5 Reasons January Was a Bad Month For SEO’s Reputation

Posted on: February 5, 2008 by Syzlak

Today, Danny posted about last month’s SEO Reputation debacle. While I think that it’s important for us to bring up our own image problems, I don’t think it really gets us to do anything about it unless we figure out why we have a bad image. Clearly, Danny got to see some of that after the gaffe involving Wired’s wiki and the subsequent backlash. However, I don’t think as many of us deal with our reputation, let alone SEO’s, nearly as well as Danny. This is probably because Danny has the presence of mind to view himself as an ambassador of SEO and all things search.

Thus, the first of our 5 problems:

1. We don’t see ourselves as ambassadors of SEO & Search

When we write blogs, post in forums, join social networks, we are immediately noticed. We do not blend in. We know and understand the inner workings of many of these networks, and thus immediately look foreign. Although we may understand how to get to the top of Digg or how get substantial traffic to one of our sites through StumbleUpon, we don’t understand how to not look like a shady marketer while doing so. Speaking of which,

2. We look like shady marketers an awful lot of the time

Take this guy from The Times (UK), he went around the web spamming the hell out of social sites. Right off the bat he exhibited the first reason we have a bad rap, while completely embodying the second reason. If this behavior is replicated often enough, we’ll never get a good reputation. Albeit a lot of this is comes from shady-assed marketers, one slip up by a clean member of the search community and we’re all in the same boat. For that matter, how many people outside of the search community do you know who even have an inkling as to what we do? More often than not, people I talk to think I work with pop-ups or at Google.

3. We’re only just past our infancy as an industry

Yet we seem to demand the respect of a well established auto manufacturer. At this point, we’re really just a blip in business time. However, how many people do we know, or are friends with, that seem to behave as though we’re going to last forever? That have a holier than thou attitude about what we do. Shit, I like what I do for a living too, and I’m glad to have started at a relatively early point in the industry’s life-span, but I don’t walk around with a chip on my shoulder as though SEO is a prominent aspect of everyone’s lives.

4. We don’t take the time to understand why we get a bad reputation

Recently my friend SEO-Hack was flagged by the StumbleUpon community as being a shady-assed marketer. They technically called him an SEO, and said there was no place for him on SU. While I don’t disagree with calling him an SEO (although I’d use the term loosely), I did disagree with this being viewed negatively. So much so, that I took one of the SUers to task for doing so. I got his permission to use our conversation for your information and knowledge.

Tyfus and I corresponded over a couple of messages, I think that the most important explanation for the onslaught of SEO hate is the following:

The last 6 months have seen a huge influx of aimClear-like miscatting, selfsubmitting, link-exchanging bastards, so for the moment and the foreseeable future SEO is a huge red flag. There are some really nice guys that do seo (Colincochrane, moojj spring to mind) but as long as every few clicks of the stumblebutton brings me blatantly spammed marketing drivel it’s my most hated thing around these parts. Apart from glitter and bad webcomics and lolcats and other things.

If the SEO-stuff wouldn’t invade our nice little community with a tsunami of boring crap you wouldn’t be hated on this much.

My general response was as follows:

Fair enough, and that does suck. I guess to me, people fail to see it isn’t a problem with SEO, per se, but more a problem with abuse of a system. I’d even wager that a lot of the people that submit useless sites have no idea what SEO is and just think that SU is a way to get traffic…which ends up being a pain in the ass for both you and me ;)

Roc, doing it for the communitySee, by taking a half an hour, I was able to find out just why aimClear, SEO-Hack, et. al. were getting flagged. Why did I do this? I did it for the community (see reason 1), I hoped by getting this knowledge the community could start to regulate themselves, thus earning us a better reputation on SU. After that conversation, I went back through my old profile (as well as my current one) and “un-thumbed” my client’s sites and any other questionably spammy “thumbing” I’d done.

5. We whine about our problems instead of fixing them

After all, with a pinch of humor, they make great link-bait. ;)

The community of SEO, I implore you, take the time to be a better person, a better search marketer, a better SEO, a better social member. Never forget to learn, discuss and adjust.

