Did-it…Done it … Its all getting a bit silly….

I had some time for the Did-it/SEO isn’t rocket science/is dead argument being argued in the online marketing arena over the last couple of weeks, in no small part due to Dave Pasternack’s recent article, however Mark Simon’s (Did-it’s Vice President of industry relations - Crisis Manager perhaps) recent foray into the domain, only serves to enflame the situation and highlight every aspect they are trying to argue against. I will however state that the response of the SEO community as a whole hasn’t been that well handled, and if the industry is to be as well respected as more traditional sectors such as Offline then really such character assassinations should be very few and far between.

Mark Simon’s recent post on Mediapost merely served to highlight why Did-its recent campaign is nothing more than a PR stunt, and in my personal opinion merely highlighting the changing trends of online marketing from merely search engine focussed to offerings including Online PR & Social Media.

To read the Mark Simons article click here

And the fuss it`s caused - http://www.threadwatch.org/node/11507

However his post did raise a couple of interesting and valid points most notably

“That doesn’t mean that it’s curtains for SEO firms. They’ll still be in high demand as experts on information architecture and site usability. They’ll help clients build sites that their searchers are really looking for, and that their searchers can use. They’ll cease to have value in reverse-engineering the engine algorithms, but they’ll still have value in helping clients create truly relevant Web sites. “

I can’t help but agree to certain parts of that comment, however whilst the algorithm is still manipulatable, the services for “optimisers” will still be required, and until search engines can factor in something that is not in any way open to “abuse” or the general public change the way they use the web, the market will always be “buoyant”

The overriding factor that will determine whether or not the benefit outweighs the investment. Whilst traffic from search engines such as Google remain the primary source of traffic and the ROI from organic search high, the value an SEO’er will remain at a premium.

Add comment February 13th, 2007