The Future of SEO: its all OLD News

I was talking to an industry acquaintance today about a problem we had with an SEO client which highlighted what I feel is a fundamental problem with the world of SEO as a whole. Reliability and consistency are two areas seemingly lacking in the world of search marketing, especially in the Organic SEO realm.

The original seeds for this particular ‘Rant’ were sown during my recent journey to ‘Demystify the Google Toolbar PageRank’. The truly amazing extremes in understanding and perception of PageRank led me to look deeper into the causes of such widespread differences in opinion by professionals and SEO enthusiasts alike.

Although the PageRank 'Rant' was supposed to be more about perceptions of pagerank within the SEO community (theoretical and otherwise), it served to highlight some systemic problems within the world of SEO itself. I think some of the most interesting and telling reactions to the first article were average end-users (surfers) whom seemed not only have an inkling of what PageRank is, in many cases did not even know what SEO meant. Average end users are, in many ways, in an SEO knowledge vacuum.

Self importance seems to have a place all too often with SEO professionals and the TRUE value, providing a quality service and educating their clients, seems almost secondary.

Latest Case Study
The self importance that seems to reign in the SEO industry is placing a growth barrier on the SEO industry. A recent case study highlights this very point.

I had a conversation with my favorite link spam fighter recently – it went something like this:

"We have a client with a nasty looking link profile. There are Plenty of spammy links and non-relevant links. Do we try to clean it up?"

“I dunno, but going through 13 000 or so back links is a daunting task. This is where I need a copy of 'Link-Spam Assassin', know where to get one?”

“We're considering commissioning software to take a list of potential 'spammy' links and contact the owners to be removed. Manually contacting 200-300 potential spammy links is quite the investment in time or data entry staff expenses.”

Until I can figure out if these potentially spammy links should cleaned up where possible, I can’t advise a direction. (Back links like 110673.tld or 1stlinkexchange.tld or 4-gayhosting.tld yada yada .. ad naseua ). This client is a fairly well known marketing/SEO resource, and so I'd expect to see a wider variety IBL (inbound links), some of these though, are obviously spammy.

Do we need to try and repair the damage done before us or merely move ahead with sound SEO work?

It seems like we'll be fighting a five alarm blaze with a water pistol here.... I figure cleaning up the existing mess is the place to start. Without documentation on link profiles, placing the blame for this client's poor search engine performance on a bad link profile is pure conjecture. We can not show this client a potential return on the investment necessary to take up a damage control strategy, and as a result, the entire SEO industry looks less legitimate for being an 'indefinite' science.

The Second Cousin: SEO is not an Accepted Marketing Tool
Something we face a lot. The SEO industry, as a whole, will remain a ‘second cousin’ to other more accepted areas for marketing, (print, television, direct marketing and the like) until it can ‘grow up’ with tighter industry wide standards that make it a measurable tool - not a mystical black art. This is business NOT Las Vegas. We need the appearance of consistency here folks, it’s that simple. There are many areas that make this difficult.

The above Link Profile scenario highlights the issue. We are still ‘magicians’ not ‘tacticians’ in the eyes of most SMB (small and medium sized businesses) owners and need to work to legitimize the entire SEO/SEM industry through education and consistency.

If I cannot tell a client what we should do about a bad link profile, how is he supposed to believe me when I tell him he ‘has a bad link profile’?

“Sir, the breaks are shot on your car. Fix them? Not sure how... Let’s TRY this.” – Not a tasty pitch now is it? Even building contractors have ‘Building Codes’ that allow for some form of order within the chaos.

Not always having the answers, or a central location to even seek them out, can make us look illegitimate. The industry as a whole becomes more of a mystery than a science. Credibility and our ability to grow to be a part of the marketing family, not merely a ‘second cousin’ of marketing, will rest on the leaders of the community doing just that, ‘leading’.

