Ask the SEO Guru

The Guru had a comment from a rabid fan, (not to be mistaken for an AVID fan), to a post last week about how to find a good plumber or SEO. I was going to reply to the comment but as it turns out it is appropriate for the opening of the follow-up post I had planned to make today anyway. So, I'll use the comment and my reply as the foundation for the clarification I had wanted to post.

The comment was:

>I was expecting to find specifics on how to find a good, credible SEO based on your experience in the field. Coming from you, that would be golden!

Although this lists solid general rules for finding any reputable business I was hoping you'd tackle SEO specifically, with examples of the good, the bad, and the ugly SEOs out there. I know you're not afraid of a good argument, so why did you lay up from the last post to this one?

You're not getting soft on us, are you old man? <

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The Guru will address this comment specifically just a little further down in this post. For the moment I would like to point out that I've amassed quite a body of work over the last 11 years even though since the Google right-to-sell-my-own-links lawsuit, I rarely spoke publicly. Even before that, going back to my days of moderating at JimWorld for my dear friend Jim Wilson, (whom I still miss dearly), I always chose my battles carefully and tried to only speak out when I honestly felt I had something to contribute.

I rarely post without purpose. I try not to let emotion dictate my words and I usually have a strategy to hit a specific objective with every post I make. One reason I don't post more often is simply because it takes me so long for each one. Sometimes it can take me several days to have a purpose in mind and then write, edit and re-write until I'm confident I'm saying what I REALLY want to say. And often that is only for a brief reply.

I freely admit that I have a tendency to piss some people off when that is not the intent. It is just that I can be brutally honest and opinionated. That's a dangerous combination in anybody's book. Even so, if someone were to waste the time and look at every public remark I had made, I'm sure they could find several instances of justification, or clarification on my part, but I honestly don't think there would be a single instance of retraction or apology.

This latest series of posts, the slapping, the tips, and this one as a closer, is no different. I had a definite purpose in mind and it was not to simply offend a peer. This one happened to be two-fold but a purpose nonetheless.

My primary purpose was to attempt to sway the collective mindset of the online promotion industry from perpetuating a negative perception of the industry it serves and is served by. My secondary purpose was to actually do what I felt I could to help online business people feel more comfortable about seeking professional assistance in the face of such negative perception being promoted by the people within the very industry itself for little more than a few cheap links.

As to the primary objective, I have been reading for a long, LONG time how SEO is chock full of con men and incompetents, (the number usually thrown about was 90%) by some of the most well known and widely read figures within the SEO community. It has always made me uncomfortable and often downright personally offended seeing the hand that feeds being bitten and with so little reliance on historical reference or anything close to scientifically arrived at data. There have actually been two strangely symbiotic discussions going on simultaneously within the seo community one perpetuating the other so neither needed any real facts to back up either.

One of course being that 90% of SEOs are con men or incompetent and the other, "Why does SEO have a bad reputation".

It is true that there have been stories about the reputation problem of the industry in the mainstream press but where do you think the journalists got their reference material? They get it from the SEO community itself. The bad press the industry gets is being handed to the media by the very same people who stand to benefit most from an improved public image.

Every profession has it's share of people who can not be trusted either due to the fact they are a thief or simply incompetent and SEO is no different but the truth is much closer to 90% of the people in the profession being hard working business people trying their best to build a quality service compared to only 10% being untrustworthy or incapable of delivering quality results. AND, anyone that has had the occasion to attend a conference or get together of any kind focused on SEO, met some SEO's or dealt with them directly by phone or email knows full well that the vast majority of the people they know are decent, honest, hard working people that can be trusted to perform to the best of their ability. You could ask no more from anyone in any other profession. So, why on earth are these same people who know this to be fact writing articles and blogs perpetuating the misperception that anyone needing SEO assistance had better be VERY careful and watch out for all the 90% of rip offs and then the next week writing another article bemoaning the bad reputation of the industry?

Now that you think about it, does seem a little odd doesn't it? Of course it does and I believe it is time for the practice to stop. It doesn't have to be this way and the mainstream media would be quick to change if we would change first.

My primary purpose was to use this series to throw down the gauntlet to those in the industry who have the voice, have the following and the leadership to sway the perception of their readers. To challenge my colleagues and peers to stop talking about the abstract negative that doesn't even exist and seek their links from articles and comments extolling the positive contributions of the people they know within the industry. To do as the Guru did and encourage their readers to learn and exercise a little more business principle and use that to find SEO services that can understand their needs and deliver based on solid business objectives and strategies.

