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Having followed Todd on Twitter for some time now and being amused by his tweeting some favorite resume debacles, it's great to read more about his experiences on a variety of job search related issues.
I also worked as part of an HR department earlier in my career…my favorite story from that time? I received a faxed copy of a handwritten resume that was obviously written in pencil. Gee...can't imagine why some people are perpetually unemployed, eh?
I think everyone knows by now how I feel about SEO scammers. It was the inspiration for SEOAly to begin with. Consumer education is key...and the more of these posts exist from as many sources as possible, the better!
Perhaps more lawsuits will deter companies from offering SEO services when they don't know anything about SEO in the first place! Well done, Washington State - I hope there are more to follow!
I heard about this story for the first time a couple of days ago when someone tweeted this article from Network World: http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/35218
It is the responsibility of the prosecutors and the court system to call upon respected industry sources to do independent evaluations of the company's tactics and business practices with regard to SEO. There are likely numerous cases brought against companies in a variety of industries by state prosecutors and presided over by judges who have no first hand knowledge of the subject matter in question.
I don't believe this is as much about the specifics of SEO as it is about companies charging their customers for services they can't actually provide and, more importantly, making outlandish and misleading claims regarding what their "services" will accomplish in the long run.
@Joe - I do see your point, but the fact remains that small business owners across the country fall victim to scams regularly. Some of the responsibility must be put onto those who hire these agencies in the first place, but the level of ignorance with regard to SEO and how search engines work in general gives those with questionable integrity a greater than average opportunity to take advantage of website owners.
While you may not agree with the manner in which this was approached - being that criminal charges have been filed, rather than it being handled in the civil courts - I commend the state of Washington for taking an interest in protecting the citizens of their state from scams, be they by an SEO firm or a charlatan in any other industry. Civil actions against a company rarely result in the company actually changing their business practices and certainly don't gain the kind of press or deterrent that criminal charges do.
That said, if you look at the information from the Attorney General's press release that qwerty pasted in above, none of those charges are directly related to SEO techniques specifically, but call into question the business practices of the company – like not honoring cancellation requests, continuing to bill after a request to cancel had been submitted, pursuing the collection of those debts, etc. I don't believe any of the claims listed above are inactionable. If this case results in all SEO companies having to be held accountable to the specifics named above, I’m okay with that.
For some reason business owners seem to forget that "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't true" also applies to Internet marketing...and in many cases, more so. It’s pretty clear with the number of scammers in the SEO industry that something has to be done, as it reflects negatively on the industry as a whole.
I believe part of the reason there are so many scams out there is because there have been so few cases that result in criminal charges being filed…and even if civil cases have been brought, that doesn’t mean the company stops taking advantage of people – it just means they launch another site under another name and scam more people in order to recoup those losses.
@Jill – I know nothing of this particular company, but I’d guess there probably isn’t much of a contract to speak of …and if there is, it likely doesn’t match up to the claims made by their telemarketers. It would be pretty cut & dry if a signed contract existed, I’d think.
Ditto to what Jill said. This is less about the specifics of SEO than it is about not living up to the outlandish claims the company has made and alleged questionable business practices.
First - as long as there is an audience for live blogging, keep doing it. Based on the comments left at SER thus far and the poll, more people want you to keep doing it than want you to stop.
Second - those relying on live blogging accounts of conferences rather than attending the conferences personally should already understand that the information is at least partially skewed by the blogger's perspective. That doesn't necessarily make it inaccurate. Blogging, live or otherwise, is prone to inaccuracies based on the individual blogger's interpretation of the subject in question and depends solely on their commitment to base their opinions on verifiable facts and/or evidence. If you want a 100% accurate account of the event, I suggest you attend the conference and get the information first hand.
Third - I've never read any of the live blogs personally, but for those who can't attend all of the conferences and/or aren't in a financial position to spend thousands of dollars every few months for the conference, the travel expenses, hotels, etc., the live blogging probably makes them feel as though they're not completely out of the loop. And they may actually learn something from time to time.
Fourth - if you don't like live blogging, here's a novel idea...don't read it. That way no one gets offended, no one gets ticked off by alleged inaccurate accounts, no one comes off looking like the ass, and the people who enjoy it get to continue doing so...tada! Problem solved!
I believe people underestimate the power of social media to truly bring people around the world together in unprecedented ways. I've met people online from Iceland to the UK through social media. Nothing helps us find common ground and work toward a common purpose like building relationships and rapport with those outside our home countries.