I have encountered far too many ‘self-inflated’ SEO community leaders that seem out of touch with the largest market segment in North America, small and medium sized business owners. Most SEO providers are NOT large companies working with Fortune 500 firms. They are small operations providing services to the mass of SMBs that cannot afford to pay the fees asked by larger SEO operations that most of the industry leaders hearken from. Could it be that they have lost touch with the largest market segment? Where, I would ask, are they leading us in the SEO community then?

Words from our Leaders
I was researching the whole PageRank phenomenon when I decided to contact a few luminaries in the SEO field. These were people whom I considered to be at the top of the game since they were heavily quoted and represented at various high level events (a few are speaking at SES 06). When I asked them about why they felt the PR thing had gotten so convoluted I was told the following:

“It's kind of old”
“anyone experienced in SEO hasn't relied or paid much attention to the Google Toolbar PR for years.”

--- Odd I wondered. How then, were such massive widespread misconceptions able to still permeate the SEO world? That’s on just ONE element, PageRank.

Another said that pagerank,
“is old news and nothing we haven't been saying here for the past few years. ”

Ok, I have an ally right? Consider then being told that I should, “choose a more timely subject” – Whoa... pull the train back into the station. I had just witnessed whole sale forum slaughter of the whole PageRank controversy. Also, if I am talking about this, is it OLD news?

Gas prices being unbearable to the small business ‘could’ be old news, but it is still current because it now has new connotations and relevance. Or am I wrong here? Hasn’t the actual VALUE of page rank changed over the years (post-Florida for algo junkies)? So what was old is new again, right?

The SMBs are adrift in bad information and growing frustrated with SEO providers and enthusiasts (forum flies) in general. They pay one professional that says they need 2000 directory submissions and then another comes along and says, “WOW! That may have not been a great idea there”.

Each and every day we see more and more clients that have had ‘bad’ SEO Outsourcing experiences and are quickly losing faith in the whole ‘science’ of SEO. I spend a great deal of time defending the industry instead of actually working. The bad press on SEO is getting expensive.

We need clarification, and we need the leaders of the SEO industry to realize that small and medium sized business owners are not aware of modern SEO standards. In fact, SEO standards has become an oxymoron! Those who are leading the SEO industry have a responsibility to help the industry change from a 'black magic art' to a real, actual, measurable science.

What is at Stake?
The Engines I for one want better search results. I use the internet a great deal for research as well as personal use. Getting fast access to the ‘relevant’ information I am after is of great importance. It is company policy here that we don’t work for ‘Scraper’ type sites (created for the sole purpose of getting AdSense clicks), Link farm/directories, websites built with RSS feeds or other aggregated content and many others.
The more the Search Engines participate in the development of standards the less work, (hopefully) they will have getting sites more ’compliant’ and make a better end product (search results) for us all.

The SEO Industry We have been working in building the web since 1998, (business development since 1987) and the web development community certainly went through much of this in its infancy. Organizations such as the W3C (and relative organizations) have gone a long way in legitimizing the web design and development industry. I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that our web development clients are far more informed than our SEO clients as far as the goals of a project going into it. The housing contractor/renovation providers had some ‘reputation’ problems back in the mid 1980’s (oh so many contractor jokes) and the rise of Bob Villa and the whole DIY craze helped average every day consumers understand and even take an interest in an industry known for loose pants and ‘butt cracks’. Quite an image make-over huh?

Who’s Steering This Ship Anyways?
So, while so many are chatting in forums and at conventions, touting the wonders of SEO and the internet in general, there is a massive segment of business population that is quickly becoming ‘disillusioned’ with the SEO industry and the providers thereof. This SHOULD be of concern for the SEO professional. Economies turn, over and over. We are in good times my friends, when the next down turn comes and investment dollars (business development and marketing) start to dry up, where will the axe fall first?

I thinks it’s safe to say, with the lack of perceived and real value, the SEO industry is going to take the hit.

When that happens, the quality of results will also suffer. It’s a simple trickle down effect here. It is in everyone involved interest to create a stronger sense of ethics and education towards making the SEO industry a stronger and more ‘valuable’ option for SMBs and marketing professionals alike.

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