Like this article? PLEASE +1 it! Evan Signature
Evan Carmichael Top Header
Share for a Cause









SEM Industry Standards Nonsense or Necessary

Written by: Kalena Jordan

Article Overview: Does the search engine marketing industry need standards? Should there be an industry body to oversee these standards? Kalena Jordan of Search Engine College presents both sides of the debate.

Free Download - Top 10 Dumbest Web Site Decisions By Kalena Jordan
Name: Email:

SEM Industry Standards Nonsense or Necessary

A storm in a tea cup has been brewing in the search industry over the past few days. It was prompted by Jill Whalen's recent blog post titled We Don't Need SEO Standards (http://searchengineland.com/080327-080020.php) where she came to the conclusion that she didn't think the search industry needed standards or regulation, at least in relation to Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Here are Jill's top 4 reasons why she believes we don't need SEO standards:

1. There are too many ways of skinning the SEO cat.

2. We can't even agree on the definition of search engine optimization.

3. There are already laws to protect people from SEO scams.

4. There's no such thing as "cheating" in SEO.

The post got a few people fired up and they blogged fiery rebuttals pushing their case for standards. Their reasoning included:

• that the industry has a black eye and needs a regulating body.

• that industry-wide standards need to be put in place to protect the public from unethical SEM operators.

• that SEM practioners need to take responsibility for their own profession.

• that it's about time the industry adopted a set of agreed best practices.

Yadda yadda.

Passionate commentary ensued on Sphinn, proving that the industry is divided on the issue. But the truth is, we have been arguing about this very subject for years.

Personally, I agree with Jill's post.

As an educator, I can understand the frustration at the lack of industry standards. But do we *need* them? Are standards going to solve the problems people perceive as dogging the industry? I think not. Creating standards is not going to get rid of shoddy SEOs or make them switch hats. Creating standards is not going to prevent the general public from being ripped off by SEM cowboys. Industry veterans will understand this. Education and publicity has always been the solution but it just took some of us years to work that out.

This industry has unspoken standards and they've worked well for 10 or more years. We white-hat educators promote the unofficial standards and search engine guidelines already. The creation of official standards would, in my opinion, just spawn more problems.

It's interesting to see how personally some people are taking this issue. I too recall the days when I took SEO scamming quite personally and made it my own little agenda to hunt, expose and ridicule dodgy SEO firms in an effort to save the great unwashed masses from themselves and rid the industry of it's shoddy reputation in the media. Now I simply educate as many people as I can about what tactics to avoid rather than who to avoid. I think this is more of an issue of buyer beware than anything else. Standards are a nice idea, but they can't be discussed in isolation when we don't have a governing body to determine or implement them.

I used to get so annoyed at the black eye given to the industry thanks to dodgy operators and ignorant journalists, but the tide has turned so we must be addressing the problem. These days, the general public and the media (with the exception of American Express perhaps) *get* that most SEOs aren't out to rip them off.

As for best practices, these can't be created from the outside in, they have to be generated from inside out - and that means with involvement from the very top - from the search engines themselves and possibly an independent regulatory body. No search engine or government body has imposed formal regulations on the industry so right now we just have guidelines and ethics and semantics. We white hat advocates can all pat each other on the back for following Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and not spamming, but we can't be too hard on the black and gray hats for breaking the rules when there are no clear rules to begin with!

So who should be entrusted with the creation and regulation of SEM industry standards or best practices? Some are suggesting an existing organization or SEM firm should be given the job.

Within the Sphinn commentary, Jill said: "...those that would create the standards all have their own agendas."

She's got a point. I for one would balk strongly at one of the existing search marketing organizations or firms being given the power to determine best practices for the entire industry. The conflict of interest rumpus that would create would be unbearable and accusations would taint the reputation of those involved, even if their intentions were honorable - remember the drama relating to ethics in SEMPOs first year? Until we have a completely independent board/panel consisting of government officials and nominated representatives, the argument for standards is circular.

Meanwhile, we have to rely on our interpretation of the search engine's guidelines, our own experience and our voices to educate webmasters about SEM best practices, as we see fit. As an industry, we’re doing this already via the many channels we have access to: forums, blogs, articles, webinars, media, training, conferences and the like. Do we need standards in order to educate? Nah. I think we're doing a pretty good job without them.

