If you have been following my post for any length of time you will know how I talk about victims of a scorched earth in many posts. This is exactly what I’m talking about. If you are looking to have SEO done on your business website, this is a must read.
The SEO industry may have one of the most negative reputations of any marketing –related field. Oftentimes the only reason SEO is being talked about in major news outlets is if a major company has been busted for practicing black hat SEO—like the J.C. Penney link building scam that made national headlines and resulted in the retailer’s free-fall in Google’s search results. Their black hat tactics (even if the company denies they were aware of the links) threw SEO under the light of public scrutiny, with many smaller businesses grabbing their torches and pitchforks, determined to punish the SEO scammers who had conned them. While there are plenty of good, white hat SEO providers trying to rebuild the industry’s reputation and public perception, there are a few internal problems that could keep the world of SEO from ever being looked upon favorably.
Too many “experts”
One of the biggest issues regarding the search industry is that anyone with a computer and basic understanding of how Google ranks sites (which are laid out in the Google Webmaster Guidelines) can set up shop and proclaim they are an “SEO expert.” Very few colleges even offer classes on Internet marketing and SEO, let alone give out degrees in them. The rules and tactics of SEO are mostly learned through actual experience and time spent in the industry.
There is no real qualification system for what makes an SEO expert. Someone with ten years of search industry experience is obviously more qualified than someone who has only been working in SEO for a year. But is someone with 10 years of marketing experience, not necessarily with a concentration in SEO, more qualified to manage an SEO campaign than the person with one year under their belt?
A former in-house SEO manager who leaves their company to become an independent SEO consultant has experience in SEO, but only with that one brand. A large and well-established company like an airline or department store has an incredible amount of brand recognition and trust, both from the search engines and the consumers. Their SEO strategy is going to be wildly different than a small mom-and-pop pizza joint. Does the newly independent consultant really know how to handle that kind of client? Without the budget and brand power to support their efforts, can they still deliver? Experts have to be able to deliver, regardless of the client.