Resistance to SEO - When Professions Collide
Resistance to SEO - when professions collide with +Susan Finch and +Michelle Lowery
In this show, we look at how and why some professionals, including bloggers, Usability types, web devs, and sales copywriters, have a negative and dismissive view of SEO. Despite the success stories, and the huge demand for SEO generally across the board, the negative reputation in many places is still very apparent, with SEO professionals often still treated as though peddling snake-oil to the gullible.
+Susan Finch has said "Coming from a PR/Marketing background since way back, I've always felt true content was king. Never been a fan of working SEO. I'm in the dismissive corner due to watching the negative affect "SEO professionals" have caused clients and others. I've worked hard in the past with clients to undo the damage by the snake oil types. Has left a bad taste in my mouth."
She's not alone.
It is all too easy for SEO professionals inside 'the echo chamber' to hear primarily only from people who understand SEO and believe in it. In the wider world, a great many people who have strong input on websites are quite dismissive of SEO, having primarily seen only the kind that appears in a million spam emails.
+Michelle Lowery suggested the topic for this week, as she has close ties to the SEO world, but also gets to see the views that some other copywriters have about SEO.
There are still a great many bloggers, for just one example, who think SEO is an unnecessary measure - you just create good articles and content and Google will figure it all out. Others have read a few too many of the "SEO in 10 easy steps" articles who think that those ten steps are all there is. No matter that around 80% of the websites hit by the Panda update were blogs and bloggers...
It isn't just one-sided either. There are many SEOs of varying skill levels who are dismissive of all the other facets of successful web ventures. SEOs who mistakenly put an importance on rankings ahead of usability, or conversions - leading to a site that gets lots of people to see how much it sucks. Heck, even very experienced SEOs sometimes make very dismissive or even disparaging remarks about social media specialist, for example.
The fact is, marketing online is still marketing, and requires many diverse approaches all come together in a unified and integrated campaign. Increasingly, it will also need to integrate with the offline marketing too.
In this frank and open discussion we aim to discuss the genuine bad experiences and views that give SEO a poor reputation to those who've not seen it done well. We explore how people can identify the good SEO practices from the poor majority, and we may even be able to explore ways in which the reputation of SEO can be improved.
Whatever the outcome, you know you can rely on #isoosichat to deliver a lot of fresh ideas to think about, some practical advice on how SEOs can better get along with other marketers, and have a lot of fun along the way.
Join our wonderful guests +Susan Finch and +Michelle Lowery the #isoosichat regulars +Ammon Johns, +Bill Slawski and +ISOOSI Research Engine for this discussion.