Question for the Week of June 28th, 2008
What don't you trust about SEO (search engine optimization)? ... and why?
Someone at Linkedin asked this questions AGAIN!
www.linkedin.com/answers/marketing-sales/advertising-promotion/internet-marketing/MAR_ADP_INM/257887-517478?split_page=2For 11 years I've seen this single question and ensuing circular debate asked over and over and over and always with the exact same outcome. No winners on either side of the argument. Surely I can't be the only one who wonders why there is NEVER an answer if the same questions gets asked again and again. If any of us truly longed for logic and the rule of reason to dictate the direction of our industry going forward as a profession, then doesn't it seem strange to that no resolution seems to lie in sight?
If two plus two equals 4 and we can all agree to that, and if we can all look at a rose and agree that it really is a rose, then why does a resolution to this little poser elude us? Why can we not define SEO, all agree that it is what it is and move on?
For reference and for those who may not hold a linkedin account, (does such a beast exist?), here is the questions offered this time:
SEO is a fundamental aspect of making your website relevant to your
visitors and prospects. The major search engines have SEO consultants
on staff because it is so critical to effective paid placement. Yet,
there are many examples of genuine disdain being expressed for SEO on
LinkedIn as though it is a false promise rather than a business tool.
Why?
Clarification added 5 days ago:
Optimization is essential to an effective paid placement (SEM) campaign
because of the importance of relevance. If your SEM matrix is not
properly relevant (you are bidding on the phrase "Toyota" when you are
selling "Ford") you will pay more for a click. This CAN be optimized,
but not easily. A proper optimization WILL reduce the CPC and the major
search engines encourage this practice and will even help you do it.
Granted this one does have a new twist with the "clarification" that threw even the Guru for a loop. It seems to never fail that when somone adds some clarification, you can bet your ass that any point with even a remote link to reality can now be clearly hidden behind a thick veil of clarity. Be that as it may, the gist remains the same.
Anyway --- I digest, so let's get back to the point.
Linkedin is probably my favorite of the social media experiments borne of Web 2.0 but I just don't seem to have the time these days so I don't get by there often. I was lead there by Kim Krause who happens to be one of those people I try to MAKE time for
http://cre8pc.com/blog/index.php and after reading the entire thread, (what a waste --- AGAIN), I posted and instead of trying to "clarify that statement, I'll just post it here so I can get some placements out of it.
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We're all over-thinking the problem. There is disdain for SEO for the
simple fact it does not exist. We are not discussing clients hiring
people to optimize search engines now are we. That fact alone makes it
impossible to define in a way we can all agree with, yet it continues
to be bought and sold.
There IS such a thing as online business development. there is such a
thing as online traffic generation, website optimization for improved
functionality or increased conversions and there is such a thing as
public relations and brand building.
Go to people who specialize and advertise in these types of
services and you can set verifiable targets and metrics that can be
gauged. You can set specific requirements and I can deliver specific
results, thereby establishing a market that governs itself much like
any other 'real" business with value based on verifiable return rather
than solely on percieved supply and demand.
You may say, but there is verifiable return with SEO and I would
argue if there is, then that is business development and any
association with SEO is coincidental at best, totally irrelevant at
worst.
As long as we continue to discuss a business process as SEO , no
one really understand what they are buying OR selling yet it keeps
being bought and sold while both buyer and seller tries to "explain" a
process that does not exist.
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I understand the need to cling to a label you've become familiar with. I do it too so I'm not trying to call any one out or suggest I have a "better" opinion than others. If I offend I apologize because that is truly not my intent. I say what I'm saying because I honestly believe it to be the truth and I say it in the spirit of contributing to a positive change in the industry, on the web, and in myself.
Peace Y'all
G
Just curious, but am I the only one that used to bite the heads and limbs off of my army men to represent the dead and wounded?
I got a Cowboy and Indian set called Fort Apache for a Xmas present one year. It was pretty cool because it had three sides and two gun towers with a real swinging gate. Later that Xmas day I decided I needed a headless horse that one of the Indians had been riding but now had a chewed stump where the head used to be. But it took me like 5 minutes to chew through the horse's neck.
As a result, most of the supporting livestock and thick pieces of artillery from future fantasy battles survived.