2/10/2007
Time to Bring out the SEO "Slapping Glove."
The SEO community has been taking some heat recently, and it is time to pull out the slapping glove. For those of you unfamiliar, there is an excellent Simpsons episode which features Homer going around and slapping people with a glove. Thus, I want to make it clear that the title of this post is based on humor.
Hopefully that has everyone relaxed. However, this subject is very serious. This subject is "I have to feed my kids" serious. Oops there I go again with the jokes, this time harking back to good old Terell Owens. There are people out there that are tarnishing the reputation of SEO. Although the primary buffoon in this case has been an industry "insider" who is starting to sound like a broken record - sadly - the other guilty party comes in the form of the SEO underbelly. I am talking about shady manipulators who from their basements or strip mall offices are selling SEO that is completely useless to the buyer.
I have to say that I work for a large agency and this in no way represents what they feel about the situation, officially. However, I know some senior search folks that feel the same way that I do when it comes to protecting the reputation of SEO. Hopefully I'll be back soon to link to a such a declaration as blessed by the top.
First of all, the whole Dave Pasternack thing is getting me sick. Sorry for not posting to any of those vying for his name and 1K, although that is pretty funny. The whole thing is just kind of nauseating, and I can't bring myself to join the game. At first, I started a thread at SEW that led to some of the feelings I had about the initial claims being posted by many other well respected SEO experts. Then Mr Dumbass (as I have decided to now refer to him as, just because I can - since he keeps using the "SEO isn't rocket science" jab) kept going and going.
I spoke with a person I still consider a good friend (Mr D's partner I guess you could call him) Kevin Lee, in November at Pubcon at the awesome Yahoo thing. I left feeling with a "hey its just fun" kind of feeling. Unfortunately I no longer feel the same (about the topic that is - still like Kevin but really have to have a long talk with him about it). I wrote an article for Search Marketing Standard that comes out this month about looking at search holistically. I reach out constantly to the paid teams at AR and they reciprocate as we work together. Yes I am hooked on search, and I will not throw jabs at any part of it: Paid, feeds, local, social, etc..). The Mr D takes his high visibility platform and keeps going there, like a little punk - each time with a dumber analogy. Yech.
Part deux of my current urge to speak out about SEO has to do with the slim shadys. The fools who make videos while running out of breath. The guys who go door-to-door selling SEO to small businesses. The high volume, low quality hucksters that cause Calcanis to talk smack, and fortunately bring heroes to the rescue like Danny and Greg, and many others. I chose to link to their posts cause everyone else seems to be and as usual Danny has created a monster of a SEO argument (probably within an hour or so of writing) and greg will follow up with Todd's help on the air of their search marketing radio show. I am very happy with D and G's points of view on this, but the young guys are really warming my heart too.
Loren "i-just-moved-to-tampa-beeotch" Baker's team member Carsten who I have yet to meet, has a great post I read today advising experts to add to the SEO Wikipedia page, and Neil "me-and-my-cool-mofo-wingman-cameron-no-on-can-pronounce-my-last-name-and-we-are-hustling-for-tla-now" Patel put Calcanis up to a SEO that works challenge that we'll love to follow.
The war has truly begun, no matter how funny I am trying to make this. I was in Artillery - the King of Battle - and am available when the ground troops need reinforcements. More to come certainly on this topic...
Also thanks to many other points of view I have read on this from too many places to list. Here's one though: WebProNews which has been really stepping it up with their Search Engine News.
Hopefully that has everyone relaxed. However, this subject is very serious. This subject is "I have to feed my kids" serious. Oops there I go again with the jokes, this time harking back to good old Terell Owens. There are people out there that are tarnishing the reputation of SEO. Although the primary buffoon in this case has been an industry "insider" who is starting to sound like a broken record - sadly - the other guilty party comes in the form of the SEO underbelly. I am talking about shady manipulators who from their basements or strip mall offices are selling SEO that is completely useless to the buyer.
I have to say that I work for a large agency and this in no way represents what they feel about the situation, officially. However, I know some senior search folks that feel the same way that I do when it comes to protecting the reputation of SEO. Hopefully I'll be back soon to link to a such a declaration as blessed by the top.
First of all, the whole Dave Pasternack thing is getting me sick. Sorry for not posting to any of those vying for his name and 1K, although that is pretty funny. The whole thing is just kind of nauseating, and I can't bring myself to join the game. At first, I started a thread at SEW that led to some of the feelings I had about the initial claims being posted by many other well respected SEO experts. Then Mr Dumbass (as I have decided to now refer to him as, just because I can - since he keeps using the "SEO isn't rocket science" jab) kept going and going.
