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I’m an SEO Celebrity! Please listen to me…
February 27th, 2008 | by Peter Cullen |An article caught my eye last week, written by Lee Oden and posted on WebProNews, it talked about the concept of the SEO Celebrity. Lee cites examples of job candidates explaining how they want to be famous SEO’s in 2-3 years. He asks is all the link baiting effort and networking worth the effort? Is it bankable?
Somebody once said that everyone of us has a book in them and that the blog is bringing that book out. If you are in the internet marketing industry, what you write in that book is crucial to building trust and credibility in fellow marketers and potential customers. But what if you are writing just to get noticed? This ‘notoriety crack’ as Oden refers to it, is addictive and leads some bloggers to equate feedburner stats to online nutrition.
Web marketing consultants are appearing in ever increasing numbers and a lot of stock is put in certain SEO’ers who have been around the block for a few years. Rightly so these guys should get some kudos as being first on this new landscape and some have consistently interesting articles and opinions. But is there a future in this business where a handful of websites or blogs hold sway over what is acceptable and what is not?
I believe for this industry to start to move on from its early start up phase it needs to start to integrate with existing traditional businesses , e.g. traditional advertising houses, or start to consolidate with the SEO industry itself. I’ve seen the latter start to happen with some well known consultants getting together to start agencies.
Online marketing specialists have found it relatively easy up to now to create a buzz, either for themselves or their clients. But what happens when the SERP’s become ever more contested and PPC becomes ever more expensive? Will the clients pay for the increased CPC? Will it be worth it in terms of ROI?
As the industry starts to mature more and more companies are drawn online, they are sending their staff on online marketing training and starting to take this business in-house.
It’s there that I see the real opportunities for this business? The in-house teams in the bigger SME’s and blue chip companies. What tools are these teams going to use? How will they gain access to the increasing amounts of information and training that they need?
To remain an SEO celebrity you need to feed the masses with original content which may or increasingly may not have to be related to SEO.
To take a long term stake in this business SEO’ers need to start offering long term value, and that value needs to be accessible in new ways.
What do you think? How is the internet marketing industry changing? Are you an SEO who is changing the way they look at their business model?
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4 Responses to “I’m an SEO Celebrity! Please listen to me…”
By Bob Williams on Aug 4, 2009 | Reply
When it comes to Spam Bill Egan is your Man
I was disgusted by the blatant use of LInkedin by your sales rep
Obviously your company has no idea social media is not about being salesy but helpful and beneficial to the community
If I want spam I will sign up to your email newsletter
By Dave Brewster on Aug 5, 2009 | Reply
Absolutely agree with Bob’s comment.
The signal-to-noise ratio coming from this website via Bill Egan is simply ridiculous.
I’d love to know whether the upturn in traffic is really worth it versus the inevitability of increased numbers of people seeing interleado.com in a negative light.
Bounce rates high much? I’d guess that would be because Bill Egan is promising content that simply doesn’t exist!
By Ian Wortley on Jan 25, 2010 | Reply
Harsh comments I think.
I agree completely that SEO has to be integrated with traditional marketing models. SEO is only one part of the marketing mix.
The trouble is that most marketing departments have very little knowledge about the online world. Likewise, most IT departments have very little knowledge about marketing. This leaves a gap in the market for online marketeers, a gap that has only been partially filled in most cases.
With regards to the internet becoming too crowded… well, so were newspapers and television. A good online marketing campaign will reap similar (or potentially much higher) returns as a good traditional media campaign. Ideally, both should run in tandem. The fantastic thing about the internet from a SME point of view is that budgets can be comparatively much smaller.
Advertising agencies should be hiring SEO’s, Viral marketeers and PPC experts and offering online advertising as part of their packages. PR agencies are already putting time and money into training staff on online marketing.
I think that the next few years will see a reduction in business for “pure” SEO’s, because companies will be looking for a more holistic approach to their online presence. SEO is very important, but Holistic SEO is the future.
By Peter Cullen on Jan 25, 2010 | Reply
Thanks for the comments Ian, I believe you’re right in identifying a gap between IT and marketing!
I wonder are ad agencies bringing in SEO people?