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@viperchill the same thing happened in my interview with Guy - pretty light on content compared to responses I've received from people like Danny, Rand, Barry, Chris Sherman and others, but I was happy to get his attention. http://tinyurl.com/6fx5lp
Story: Happy 1st Birthday, Sphinn!
A better title: There is no "I" in SEO. LOL, maybe that's another post. Thanks for the submit David.
The opportuntiy for education goes both ways. Both social media and SEO people "think" they know each other's channels but they really don't.
The question is, does the onus fall on the developers or on the agency/client folks directing the project that didn't know any better? It seems to vary by situation.
I thought Jen did a great job with the post.
It's one thing to go head to head and it's another to build client education and stakeholder empowerment into the overall enterprise SEO engagement.
Working with the client side contact to identify potential internal assets for the SEO cause that have influence should be in place from the start. Energizing those who "get it" with communication tools and reporting that makes them look good to superiors will do wonders right along with ongoing training.
Making logical arguments is no longer enough to get interdepartmental SEO efforts implemented. You have to combine the ability to associate SEO implementation for each stakeholder to how it will help them and the organization at large with the value created both personally and organizationally.
@hugoguzman It doesn't take courage to brute force your opinion to a client whether you're right or wrong. It takes skill and persuasion skills to create a compelling argument plus a clear picture of what's in it for them and the company.
If someone client side says something absolutely stupid about their SEO, and yes they certainly do, then the way to handle that is diplomatically and persuasively in a way that builds up the dissenter, not breaks them down.
@hugoguzman I was responding to your comment here on Sphinn, not the post. There is room for interpretation with a phrase like "push back" since many people who do that aren't tactful about it.
If noobs aren't confident in their recommendations and don't have data to support them, then they're going to have a problem in any job, not just SEO. It seems that's what you're talking about, being confident and having strongly supported recommendations. Yes? No?
The other side to this is that consultants that do not hold true to the client's best interests and that do not challenge thinking that runs contrary to agreed upon goals will be subject to blame. Even if the reason for a course of action or inaction lies with the client, it's the consultant's "fault".
Many companies hire outside agencies in part to challenge groupthink and "yes" men mentality. Outside perspectives can break companies free of bad processes and "we've always done it that way" syndrome.
My point is to accomplish those things tactfully not just by pushing or forcing as the phrase "push back" implies. I guess it might just be a matter of semantics.
Gotta love a "SEO consulting is dead" post, but Aaron still does SEO. Just a little.
@mikebradbury I think your question is spot on and companies are already seeing the value from Internet Marketing shops or SEO savvy ad/pr/interactive agencies over pure SEO consultants. At the same time, more SEO consulting businesses are diversifying.
Oh, as an answer to Aaron's question in the post. We are definitely still selling SEO consulting services, but almost always in conjunction with other online marketing tactics.
A great book for those with a legacy mindset towards social media is "Do It Wrong Quickly" from Mike Moran (prev with IBM)
The only way a multi-agency scenario works is if one agency is designated the "lead" and sets/oversees strategy as well as implementation.
I am reviewing a tool to help combat this sort of thing and it's pretty cool. Will post or at least Tweet a link when it goes live.
Marty wrote a handy post on cross pollinating with social media last year: http://tinyurl.com/6m8dls
Yeah, this isn't the first time we've written about the idea of optimizing assets and holistic SEO. Recetly PROFIT magazine and DMNews published our interviews/articles on the topic so it seemed worth sharing.
It's a pretty basic idea (what can be searched on can be optimized) but not always so easy to implemet.
It appears to be a case of "it depends". It doesn't take much to make a return on a nominal (although persisitent) investment in time with communities like Twitter. Michael's comments on the post show some great examples.
WTF, was I on another planet during all this???
Happy Birthday Kim - you know how much I appreciate what an inspiration you've been all these years. There's no doubt many others lucky enough to have been influenced by you feel the same way. :)
Very cool Todd - thanks for the inclusion. We're still hiring for that PPC position too!
Story: Baby Girl Born on Twitter!
That was pretty cool Adam - while I was in the woods with 50 crazed 8 year olds I got to read the updates on the birth of your #2. Congrats!
Aussiewebmaster, along those lines I supposed we could have included Tweetgasms as well, but you have to draw the line. :)
Actually, what Adam did was pretty cool.
I have had this issue with WebProNews using our content and have had them stop posting to some of their sites. I've also had them agree to not use the same title as the original post. Along with Vanessa's suggestion for an absolute link back to the original, we try to include that within the post and have it hard coded into the RSS feed for sites that scrape us.
When I did an interview with Adam Lasnik at SES London, I asked him about this kind of thing in the context of press releases, which are often copied many times after distribution. He pretty much gave the same advice. Nice post Vanessa.
Story: SEO Guide for Designers
This is a good post and a timely topic. Well, I guess the topic has been timely for a very long time. Web dev/design folks not being tasked to understand or aware of the search engines as an audience for their work (besides people) has kept a whole industry of SEOs busy for 10+ years.
Story: SEO Has No Future
We've done some linking projects for a different division of HP but nothing this stupid. It's so easy to detect such tactics with high profile sites, why risk it?
I doubt this is the only way they're link building for logoworks, but there are so many other risk free ways to get links to a site with such a great footprint and abundant digital assets. HP, we need to talk!
Story: Guy Kawasaki Gets SearchFeatured