In honor of my Australian online pals, "GOOD ON YA, MATES!" Let's build a global community that encourages us find our similarities and maybe we'll all spend less time vilifying one another for our differences!
It's important to remember that you are where you blog. If you allow a publisher to alter your work and still keep your name on it, that's your choice. If I missed a typo or provide you with a post containing misspelled words and numerous grammatical errors, by all means, feel free to fix them.
If you "don't like my writing style" or feel the need to alter the content of the original post to meet your own needs or pander to your personal agenda, you damn well better take my name off it - because it is now clearly not my work and I don't want it published as if it is.
I echo Rae's sentiment above and it's good advice for new bloggers who mistakenly believe that all guest post opportunities are "good" guest post opportunities...taking the time to get to know those you're writing guest posts for will likely reduce the chances of this happening to you.
Here's the original story, I believe: http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=9181841&nav=168XDWn7
Thanks to Rae Hoffman for bringing this to Josh's attention earlier today...and to Josh for bringing it to mine! This deserves as much exposure as we can possibly give it!
I have also shared the post from seo-factor.com with:
DIGG: http://digg.com/people/Use_Your_Online_Power_For_Some_Good
MIXX: http://www.mixx.com/stories/2487191/use_you_online_power_for_some_good
STUMBLEUPON: http://seoaly.stumbleupon.com/tag/amber-alert/
Much thanks to Rae for reminding me that Digg...well...that they'll probably bury Josh's post. Here's the oldest one I could find at Digg: http://digg.com/people/Amber_Alert_Activation_Cole_Puffinburger#
It's from almost 2 days ago and only has 6 Diggs. Front page right now has some crap about a dude liking to have his "Ass Hammered..." and this only gets 6 Diggs in nearly 2 days?? Really?? Digg this one instead of the one I submitted, please...so our efforts getting this story to the front page aren't wasted if Josh's post gets buried.
It makes sense that they would attempt to test this on consumer electronics related products, being that there is such a great demand for such products by search users. It allows for a very wide range of products, but all within the "consumer electronics" industry. And we can't forget that Christmas really is just around the corner and electronics are certainly popular holiday gift items that people research and shop for online.
The bottom line is that any tool that provides useful and relevant information is worth taking a closer look at. What SEOmoz has done is attempt to provide it's users with information not previously available in such detail before. I'm not an SEOmoz Pro member, so the information gleaned from the free reports is limited. On the other hand, limited or not, I still find the information useful.
I believe it's far too early on to discount this tool as "pointless" (as some above appear to believe) or "the best thing since sliced bread". Only time will tell how accurate and useful this information is in the grand scheme of things, but it's also important to recognize the fact that each tool like this that is developed forces Google one step closer being "exposed"...perhaps giving them reason to be a bit less secretive than they have been in the past.
Good, bad or indifferent in terms of how the data is ultimately used, tools like Linkscape help webmasters better determine the impact of the links to their site and identify possible patterns. That, in and of itself, is a big step in the right direction and can provide very useful information.
I can't stress enough how important it is to encourage business owners to understand the long-term impact of Social Media on their brand, so kudos to Eric on this post. Many small business owners are "stop the bleeding" and "I'll call you again when I need you..." types that fail to fully grasp that Social Media marketing & online reputation management are evolving incredibly quickly.
It often doesn't dawn on them to identify someone in-house to take on the responsibility of building a rapport with the online community that is their target demographic, like establishing a Twitter account where they can communicate with their audience. Doing so can help an organization proactively identify potential issues in the "I'm irritated..." phase, rather than waiting to react to the "You're fired..." that likely occurs once customers progress from irritated to mad. If not properly involved online, a company's reputation could be all but destroyed before they ever even identify a potential problem. By then, it's often too late...
I agree with Laura on a number of points here. While it may be a dangerous approach, especially considering the points Jill covered a couple of weeks ago in "SEO Is Not A Last-Ditch Effort", many businesses have finally begun to understand the potential for Internet marketing to have a positive impact on their business.
Whereas before many believed Internet advertising to be just an additional "expense", with the down-turn in the economy and their falling revenues they've experienced as a result, they are looking for every opportunity to get sales and profits swimming back upstream as quickly as possible.
It's important now, more than ever, to make sure that prospective clients understand that they should have begun this process six months to a year ago and that carrying out a Internet marketing campaign is not a quick-fix solution. A properly executed search marketing strategy can have an enormous positive impact, but it's not something that will turn a business around immediately or save one that's weeks from going under.
