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The Reason I Don’t Call Myself An SEO 
By: Solomon Rothman 2007-04-03 Since I wrote a blog post critical of marketer Seth Godins SEO Advice, there been a number of responses from the blogosphere. The most critical came from the Chief Interactive Officer of a company called HitTail: Mike Levin. According to his company bio he was inspired by the notion that Search Engine Optimization and Public Relations are founded on the same underlying principles Hey that sounds great, so why would this guys recent posts embody all the misunderstandings people have for what quality search engine optimizers actually do? Well lets look at what Mike thinks they do: In his words: thats why HitTail recommends getting started with BLOGGING SOFTWARE. And in Seths case, he uses TypePad from SixApart, so he doesnt need to worry about SEO. What he says is absolutely true. TypePad does enough things correctly enough that you dont even need to customize. If you just start a TypePad blog and follow Seths advice, its going to work for you. So Mike says you dont need to worry about SEO? You just sign up for a TypePad blog, start typing away and like magic links and exposure will start pouring in, right? Not so fast! First of all there are over 45 million blogs, most of which go unread. What makes the good ones stand out? SEO isnt just about manipulating keywords and website structure. This can be done with software (although this method is usually done incorrectly especially if you factor in usability and being able to leverage new technology and features that encourage user generated content and community building). SEO is about understanding how to use an ever-changing set of methodologies based on internet technology in combination with general marketing savvy to promote one website above its competitors. Its about looking at the internet and understanding how various technologies work together, how markets can be approached, how communities work and how to influence them. Its a strange cross-discipline involving marketing savvy and extreme technical competence born out of the confusion that arose as businesses moved online. Some of what SEO is involves low level tasks, but that is not the core of getting a site to rank, getting more traffic and making that website work when other similar sites fail. Its not about one thing, its about everything. Its about how I spend 12 hours online and track the latest trends, about how I read countless marketing blogs each week and how I continually adapt to emerging technologies while refining my work to meet my website users needs. There is no replacement for what I do, it takes a human being. Its about understanding how the whole picture of the online community comes together and how visitors stumble across the vast internet landscape and find sites. Its also about what makes them stay there, what influences them to share what they found and how to make a site that outperforms others that do the same thing. Search Marketing (I currently use this word instead of SEO because it encompasses more elements and avoids the negative associations of SEO) is not becoming less important, as Mike and Seth seem to think; its becoming more important. Technology is moving ahead at a blistering speed. Businesses and individuals need good, qualified advice and help on how to use that technology for maximum impact online. Go ahead, dont pay attention to SEO, but dont be surprised when you get crushed online by someone who does. Someone who isnt leaving that up to chance, but actively and aggressively using creativity and technical savvy to open new markets and drive traffic to their website. I sure as hell wouldnt try to launch a website without a serious Search Marketing strategy, because your websites life or death depends on it. Remember good blogs go unread, many great sites fail and the purists oversimplify everything. The internet landscape is a jungle and search engine optimizers work hard to straighten out the confusion to help businesses leverage new technology, to gain readers, to gain traffic and ultimately, to be more successful online and off. Mike Levin went even further with a follow up post containing an experiment where hes signing up for a default TypePad installation and tracking the results. Wow, what a way to compete online " with a default blog with nothing particular setting it apart from any other blog, complete with a domain slapped with typepad.com at the end. Good luck getting that site to rank for anything competitive, good luck getting traffic. In fact Mike blogs every day (thats a lot of writing) his blog (company blog with a forum and lots of users / customers) has been going for a long time and in all that time its drawn less links than this blog has in the last 2 months (were new). I think Ill do a series soon where Ill go into detail about what I actually do for my clients. Maybe then people will better understand the importance of the cross-discipline of SEO. Although, because of statements like those from Mike, Seth and other individuals, Ive stopped calling what I do SEO; instead I use search marketing or online marketing and web development. Its about perspective and branding, but remember a search engine optimizer is not just someone who spams for links or adjusts pages for keywords. A quality SEO is someone who understands the methodologies for promoting a site online and uses this knowledge to help their clients stand out and be more successful. Comments Tag: SEO, Mike Levin, HitTail Add to  Del.icio.us |  Digg |  Reddit |  Furl Have a bookmark! -  About the Author: Solomon Rothman is the CIO for Social Media Systems; an online marketing company that helps its client succeed by providing web development bundled with search marketing. He authors numerous blogs including 3net Search Engine Marketing Blog and loves the ongoing challenges of the online marketing world. Besides technology, Solomon's other passions including filmmaking & screenwriting. |
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