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01.09.06
Inside
The "Shadowy World" Of SEO/M
 By
StraightUpSearch
One of the liabilities of
working in the field of search engine optimization and marketing is the cold fact
that, without a year of tedious explanation, hardly anyone understands what we
do.
Explaining my job to politely interested relatives is roughly the equivalent
of explaining the Heisenberg
Uncertainty Principal to a dog. My mother's resorted to telling people I "work
with computers," experiencing, obviously, zero irony. C'mon, ma, who doesn't?
I'm pretty sure the last time I bought a Slurpee the guy ran my sale through one
a them infernal machines.
The Newsweek article ("Hotwiring
Your Search Engine." Stone, Brad. December 19, 2005.) helped a little, in
its Newsweek-y way, at least in that I could say "look, mom, Newsweek!
They know what I do!" Sort of. The subtitle "Inside the shadowy world of ‘SEOs,'"
didn't do me a whole lot of good.
Further, the article was peppered with terms like "manipulate" and (I like this
one) "slyly unethical." Nothing was mentioned in the meat of the article (the
helpful accompanying graphic, at least the "Fair Game" column, was better) regarding
how SEO/Ms not only use techniques to get our clients better search results, but
that we assess the usability of the clients' sites and help them recognize and
remove roadblocks. We provide relevant content that we hope will not only generate
search engine results, but interest among web users.
Still, because our vocation is not only involved with the internet--which even
today leaves a bad taste in the mouths of many Americans--but with how the internet
works, we're "shadowy." Now my parents equate what I do to something that's maybe
not illegal, but maybe one day will be, once The Law figures out what we're doing.
Apparently, according to a Pew/Internet study called "Digital
Divisions," 22% of Americans, and thus my relatives, not only don't care what
I or anyone else who "works with computers" does, they never will. Indeed, some
of them "don't like it," they "hate computers...[as they're] what's ruining the
world" (take that, global warming!) and think "it's the devil's work." Dude, that's
black hat. That's not the way we roll.
We're pretty much regular folks, here. Many of us drive pickup trucks; many of
those trucks are American. Some of us are parents; some aren't. We shovel, by
necessity. We try to support our home (Detroit) sports teams, which isn't easy.
We, almost as a whole, enjoy soup. We don't conjure. We're not con artists. We
don't trick the nice folks at Google & Yahoo, etc., to rank our clients' sites
higher than they should be.
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We use time-tested tools like exhaustive research, meticulous planning, and ethical,
hard work to make things happen. And, thus, there is no "shadowy world." I do
occasionally wear a black hat, but it has a Detroit Tigers logo on it. And I'm
definitely more embarrassed by that than I am by what I do for a living.
About the Author:
StraightUpSearch´s blog authors
include experts from Oneupweb´s natural SEO, pay-per-click campaign management,
research, marketing, design, and sales departments.
Back To SEO Blogging
 By Lee
Odden
I get asked on occassion by new SEOs about how to start getting new business for
SEO.
There are many answers to that ranging from doing pro bono work for charities
or local civic organizations to networking with SEO peers and partnering with
web design agencies.
For some reason, whenever I leave town for a conference or in the case of the
last 10 days, go on vacation with no blogging, no phone, no emails, no internet,
nada - the requests for SEO business just roll in.
Well, they don't really just fall in our lap, they come in as a result of reputation
marketing, networking and search engine rankings.
Some of the tactics that have been successful for our SEO company and for other
successful search marketing firms include the following. They are not in any particluar
order:
- Organic search engine rankings
- Referrals
- Speak at industry events: SES, Pubcon,
ad:tech, DMA
- Published articles in marketing publications
- Blog about SEO
- Networking:
conferences, forums, social networking
- Public relations
- Sponsoring tradeshows
- Booth at tradeshows
- Pay per click
- Discussion threads
- Outbound telemarketing or
cold calling (WE NEVER DO THIS)
If you're a SEO practitioner, what methods have you found to be most effective for generating new business?
If you're a company that outsources SEO, what channels are most credible to you?
About the Author:
Lee Odden is President of TopRank Online
Marketing. He publishes daily search engine news on the Online
Marketing Blog. |