There's a reason many people are so leery of the SEO industry in general. Unfortunately these scams aren't uncommon. Many people have thrown money down the drain with these charlatans only to find their sites ranking lower or worse, being removed from the index entirely as a result. It is infuriating that clients have so little recourse in instances like this and often accept it as a "live and learn" lesson on the learning curve of being a website owner.
Wow...can they even DO that? Google or no Google, I would think the legalities around running a promotion like that would prevent them from being able to exclude such a massive number of people from a contest. You know...like the contests McDonald's runs in which they have to state "no purchase required...to enter by mail...blah, blah, blah...".
Not only should Google penalize the domain, if that's what they'd do to another domain, I think the authorities should look into this. Then again, I'm no legal expert! I'm sure Martha's cracker-jack legal team reviewed this contest before it was launched...right?
I published "Why NOFOLLOW My Comments?" a couple of weeks ago. I have noticed an increase in the amount of participation in the discussion from readers. Removing NOFOLLOW commands hasn't resulted in an increase in SPAM comments at all...at least not yet. The long term results are yet to be determined, but as of now I have nothing negative to report since removing NOFOLLOW from the comments on my blog posts.
I never really thought of self-submissions as so negative...this post helped to shed new light on the subject, as well as offering a perspective I hadn't considered before. I typically approached submissions as a means to get my work in front of a larger audience initially...not thinking necessarily about how the self-submission would be interpreted. Definitely food for thought!
Point taken! I often use Twitter to announce new blog posts to my followers, but also sometimes submit my own stuff to Sphinn, StumbleUpon, Mixx, etc. to get it in front of a larger audience initially.
I will certainly think twice before doing that in the future based on this post. It never really dawned on me that self-submission could be viewed so negatively by the linkerati that are often an integral part of helping to spread viral content via Social Media outlets. Kudos on the post! Very useful information...that you didn't even submit yourself. ;)
My home page on SEOAly jumped from not registering (not PR0...actually no PR at all) to PR3 based on the toolbar in this latest update. Whether or not toolbar PR is meaningless, that made me grin first thing on a Monday morning. :)
Story: Real SEO Ethics
I think Jill pretty much summed it up. If you let the negativity of others have such an impact, you're only doing yourself a disservice - and playing right into the hands of those spewing forth such negativity. That's not to say that I don't rant...but my ranting is typically aimed at a circumstance or situation, never at a person or people.
I can't fathom personally attacking a person working in the same industry simply because their opinion differs from my own...what a ridiculous waste of time! Who cares if they agree with you or not? Who cares if one person believes "black hat" to be unethical while others view it as just another means to accomplish the same goal? I mean, really, who is being HURT by the employment of black hat SEO tactics? WHO CARES?? Just DO WHAT YOU DO - and leave it at that!
I also agree with Dave that publishing infintile back-biting and personal attacks is destructive to the industry as a whole, but we also can't police that or demand that someone change their behavior. I mean, seriously...what can be done? More so than anything else, we each have to understand that we are responsible for and have control over nothing more than ourselves and our own actions. If the negativity is toxic to you, avoid it.
I, personally, find it rather amusing that people have nothing better to do than write a hateful post or broadcast insults via Twitter. Who has time for that? I sure don't...I'm too busy trying to learn. The one good thing is that those that are clearly bonkers will out themselves as such in a relatively short amount of time. :)
Very useful post with some links to FireFox extensions I hadn't tried yet. I chose to test out FlagFox first because it automatically displays the site's corresponding country flag without even having to click...quick and easy! Makes it particularly easy to identify Canadian IPs even if it's got a .com, rather than a .ca URL. Very handy, indeed! :)
I believe this is Sphinn-worthy...hence my having Sphunn it. I believe Google banning a well-known blogger as a result of hacking is a story we would all, or should all, be interested in learning more about. Google has appointed themselves the Internet police...and I think we should all be made aware when issues such as this occur. If it can happen to DaveN, it could easily happen to one of our client's sites...
Part of this problem comes from a combination of ignorance and being cheap on the part of site owners and designers opting for SEO consultation, rather than hiring an SEO to do the work. Some aspects of SEO can't be dumbed down into a bullet point list of tasks for those who will actually be making the changes. Hence the common reference to ALT tags, headers, title META tags, etc. - they don't understand enough about the concept of SEO as a whole to know what the terms actually refer to.
Most of the people who think they know SEO, really don't know SEO...and those who DO know SEO are never the ones yelling, "I know SEO...". The danger are those jumping up and down screaming "Oh, OH! I KNOW SEO! Put keywords in your header and alt tags!" :)
Story: Todd Mintz Talks on Resumes and Job Searching