I spoke with a person I still consider a good friend (Mr D's partner I guess you could call him) Kevin Lee, in November at Pubcon at the awesome Yahoo thing. I left feeling with a "hey its just fun" kind of feeling. Unfortunately I no longer feel the same (about the topic that is - still like Kevin but really have to have a long talk with him about it). I wrote an article for Search Marketing Standard that comes out this month about looking at search holistically. I reach out constantly to the paid teams at AR and they reciprocate as we work together. Yes I am hooked on search, and I will not throw jabs at any part of it: Paid, feeds, local, social, etc..). The Mr D takes his high visibility platform and keeps going there, like a little punk - each time with a dumber analogy. Yech.
Part deux of my current urge to speak out about SEO has to do with the slim shadys. The fools who make videos while running out of breath. The guys who go door-to-door selling SEO to small businesses. The high volume, low quality hucksters that cause Calcanis to talk smack, and fortunately bring heroes to the rescue like Danny and Greg, and many others. I chose to link to their posts cause everyone else seems to be and as usual Danny has created a monster of a SEO argument (probably within an hour or so of writing) and greg will follow up with Todd's help on the air of their search marketing radio show. I am very happy with D and G's points of view on this, but the young guys are really warming my heart too.
Loren "i-just-moved-to-tampa-beeotch" Baker's team member Carsten who I have yet to meet, has a great post I read today advising experts to add to the SEO Wikipedia page, and Neil "me-and-my-cool-mofo-wingman-cameron-no-on-can-pronounce-my-last-name-and-we-are-hustling-for-tla-now" Patel put Calcanis up to a SEO that works challenge that we'll love to follow.
The war has truly begun, no matter how funny I am trying to make this. I was in Artillery - the King of Battle - and am available when the ground troops need reinforcements. More to come certainly on this topic...
Also thanks to many other points of view I have read on this from too many places to list. Here's one though: WebProNews which has been really stepping it up with their Search Engine News.
Labels: chris boggs, search engine optimization, seo
Comments:
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nice post chris. I also write a not so serious roundup post at ReveNews.com which is about affiliate marketing. It's more black humor, okay, I admit that.
Here is the post.
I wrote it up, because I am not so sure if this discussion and especially the valid arguments by the SEO community is much heart outside of community itself.
I think that this is one of the biggest mistakes people in the SEO world are doing. Everybody wants to have the content on their own site and thus forget about the message itself. I know, it is hard to forget what you are for a moment, but it is critical sometimes that you do.
I wrote an email to Danny, Aaron Wall, Rand and Bill Slawsky regarding the Wikipedia article about SEO. Bill helped a little.
Danny says he has no time for this and does not write something that can be changed or deleted by anybody who feels like it (that's not how wikipedia works, but anyway).
Rand also has no time and thought that he got a great idea because of it. The creation of a Wiki at SEOMoz. Great another SEO site that is only read by SEO and not the people they want (or should want) to reach.
Aaron feels a bit uncomfortable on the "hostile" wikipedia ground, which is okay, but a bit unwarranted and offered an alternative to it by having an open discussion at threadwatch. I know, he owns threadwatch, but at least is threadwatch meant for this kind of stuff so I believe he was not thinking about seo when he offered that. It did not happen yet though and I am not going to ask 20 times. He either does it or he does not.
Well, in the meantime did some changes to the seo article at wikipedia happen. Some editors helped as well as Bill Slawsky and me. It's still not perfect, but a start. I can sent you my email conversations with those four if you like. You can find all my contact information at Cumbrowski.com.
Cheers
Carsten Cumbrowski aka Roy/SAC
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Here is the post.
I wrote it up, because I am not so sure if this discussion and especially the valid arguments by the SEO community is much heart outside of community itself.
I think that this is one of the biggest mistakes people in the SEO world are doing. Everybody wants to have the content on their own site and thus forget about the message itself. I know, it is hard to forget what you are for a moment, but it is critical sometimes that you do.
I wrote an email to Danny, Aaron Wall, Rand and Bill Slawsky regarding the Wikipedia article about SEO. Bill helped a little.
Danny says he has no time for this and does not write something that can be changed or deleted by anybody who feels like it (that's not how wikipedia works, but anyway).
Rand also has no time and thought that he got a great idea because of it. The creation of a Wiki at SEOMoz. Great another SEO site that is only read by SEO and not the people they want (or should want) to reach.
Aaron feels a bit uncomfortable on the "hostile" wikipedia ground, which is okay, but a bit unwarranted and offered an alternative to it by having an open discussion at threadwatch. I know, he owns threadwatch, but at least is threadwatch meant for this kind of stuff so I believe he was not thinking about seo when he offered that. It did not happen yet though and I am not going to ask 20 times. He either does it or he does not.
Well, in the meantime did some changes to the seo article at wikipedia happen. Some editors helped as well as Bill Slawsky and me. It's still not perfect, but a start. I can sent you my email conversations with those four if you like. You can find all my contact information at Cumbrowski.com.
Cheers
Carsten Cumbrowski aka Roy/SAC
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