Does SEO need to evolve
August 30th, 2007
I have read a number of posts recently which unfortuntely in my opinion do not portray Search Marketing in particularly SEO in a particularly good light.
In particular there has been a long running thread over at Joost De Valk’s blog regarding DMoz, where a number of quite respected Search Marketeers and Dmoz editors have been involved in a sometimes quite heated debate. This followed of the initial post by Jeremy Shoemaker (aka Shoemoney)’s post regarding DMoz.
Whilst this is probably not the biggest, and probably not the ugliest of such examples (lets use the recent Scoble example or Dave Pasternack (Rocket Science) as others), however it does show what a powerful medium we are working with and unfortunately one which can have knock on effects.
With traditional advertising, spats were generally kept private, with maybe a few industry commentators privy to them, perhaps leaked out ocasionally to the press (if the company was big enough), however the Internet is different.
Having such a ‘discussion’ means hundreds if not thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people can read about your discussion, which in itself is not a bad thing (lets face it as SEO’s most of the discussion forums I would suggest are optimised - and thus probably feature more highly). However using the above example (Dmoz) as an example, somebody coming across such a post is hardly likely to look favourably on Dmoz, and may alter their perceptions of SEO as a result. Perhaps that example may be slightly far fetched, however the issue still remains that many of these conversations should be kept professional at all times, and in line with other more established professions.
People like Danny Sullivan and others have always worked hard to establish SEO and Online Marketing as a respected profession (rather than the Dark Art it is/was referred to as), however surely we have to act professional at all times, in order to earn respect, particularly from other sectors, both within advertising/marketing and externally.
At the end of the day, just because we have the power to do something, doesn’t mean that we should. Just because we can linkbait, doesn’t mean the tactic should be used willy nilly. Just because we have a strong opinion, doesnt mean that opinion should be shouted about on a public forum. In any other profession such activity (dare I say) would be frowned upon, and whilst we are different from other professions, at the end of the day, maybe we can still learn something from them.
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Entry Filed under: Search Marketing
7 Comments Add your own
1. Alanis Morissette | August 31st, 2007 at 4:44 pm
I find it ironic that you mention the need to “act professional at all times”, yet in the same sentence (literally) you are trying to increase your link juice by linking the term “SEO and Online Marketing” to your business page. Is this acting professional? Does the link add value to the reader? Is anyone reading this specific blog post possibly interested in your SEO services? Possible, but doubtful. Not judging you; just noticing the irony.
2. Peter Young | September 1st, 2007 at 5:27 am
Regarding whether the link may not offer ‘value’ to the reader - if someone reading the post was interested in our services - surely then it offers value to the reader - yes perhaps this is not going to apply to many readers but there will and have been some.
As regards whether this is professional. The post tackled the issue of whether we should be having public slanging matches at the possible detriment of the industry, something echoed to a degree by Matt Cutts recently
http://www.e-gain.co.uk/blog/its-official-google-doesnt-hate-seos-but-we-do-have-an-image-problem/2007/08/31/
I have to ask in response - how in the context of the post - is an anchor text to our services on our blog not proffesional? When I talk about being professional we talk about portraying a good public image to potential clients in particular.
3. xixtas | September 1st, 2007 at 5:41 pm
While you might believe that this sheds a bad light on dmoz I wonder if you have another suggestion for what the editors who work together at the ODP project should do when outright lies are spread about us willy nilly? Don’t we have to fight back? The outright lies initially posted by shoemoney have spread across the web at an incredible rate in many languages and I have yet to see a single blogger retract their initial parroting of the post.
To me, this is the shameful aspect of the whole situation. That so many within the SEO community would continue to perpetrate an outright lie and fabrication. A fabrication which has been debunked over and over again by many independent people with access inside dmoz. That not a single one of the hundreds of SEO bloggers who have repeated the story without any fact-checking whatsoever has issued a correction or update in their own words says more about the so called “ethics” of the SEO community than a thousand stupid arguments on a thousand blogs.
4. Peter Young | September 1st, 2007 at 7:07 pm
That is to a certain degree my point. Most other professions would at some point get both sides of the story, with little or no personal retorts.
Unfortunately the power of the internet means that once something is said, it is often too late too retract once submitted.
5. Boris | September 2nd, 2007 at 5:23 am
Hmmm…. Reminds me of something my mother often said, “Think before you speak”… Now, it’s more like “think before you submit!”
6. Rob Jones | September 3rd, 2007 at 8:30 am
Actually, as one of the participants in the argument at Joost’s blog, I agree with your assessment. Frankly I wanted a bath after the affair. Problem is it just gets old being slammed by lies and linkbait.
I’ve been editing at Dmoz since ‘99. The only thing I know about corruption is that editors caught in shady business are summarily canned, after which they wander the net proclaiming innocence and pronouncing us corrupt.
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As for the big $5000 extortion scam, that was as you’d guess just plain old link bait. Nobody on the planet considers a listing worth $5000 even if we charged. “Shoe” knew bloggers would circle the wagons, and despite Dmoz staff offering to can the editor if he’ll provide the email, he suddenly doesn’t see a need to have an extortionist brought to justice. Meanwhile page after page on google refers to his website. It worked.
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The project has a LOT of work to do to catch up to changes on the net, and we’re working on it. AOL just added staff and resources, and hopefully we’ll emerge a better product.
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Meanwhile the corruption thing is like the Proctor & Gamble satanist connection… a popular urban legend that will never die.
Good luck on your crusade… and yes, simply being able to do something doesn’t mean it should be done. Regards - rj
7. Its Official - Google doe&hellip | September 3rd, 2007 at 10:30 am
[…] Which as it turns out followed on quite nicely from yesterdays post regarding changing peoples perception of SEO - and growing up into a respected profession - not an easy job - but one I would say is necessary in the long term Sphere: Related Content […]
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