If the prominent figures in the industry would start talking about the good that comes from SEO and good people in it, as opposed to spreading more FUD, SEO would clean up it's own reputation. It is the people with the voice who made it bad and it is the same people who could make it good. It is time for the whole thing to change and I'd like to see it start changing today and I hope I'm not alone.

It's not hard just take a quick look at what the Guru did with his blogroll and his article http://massa.techndu.com/default.aspx?page=admin#ac0e4c85c-7f39-4431-b0c6-09d49be04085. It's easy to find nice things to say about the people you know and admire. And here's the kicker. Guess what saying nice things about people you like can do for you? IT CAN GET YOU LINKS !

So, I'm challenging all those who have a voice in the industry. You are the leaders and are the ones who shape the present perceptions and the future of the industry as a whole.  Speak out for the positive aspects of SEO when you write your own articles and call out those who would continue to perpetuate the unsubstantiated bullshit!  If you can't say something nice about the profession you have chosen, then don't say anything at all and you'll soon see the affect.

Remember this when next you choose to publish something negative about the game you have chosen to play. If it is bad and you are a part of it, then you not only belittle THEM, you make yourself appear smaller as well for only a fool would choose to be a part of something bad and expect others to see them as better than the game they play.

In whatever field of endeavor you choose, do the best job you can do, be proud of what you do and do what you say you will do ---- and charge accordingly.

Now as to the comment and my secondary objective.

One part of the comment was:

“I was expecting to find specifics on how to find a good, credible SEO based on your experience in the field. Coming from you, that would be golden!“

Remember when I said I don’t always tell you what you want to hear? One problem with we humans all face is that we tend to not hear what we don’t want to hear. The entire point of the article was that I was giving the specifics.

Finding a good credible SEO is not hard and the choices you have are great. The hard part is in you not expecting the SEO to be golden. Rather to make sure your own business objectives are golden. THEN just about any seo can help you if you know the help you need but expecting anyone to recommend someone to eliminate the hard work required to run a successful online business is a recipe for disaster and THAT is from my experience.

I can certainly understand how thinking an SEO is going to take a little money and make you a lot without you having to actually run a business is very appealing but that is at the root of the problem.

The next part of the comment was, “Although this lists solid general rules for finding any reputable business I was hoping you'd tackle SEO specifically, with examples of the good, the bad, and the ugly SEOs out there”

That was EXACTLY the point. That finding a reputable SEO is no different than finding any other reputable SEO and that is tackling SEO specifically.

If you tell me exactly what issue you want help with, I could give you a list of people that I would recommend to do that job without hesitation. But if you want me to give you a list of the good bad and ugly, that no one can do for the simple fact that just about every SEO has the ability to be exceptionally good or exceptionally ugly depending on what service you need.

Again, it keeps coming back to you needing to stop thinking in terms of needing to get your site SEO’d and start thinking in terms of your site needing more traffic, (I know a lot of people who can help you with that), and what risk level you are willing to accept to get more traffic how fast, or your site needing more conversions, (I know a lot of people who can help with that), or your site needing better functionality, etc. You need to define what type of service you need and set verifiable levels of performance and THEN I can help find you the good, the bad and the ugly and so can a LOT of other people. Once you do the work you need to do, it becomes no more difficult than finding a good plumber but as long as you are looking for some kind of magician to solve your problems, you are going to find a whole lot of ugly regardless of who anyone would recommend. That was the point.

And finally:

“. I know you're not afraid of a good argument, so why did you lay up from the last post to this one?“

You are right. I am not afraid of an argument and I laid up from the last post because I honestly thought it was the best help I could give the most people. I knew that a lot of people would not like hearing me blaming them for the problem instead of going with conventional wisdom and letting people assume they didn’t need to take responsibility for their own business, rather to blame fraud and incompetence. I can see how blaming the other people can be popular but it is simply not the truth and like I said in the last post, you can blame anyone and everyone else all you want but you’re still stuck with a failing business. Once you accept and address the fact you need a solid business plan and to identify specific problems that need an experts help, now you will be able to easily find the professional help you need with little worry.

Now, I can’t think of much more I can say on this subject without further belaboring the point. This will bring this short series to a close. I hope the Guru has been able to make an impact and maybe help to have start making things a little better. (probably not. :(  

You kids get outta bed and git ready for skool

Peace Ya’ll