Related Articles
  Your Standards Raise em High
  Labels That Mean Nothing
  HAVE HIGH STANDARDS FOR YOURSELF
  Financial Reform Bill Diversity Requirement Has Challenges
  Orienting New Employees: More Powerful with a Results-Oriented Job Description

Home > SEO > Kalena Jordan > SEM Industry Standards Nonsense or Necessary
Article Tags: best practices, black eye, conclusion, education, educator, few days, frustration, hats, industry veterans, jill whalen, optimization seo, profession, publicity, scams, search engine optimization, search industry, seos, storm in a tea cup, truth

About the Author: Kalena Jordan
RSS for Kalena's articles - Visit Kalena's website

Kalena Jordan is the search industry’s first agony aunt, here to answer your tricky questions about search engines. Kalena is Co-Founder and Director of Studies at Search Engine College, an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects. She’s been marketing websites online since 1996 and blogging about search since 2002. For her full bio, view Kalena’s Linked In Profile. When not working, Kalena likes to go geocaching, hiking or fishing. She also plays a mean darabuka.

Click here to visit Kalena's website
Dashed Line

More from Kalena Jordan
Ambient Findability and the Future of Search
How to Turn Around an Unprofitable PPC Campaign
How to Create Killer Landing Pages
Social Media The Instant Brand Killer
What SEOs Expect From Their Clients


Related Forum Posts
Re: Twitter releasing real time analytics Re: Twitter releasing real time analytics - Hi Evan, Thanks you for the heads up on that, it will be interesting to see how the analytics works out but Twitter has had to evolve pretty quickly to keep pace with the requirements of the Industry so I suppose it was a natural development. regards, Mal.
Re: Trade Shows - Are They Worth It? Re: Trade Shows - Are They Worth It? - HI, I have used trade shows (not participated) to collect potential clients. For example, the Home & Garden Industry is extremely behind the time in regards to their websites. I attended an Home & Garden Expo in Denver and collected all the companies contact information. I plan on cold calling & mailing information to each business. It also gave me time to research the industry more, talk directly to the owners in many cases, and learn more about what they need. Jeff
Re: Prospects in animation business in coming years. Re: Prospects in animation business in coming years. - Yes the Animation Industry is growing and it needs cost effectiveness, more employees producing quality work. Whether you make a 2d or a 3d animation it requires lots of money, concentration, patience and it sometimes become painful too. Half of the job is done once you have developed the storyboarding. As video advertising is growing, it would adversely affect the television advertising. Recent trends have shown that advertising budgets for online advertising is rapidly growing against television advertising all over across the world. Gaming industry is on its peak these days and animation is in huge demand.
Re: Which Social Media Drives The Most Traffic? Re: Which Social Media Drives The Most Traffic? - LOL, I think you could be right there David, that was the bit I found interesting too because the true shelf life of a link is something I wasn't really aware of. You tend to think a link is there for good but we don't really know. On a similar topic but about directory listings, how about things like Directory Submitter, I use that with any new site I have but after you have spent days, weeks or even months trawling thru the whole A-Z of the directory, how long do they stay there. Some will tell you up front that it may take your site 6 months before it may even be listed but how long do they hold you’re listing before you have to start from scratch and submit all over again. If a listing is still current you will usually get a pop up when you go thru it all again but who has the time to do that?. A logical thing would be to have a marker next to each site that is current in the A-Z to allow you to pass over those. That’s wishful thinking of course but shelf life on all of these things is a grey area and it would be nice to have some Industry standards to work from but that’s probably a long time away. regards, Mal.
Re: Women and Financing - It's Difficult! Re: Women and Financing - It's Difficult! - I found this paragraph of interest (in the article from Nana's link: [quote="Nana":3r7womqv]Other studies show that women operate more service and retail establishments than men, which might explain their difficulty in getting financing since financial institutions often consider these two sectors more risky. However, although women are generally less inclined than men to apply for financing, when they do, they are more likely to get it. According to a study by Industry Canada on SME financing in Canada, in 2000 majority female-owned SMEs obtained a loan approval rate of 82%, which is slightly higher than the approval rate for majority male-owned businesses (80%). This suggests that when they do apply for financing, businesswomen submit excellent applications. [/quote:3r7womqv] They say, "Women are more likely to get [financing]." But the difference is only 2 percentage points! Big deal! And, that was only for one year, 2000. I'd like to know what the 10-year average is. Numbers can be manipulated to mean anything you want them to mean...it all depends on what you want to show.


Recommended Article for You close

  Your Standards Raise em High

Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.



Featured Article


Bottom Footer
Share for a Cause












Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!
Name:
Email:
Popular Articles

Top 5 Tips for Better Online Ads

Local Marketing: 3 Simple Low-Cost Strategies

The Substance Abusing Employee

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.