new web service or marketing strategy gets starts getting some buzz, it will often be referred to as a “_____ killer”, when in most cases this turns out to be greatly exaggerated or just plain wrong. For marketers, it’s important not to get too caught up in this kind of mentality, because as long as you have an audience and they can still be reached through some channel, that channel is alive and well.
Read the article and watch the video at WebProNews
Cranky Geeks: Tesla Files for IPO, Big Tech Roaring Back
The Topics:
Apple iPad Fever: Is it Evil?
Big Tech Comes Roaring Back
Will Microsoft Ever Get the Web Right?
Is eBay Facing Seller Revolt?
Google Announces Bounties for Bugs
WebProNews- Marketing in the Age of Google
Mike Mcdonald of WebProNews catches up with Vanessa at pubcon 2009 about her new book, Marketing in the Age of Google.
NVI solutions – Google Caffeine
NVI solutions interviews Vanessa at Pubcon 2009 about Google Caffeine.
Pubcon 2009 with Lee Odden
Marketing in the Age of Google Interview with Lee Odden
Search Marketing Expo Advanced 2009
Vanessa Fox was caught on camera by SeoExpertTV on the SEO Vets Mega Session:
MEGA Session: SEO Vets Take All Comers
Keyword Density Discussed During MEGA Session at SMX Advanced 2009
Experts Discuss PageRank Sculpting During MEGA Session
The Importance of Content for SEO From the Mega Session
CrankyGeeks With John Dvorak
Vanessa makes an appearance on episode 174 of Cranky Geeks.
WebProNews: Vanessa’s SEO Checklist
Mike McDonald sits down with Vanessa Fox to talk about her presentation at SMX advanced.
Watch the video
Seattle Tech Startup
Vanessa spoke at Seattle Tech Startup’s monthly meeting.
CrankyGeeks With John Dvorak
Facebook Backpedals, SEO Fiascoes, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Unite, iPhone App Gold Rush, and more…
WebPro News: Nathan and Vanessa Discuss the Upcoming O’Reilly Found Conference
These great minds have come together on two projects geared toward developers. JaneandRobot.com is a site they created that discusses the fundamentals of search engine optimization from a web developer’s perspective.
The second is the O’Reilly Found Conference. With this event, Vanessa and Nathan hope to change the historical idea that search is a marketing activity since it is now just as critical to technical architecture. The target audience for the conference is designers, IT professionals, and entrepreneurs.
Most of the search conferences such as SMX and SES focus primarily on the marketing angle of search. Marketers go home and pitch all their new ideas to their IT departments who have trouble believing the changes are necessary. Vanessa and Nathan want to help bridge that communication gap and allow the marketing and the IT departments work together.
In the above WPN video, Nathan gives a couple of examples of the type of issues that will be addressed at the conference.
CrankyGeeks with John Dvorak
The basis for Google page-ranking is to equate popularity with quality, and once you look at the information developed by SEO experts, you learn that this strategy barely works, I [John Dvorak] argued in a recent column. I suggest rethinking the basic organization of the Web itself. Vanessa thinks differently.
WebPro News: Making Your Social Media Campaign Work
Social media has taken over. Companies now realize how powerful it is for raising brand awareness and engaging with customers. But a lot of money can be lost if a social media campaign is not efficiently conducted.
SMX London 2008
Mark Bovenkerk catches Vanessa after a panel at SMX London and asks her about her visions of how SEO will evolve in the next few years.
Webmaster Radio SEM Synergy: Web Dev and Webmaster Guidelines
Then Virginia talks to Vanessa Fox, best known for her role in developing Google Webmaster Central and expanding the Google Webmaster Guidelines. Vanessa is also author of the blog Vanessa Fox. Nude. and is part of the team behind Jane and Robot. At Jane and Robot, Vanessa writes about the intersection of Web developer issues and SEO. She talks to Virginia about what developers need to remember about Google’s new Flash crawling ability, as well as her thoughts about redirecting the black hat/white hat debate. She also explains what she’s doing to help coordinate developer sessions at SMX East.
WebPro News: Catching Up With Vanessa Fox
Vanessa Fox has been credited and recognized for creating Google’s Webmaster Central, but that’s only the beginning. As she tells WebProNews, she has been quite a busy lady since she left Google. Aside from speaking, writing, organizing conferences, and blogging, Vanessa has two new projects to add to her resume. She has launched The Jane and Robot Mission to help bring search marketers and Web developers together. She also has a new blog called Nine By Blue in which she plans to write about holistic online marketing and search analytics from a reference standpoint.
Real Estate Radio: SEO 101
We closed the show speaking with Vanessa Fox from Nine by Blue. Vanessa is an expert in SEO and Google and actually developed Google’s Webmaster Central. We talked with Vanessa about a number of topics including what the top criteria are for search engine rankings, how to find out your web traffic, the myth of the Google sandbox, words needed for a post to be indexed, and so much more.
Webmaster Radio SEO 101: REP and Managing Robot Access
Vanessa Fox discuses the Robots Exclusion Protocol and Managing Robots Access To Your Website, including managing capabilities and implementing the REP, plus she answers a listener question about page redirects that are disallowed.
