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- Sphinn It!
Went Hot: August 14, 2008 - 10:51 am
Posted By: Jill 326 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.conversationmarketing.com)
Category: SEM Industry
"The industry shakes out. While many rip-off artists stick around, even more go away. Competent individuals move to agencies or continue as consultants. Corporations become smarter consumers of our services."
14 Comments
Comments
Interesting but wrong. The SEO/Search Marketing market is growing faster than the number of people involved in it. Check the numbers to see that this theory is pure imagination.
true the industry is growing, but the distinction and evaluation of shameless self promotors versus talented seo resources is what will need to be distinguished
This article is very baity for those of us that still consult that is all.
"the distinction and evaluation of shameless self promotors versus talented seo resources is what will need to be distinguished"
Think you'll find it's simply a fact of internet services, period.
Anyone think of an internet-only based service that has a great reputation?
As long as there is site being created everyday, SEO will always be relevant.
The proprietary nature of ranking algos will IMHO perpetuate the information asymmetry and thus the need for specialists. I foresee more of a Darwinian outcome.
Entertaining article. SEO IS moving in house. Everyone I know is an SEO "expert" now. Because as everyone knows all you need is some meta tags and to submit your site to search engines to rank :) Sure, in-house skillsets are growing, but there will always be the elite that discover the next great ranking technique.
#4: Search Engines crush our industry.
The engineers get tired of people battling over rankings and re-design in a way that we SEOs have no control over their rankings.
That's my theory... well, no. Not really. I don't think we will pop, but things will change. Things will change a LOT. Just gotta keep reading, testing, and trend-spotting.
Interesting that many agency type consultants reacted to the post very defensively in the comments. I, for one, have been working in-house through my whole career, and to see some comments that simply stated that external agency is better than in-house is totally childish.
I think both in-housers and agencies are great, depending on the clients' budget. Not every company other there could afford to hire an in-house SEOs, hell, some SMEs couldn't even afford to have anyone but themselves to implement the SEO for their own business.
Thanks for all the Sphinns everyone!
Just wanted to point out that, in the end, I believe the bubble won't pop. It'll sort of deflate, with the crappy SEOs and scam artists falling out as customers get smarter. I wrote that in the article, too...
One can only hope!
Getting rid of seo is like getting rid of acne, an impossible dream. Things look like they are getting ready to pop!
Sphinn moves on with business as usual while Google merrily keeps on banning websites for violating its quality guidelines.
Plenty of Natural Organic White Hat SEOs keep on blogging on what real SEO is all about. I particularly like one called: SEO Theory - SEO Theory and Analysis Blog. That blog is operated by a very prolific writer and successful SEO. Very informative on what SEO is all about.
@jeremykuo - Darwinian outcome! nice!
I'd add: Clean SEO from skilled practioners will always be in demand. No matter the reputation that the industry has, site optimization for search engines will always be a best practice event useful to both site owner and search engine.