Get to Know David Alpern, Digital Marketing Director at Endertech

With nearly two decades of professional experience in search engine optimization (SEO), Pay Per Click (PPC), and all facets of digital traffic generation, David Alpern has continuously worked closely with clients to shape company messaging to drive traffic acquisition. This includes examining the current marketing, product, and supporting content of a company to refine its messaging. On a broader level, Alpern’s main goal is to increase inbound web traffic for the purpose of driving increases in sales and lead generation. He has been a speaker and presenter at numerous conferences such as the Direct Marketing Association, the National Conference for Database Marketing, and Retailing.org’s Direct 2 Customer (D2C) Conference. Alpern has also taken his experience into the classroom as an instructor of Internet Marketing at California State University, Long Beach’s College of Business Administration. During his time there, his classes were so highly sought after during every semester registration cycle that the waiting lists for his course became considerable (but he always allowed everyone who physically showed up to ultimately add the class and earn the course credits that semester). “I love opportunities where there’s creation,” Alpern said, citing the value of innovation and discovery within a start-up company recalling his time at AltaVista twenty years ago when that global internet company was experimenting with the mechanics and best practices in the early days of PPC.

Please introduce yourself and where you work.

David Alpern, Digital Marketing Director at Endertech – a website and software development and design agency in Torrance, California

How do you think SEO has changed over the last 10 years?

Personalized search/mobile’s growth vs. desktop’s decline in overall search activity/algorithm changes to reduce the ability to game the system

How did you get introduced to digital marketing, more specifically SEO?

I joined AltaVista, the leading search engine at the time, early in my career. Since then I have had the opportunity to work at other search engines as well as on the agency and the client side in verticals ranging from healthcare to retail e-commerce to restaurant lead generation to automotive and nearly every other vertical in between. The one vertical I wish I had more opportunity to spend time with is travel as global hospitality is my passion and the travel industry is among the most progressive early adopters of online innovation tools

What are the services you provide to your clients?

Practical and consultative assistance to drive increased traffic acquisition. I view my services as a collaborative undertaking with clients, often assigning them “homework”, such as cultivating specific content, since no one knows their business, as well as they, do themselves.

What strategy according to you will prevail in 2018 for SEO?

The power of influencers to drive awareness and links. Further pivoting to video with increased video production capabilities. Increased understanding of how social impacts SEO, not directly, rather indirectly via interest generation that spurs follow-on activity and traffic

What would your advice be to people who are looking to take up digital marketing as a career choice?

You’re making a smart move. Digital marketing exceeded television three years ago as the top venue for advertising dollars in the US. As long as digital continues to be able to target individually in a way no other medium can, there will be opportunities galore for smart, passionate, knowledgeable digital marketers