Microsoft adCenter Community Blog: SEO and Web Analytics
At Search Marketing World in Dublin a couple of weeks ago, Vanessa Fox kindly agreed to have a chat for 10 minutes (in a very noisy corridor) about search engine optimisation (SEO) and analytics, and how marketers can use analytics to inform decisions they make about what and how to optimise.
Search Marketing Now Webinar: Social Networking 101
You’ve signed up for LinkedIn, created a profile on Facebook, and joined Twitter. Now what? Everyone’s talking about how social networking is a great way to build brand loyalty, increase customer service and drive more traffic. But how? Not only must you learn how to build a profile and engage with other users – you’ve got to incorporate these sites into your existing marketing activities. Who has the time to follow all these sites? Does it really pay off? This webcast provides an introduction to social networking – which sites are out there, how you use them, and how to figure out what makes the most sense for your business.
Search Marketing Now Webinar: SEO Strategies for Large Web Sites: Using Content to Build Links and to Drive Traffic
In this webcast, Vanessa Fox, Features Editor at Search Engine Land, and Rupali Shah, Senior SEO Consultant at 24/7 Real Media, will discuss link-baiting – the process of creating compelling content that gets people talking and linking your way, how it has become a proven tactic for companies large and small – and how you can use it to maximize your online marketing success. With their combined experience, you will get both the search engine and the client/ agency perspective.
Webmaster Radio GoodKarma: Using Twitter
Natala Menezes from Microsoft adCenter stops by to talk about Twitter and the five best Twitter services you might not know about.
SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday: Blended Search
To round out our last episode of 2007, we brought our good friend and search industry celebrity, Vanessa Fox, into Whiteboard studios to talk about Vertical Search (or Search 3.0, if you will). Vertical, Blended, Shaken, Stirred…however you like your search results mixed, this aspect is one that is becoming increasingly more important in our industry. As the engines work harder to integrate results, it offers tremendous opportunities (and challenges) in getting different content media for the same site to rank for target terms.
Webmaster Radio GoodKarma: Guest Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz
Catching up with Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz.
WebPro News: Pubcon 2007 with Matt Cutts
WebProNews catches up with the Head of Google’s Webspam Team and Software Engineer, Matt Cutts and the Features Editor of Search Engine Land, Vanessa Fox at PubCon 2007 in Las Vegas. The interview spans a number of topics from two of the top names in the field. Both discuss page rank reduction, site hacking and how you can stop it. They also talk about subdomain changes, especially related to Google.
Webmaster Radio Good Karma: with Nate Buggia of Microsoft’s Live Search Webmaster Center
Catching up with the latest news with Live Search Webmaster Center.
Reachd: Real Estate SEO 101
Webmaster Radio GoodKarma: Paid Links with Todd Friesen
Webmaster Radio SEO Rockstars: Mac vs. Windows
Webmaster Radio GoodKarma: Paid Links
CrankyGeeks with John Dvorack
Online Marketing Blog: Zillow’s Advertising Platform
WebPro News: All About Zillow
netznews.tv
Online Marketing Blog: Google Webmater Tools
Webmaster Radio: Daily Searchcast
WebPro News: Blogging and Google Webmaster Central
WebPro News: with Rand Fishkin at SES
The Tech Conference Show: BlogHer Business
American Marketing Association: Search Engine Marketing
I had the distinct pleasure of spending an hour on the phone with Vanessa Fox, Product Manager of Google Webmaster Central, interviewing her just over a week ago. Our discussions ran the gamut of SEO issues — redirects, duplicate content, AJAX, Flash, PageRank, and of course, the wealth of tools and reports that Google has made available in their Webmaster Central.
Webmaster Radio Search Pulse: Google Links Report Launch
. In this edition we had a special guest on, Vanessa Fox of the Google Webmaster Central team, to discuss the new Google link tool available within the Sitemaps tool. In addition, we talked about Google Personalized search and what SEOs should know. We discussed the Panama rankings score release, PageRank and SEO, Site Explorer features, Google local results and signals of poor SEO sites.
Webmaster Radio GoodKarma: Googlebot and Subdomains
WebPro News: Discussing Sitemaps
Sitemaps.org, born of historic collaboration between Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, intends to simplify the tenuous endeavor of directing search engines to your site’s relevant content. Thus, sitemaps are garnering renewed focus and while the forge is still hot, Vanessa Fox helps clear the smoke.
WebPro News: Sitemaps.org Search Engine Alliance
In an exclusive video interview with WebProNews Yahoo and Google announced a collaborative site called sitemaps.org.
Webmaster Radio Click This: Tools for AdSense Publishers
Webmaster Radio Daily Searchcast: Buffy and SEO
Last week, I [Danny Sullivan] partnered up with Vanessa Fox from Google Webmaster Central to do a special edition of WebmasterRadio’s Good Karma show. Vanessa’s a big Buffy The Vampire Slayer fan. So am I. We thought there were search marketing lessons to be learned from Buffy.
Read the story and listen to the podcast
Webmaster Radio GoodKarma: Guest Matt Cutts
Matt Cutts and I take over GoodKarma while GoodROI (Greg Niland), the program’s regular host, is on vacation. We’ll talk about a little of everything, including giving Danny Sullivan career advice (if he ever decides to get out of search — which we hope he never does — he can always pursue a career in song), Google’s handling of words with accented characters, display date changes in Google cached pages, and the not-so-nice side of SEO.