Filed Under: sem, seo, smm, smo

  • Reasons 2 through 5 are why I call myself an "online marketer" instead of an SEO. And it's not like "online marketer" has a good connotation among the general public either. The SEO community is so insular and self-congratulatory sometimes that we just don't comprehend how the rest of the world sees us -- it's not a question of "unethical" SEOs tarnishing our reputation. It comes down to the fact that most people don't like marketers, even the squeaky clean ones.

    I think your point #1 is really part of #2.

    When I'm truly participating in a community, I'm NOT an ambassador of SEO. I'm not an SEO period. If i don't have an agenda, if I'm not there to promote something, I come across like a real person. The problem is how do you participate in a community without looking like a marketer if the only reason you're there is as a marketer? That goes double if you're trying to build links. Authenticity is pretty hard to fake.
  • Nice comment. I think 1 and 2 are different, but I can see your point. However, I think that my main argument about being an ambassador is highlighted by your final point. Even when one is not out there with an agenda, we can still get targeted if we don't paint ourselves and our industry in a good light.

    It is definitely true that advertising in general gets a bad rap (sometimes rightfully so)
  • @ Michael - I don't know as though I look forward to the collapse, as I definitely enjoy aspects of social media. I more look forward to the growth of online social communities and the eventual integration of social media, allowing for a more pleasant experience

    @hilker - That's almost a post right there. See if you had a real blog instead of your tumblr account, you could use that as some pretty good content...oh, you put that up on your tumblr page...

    ...but how are you supposed to make money with that? ;)

    @Matt - Thanks for the support for the article and thanks for your agreement on #3. Being in a "new" industry is really what I love most about what I do, I just wish everyone would realize how young we all really are...

    @JDog - Steve isn't going to post all the time. When he thinks of something that he thinks is brilliant (and we all think is inane) then, and only then, will he post.
    He's too damned expensive to have on the payroll for an article a day!
  • i don't make money, syzlak. i make people miserable.
  • Good post, especially with point number 3. It surprises me too how pious some SEOs can be... or, at least, it did until I realised that this industry and community are ALL about how much noise you make for yourself. Unfortunately, taking a "holier-than-thou" atttitude without backing it up with evidence is just an easy way of doing that. Either that or just keep on posting boring crap for the sake of it.

    And thanks for putting me on the blogroll man, it's appreciated.
  • i look forward to the collapse of social media. it will happen. Its kinda like the delorian - it looked and worked amazing, but when push came to shove - it couldn't be produced right and the guy behind it was a coke dealer.

    when social media falls its going to be entertaining to see where all the "social media guru's" end up.

    user generated content sucks.
  • that's my beef with almost every "social media optimization" trick, site or top ten list: it's all about traffic. but by definition, social media is about relationships. as long as the so-called social media gurus focus on pageviews alone, i think they should be labeled as spammers.

    here's a tip: if you participate in a community to primarily get more traffic to your site, if you submit your own stories more than you submit others', if your content flat out sucks, then you are abusing the community. consider showing up at a party, joining a random group (already in conversation) and telling stories about yourself. when someone else starts a story you interrupt with how your own story is better (comment hijacking; case in point - see? it's annoying). how long will that group let you speak? pretty soon they're going to leave you with your cheap beer and tell everyone they know not to talk to you because you're annoying as hell.

    here's another tip: the aforementioned practices are not optimization. i would contest that social media is optimizable in the first place. again, do you go through conversation optimization with your friends? sure, in a business meeting you might (hit all the right buzzwords so they know you're in the know) and social media is your business, right? sure. but it's not always the business of the community you're repeatedly abusing. some people interact online because they enjoy it. go figure. but don't go jack up a perfectly good community just so you can get a few more bounced pageviews.

    props to you, syzak, for improving the su community, communicating honestly within & imploring seo to greater community values.
  • What does Search Master Steve have to say about the whole MSN/Yahoo Deal?
  • This was actually a fine article.
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