3 December 2008 5 Comments
Well, this happens about once a year. Someone in the blogosphere decides to attack SEO as an industry. After a while, everyone just becomes a bit bored with it and ignores them. However, I’m bored today and have nothing to post. So, let’s go over a post by Daryl Mather on Consulting Pulse, and take a stab at the claims made there.
First, just to preface this whole thing, let it be known that there are no hard feelings here. Believe me, we hear this stuff all the time. A few years ago we would get testy about it, but now we know it’s on of those easy traffic ploys some bloggers jump on. That, and SEO is self evident now. We don’t really have to defend it. Besides, it’s hard to hate a guy that has such a strong respect for Seth Godin and Alan Weiss (2 authors that have had the biggest impact on my well-being).
Let’s start with the opening statement of the post:
“I have never been a big fan of search engine optimization. In fact, I have gone out of my way to ignore it in all my Internet marketing work.”
It should probably go without saying that your opinion is a bit less substantiated if you go out of your way not to implement it.
“The World Wide Web has become so large, so crowded and so busy that searching it is like dragging a net across the surface of a vast ocean.”
I think what Daryl was trying to say was that there are so many competitors that it would be unwise to try and compete. This is faulty logic for any business. No matter what you decide to do with your life, there are going to be a ton of competitors, most of which are stronger than you are, and have been around longer. Does that mean you shouldn’t go for it? Hell no. It means you are going to have to strategize and find ways to outsmart them. You will just have to become better.
“Add to this the fact that few of us actually use all of the very powerful query language tools that Google has to offer, and you get the double whammy;”
I don’t really know many SEOs that create a strategy based around engine specific queries. We usually save that for research and finding specific information. I’m a bit confused on that one too.
“If you read all the blogs, papers, articles and tip sheets floating around you would think that this was pretty easy right? So isn’t everybody doing it?
And everybody is…”
Actually, everybody isn’t. I think you would be very surprised to find that the grand majority of the sites that come across my screen for review (20 – 30 a week) have never even given a thought to SEO. I mean not in the least. Those that have were usually done by some design firm that claimed they were experts in SEO.
“…the chance of you finding your way to the top of Google, for the searches that are relevant to your companies business, are small and getting smaller.”
Again, I don’t know where this information is coming from. Because of your thought process and articles just like yours, there are actually still people that don’t see a need for SEO. These are my favorite people because their competitors call me, and it makes my job a lot easier. A well planned campaign can usually return results within a few months, and really blossom within 9 months or so. Not too long if you’re a serious business owner looking for long lasting results and a return on your investment.
“It is, I would suggest, a fool’s errand. Don’t take my word for it. See what happens when you Google the word search. (Expected Google didn’t you!)”
I could write a post on that statement alone. First, why would Google come up for the word “search” in Google? Why would they want to? Who would go to Google and search for the word “search.” You are now touching on the beginnings of an SEO campaign; keyword research.
One of the most important parts of optimizing a site is finding the search terms that are relevant, and are actually being used. If I had a hotel in savannah, I sure as hell wouldn’t optimize for the word “hotel.” I would look for terms people will actually search for, like “savannah ga hotel” or just “savannah hotel.”
“You don’t want to pin your hopes on being where people are looking. You want to to be what they are looking for!”
Almost a statement I can agree with. You do want to be what people are looking for. But, what if they are looking for a plumber in Jacksonville? They are going to go to Google and type “plumber in jacksonville.”
This is tricky to answer because in essence you are right, and as such SEO is becoming harder to define. Over the last few years it has changed from making changes to your site into marketing your site online; on-page factors included. But you still have to promote yourself to the people that need you, but don’t know who you are.
“(And when you put my name in Consultingpulse.com shows up first!)”
Yeah, but what if I’ve never heard of consultingpulse.com or you? I’m not sure if all of these are relevant or not, but I was just kinda going on what your LinkedIn profile and site seems to elude to. As an SEO, we would go over the importance of keyword research and find the right terms. Anywho:
Column 1 is the search term, column 2 is your rank (it doesn’t go past page 10) and the last column is the number of results in Google (these look a little off to me, but hey, it’s a quick run, what do you want?):
This was with piss poor research, but I tried to find some terms I know I could dominate in tandom with your marketing efforts (a real SEO works with you, not for you).
The rest of what you have to say is pretty uselful, but I think it should have been in a different post as none of those points were in regard to SEO. As a matter of fact, most of what you said could be enhanced by use of a proper site. For example, you advise to blog. Wanna see something cool? Blog for a few years, then take care of the duplicate content and take advantage of some of the pages you’ll have that aren’t working for you (not before). Very few things are more rewarding that increasing a blogs traffic and conversions by 255ish% and 72ish% consistently within a few months. You get really cool Christmas bonuses for stuff like that.
Overall the post really didn’t make a good case against SEO. This isn’t to say that what you are doing isn’t the right or better way, but realize that everything that you do now can be enhanced by a good, solid optimization strategy.
As such, to prevent sounding like a jerk, it should be noted that SEO itself is by no way an ends. It is only a means. Optimize your site all you want, you still have to promote it.