No Optimizer Left Behind
April 8th, 2008 by Michael Gray in SEOIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Read my top posts or learn more about Michael Gray. Want more frequent updates follow me on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!
While I was off doing some work Jill and Lisa engaged in a debate over whether or not we need SEO standards. Even though I’m a day late and a dollar short I’m still going to throw my 2 cents in.
The biggest problem with SEO standards is we’ll get some half baked, half assed, implementation that’s just as bad as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). As a concept it’s seems like a wonderful idea, everyone agrees to a set of established teachings and has to meet a minimum set of standards. Should enable customers to do apples to apples comparisons and eliminate con artists and shiesters, right? Wrong my naive and misguided friends, what we end up with is a big fat goopy mess.
One of the problems with NCLB is teachers have a very small amount of time they are allowed to use to explore off curriculum material. If an SEO wants to retain certification do you think they’ll be encouraged to try new things or contemplate outside of the four sided parallelogram?
Did you know that part of NCLB requires the name and address of every student be sent to the US Government who passes it along to the military recruiting offices? Do you think it’s a stretch to imagine registration of name, address, email, and websites will required to be shared with all the search engines?
Do you think that NCLB fosters an atmosphere of exceptional teachers teaching to students who want to grow and learn? Or do you think it encourages “teaching for the test” and students who learn to sit in their place and adhere to the lowest common denominator thinking? Do you think SEO standards are about creating superstars who challenge and force the industry to grow? Or do you think it’s about handicapping everyone and striving for a level playing field where third rate hacks get to play with the big dogs?
Who do you think is going to set these standards? Heck SEMPO hasn’t done a damn thing for me, and I have a hard time finding anything meaningful they’ve done to educate the outside world about search. Don’t believe me? Take an informal survey of your clients and ask how many have heard of SEMPO, I’d be shocked to learn you had to use your second hand to count them.
Have you ever been part of large committee? Do the words innovative and leadership leap to mind, or does your head fill with nightmares of bureaucratic red tape, internal politics, and watered down compromises?
Do I think we need some form of certification to prove that you are an SEO, sure. Every client should say show me something more competitive than [fuzzy pink sock puppets in Los Angeles] that you rank for. Yes I believe that every consulting agency should have their own in house sites to show clients, for R&D, testing, and experimentation. I also think everyone should prove they can get a website banned every few years. If you’re a race car driver and you don’t smack into the wall or another car now and again, you aren’t pushing yourself and your machinery, all you’re doing is playing it safe.
Don’t get in line and support industry standards …
Don’t get in line and support mediocrity …
Don’t volunteer to go on the leash and accept “the man” as your master …
Sphere It
April 8th, 2008 at 6:50 am
You make me want to stand up and shout ‘Hell yeah!’
April 8th, 2008 at 9:12 am
I lump these into the same category as any other alphabet soup certification process.. I remember when these first started happening with the A+ certs and then Microsoft’s involvement.. What a great way to build brand loyalty, offer a Google cert, a Yahoo! cert, a MSN cert, charge $500 for each, and then make sure that the test includes arcane things that you will never see in the real world..
All it would take for this to happen is to Google step up and start a Google Certified SEO program.. You won’t be able to get a job without one because it has Google backing..
April 8th, 2008 at 9:19 am
“Hell Yeah!”
April 8th, 2008 at 10:52 am
I completely agree.
Just because you have some sort of stupid certification does not mean you know anything. In this business it’s results that matters and nothing else.
I’m certain that there are many people out there who could do a kick butt job with search engine optimization but would never for whatever reason actually get the lame certification. Because of this some website owners would not think these un-certified individuals are as qualified as someone who has passed some silly written test.
I think in judging someone’s ability to do search engine optimization you need to look at their track record and see what they have actually accomplished.
What websites have they got to rank high in the search engines?
April 8th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Michael - I agree with you that the industry does not need any licenses, regulation or legislation, but perhaps standardization could be a good idea. It has been painfully obvious that right now Google has dictated the standardization of SEO. Through its recent actions and public statements Google is in a state of hypocrisy.
Would you agree that W3C has done a good job in its mission? I think W3C is a fantastic resource to the community and perhaps there is an opportunity to standardize SEO. I know it’s a long shot but stranger things have happened.
Frankly, I have enough leashes and one more might really choke!
April 8th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
SEO can not be standardized for the simple reason that if its equal out in the open what would make website A rank ahead of website B assuming they both follow the same rules and standards?
SEO belongs to google and they keep it vague and unclear otherwise - what’s the point… If you’ve noticed the discussions/ blogs / forums/ advises etc.. are all based of the know : METAs, Content (301, duplicate content…) now links are back in the unknown and can not be discussed officially. Just read Vanessa Fox’s blog on how to create useful links… it is an insult to any intelligent person. Bottom link everybody knows about them Meta’s whats left is how much money you have to buy expensive links or you are just a lucky dude with and old aged website.
April 8th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
As a former teacher, I fully agree with your analogy. Under NCLB, you are encouraged to teach to the test. The students’ education really isn’t that important, it’s whether they can pass the standardized tests. Who cares if they can coherently write a sentence, as long as they can recognize a split participle?
For anyone out there who’s watching the John Adams miniseries…look at how the delegates at the Continental Congress acted when they were trying to get the Declaration of Independence written. It is encompasses everything except for working together!
I definitely vote no for standards — they’ll be too weak and too pointless to have any real merit.
April 8th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Here’s the situation as I see it.
1. The government will NOT step in to regulate SEO anytime soon, if ever (most likely the later) because SEO is a function of MARKETING.
2. SEO is a function of MARKETING, which already has standards and regulations. You can be held liable for false advertising and engaging in illegal activities per your country’s, city’s, and local laws.
3. SEO comes in many flavors, which keeps our industry diverse and progressive. HOWEVER, any honest Marketer will inform his/her client about the risks and rewards of the various SEO tactics they can and will utilize to achieve a mutual definition of campaign success. Arm your client with appropriate information to let them determine their own risk tolerance; then proceed accordingly (see #2).
The moral of the story: Don’t be a dick.
- Eric Itzkowitz
April 8th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Ok, fair enough…a set of industry standards may not be the right way to go - but what about a code of ethics…I’m envisioning modeling this after Realtors. You don’t have to be a Realtor to sell a house, but it sure does help.
The goal is to inform potential clients of how to avoid the sheisters that plague our industry. If you’ve ever talked to someone who has been “burned” by a bad SEO, you know what I mean.
April 9th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
I hear Bush is launching the new ‘White House Task Force On Internets’…
April 16th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
If I thought it would get my competitors done for being naughty and get me more bidness, I’d happily have a standardised thingie that we should all adhere to. Not cos I’m a tattler, like that paste-eating fat asskisser in the front of the 5th grade class, I just have 4 mouths to feed.
As it is, I am playing as safe as I can… until that contract could get just that little bit bigger if I get that one ranking up…
Then, it’s get yer boots on, strap on yer six-shooters, and ride!