I spent a good chunk of my time this past week at the Houston AdWords Seminar for Success training program. It was refreshing to hear stories of how many small businesses, mainly mom-and-pops, had taken advantage of search marketing during the recession. The consensus seemed to be that search was among the best performing channels in keeping the attendees’ businesses afloat.
I was stunned at how many participants were actively looking for SEO firms, though. By actively looking, I mean yelling out during breaks “If you’re an SEO company I want to talk to you!”
Since I’m working in-house now, I kept myself out of this game; but the future consultant in me did more than a little eavesdropping between the SEO companies attending the seminar and the SMBs scouting for business cards. What did I learn?
SEO is still a haven for the misinformed and confused (and those are the service providers!)
It amazes me how many SEO providers read an outdated book or two, come up with some cookie-cutter techniques (or some hyped software), and call themselves professionals.
Though it’s been posted for a couple weeks, Ian Lurie’s 10 questions to evaluate an SEO is pretty spot-on. It reminds me in spirit of Jill Whalen’s classic The Evolution of a Search Marketer.
If you’re looking for an SEO, do the hard work of educating yourself about search and find someone you trust with your best interests, since no reputable SEO will guarantee their results. Start by looking for an SEO that’s bright, curious, conversion-oriented, and meets Ian’s criteria.
Caring about usability implies empathy, right?
In the face of overwhelming evidence that real people struggle online, pretentious geeks prove they don’t get it yet again.
It’s unconscionable how many web professionals, front-end designers and developers alike, treat coding for the web like some precious voodoo rather than what it is - a means of assisting real users in getting stuff done online.
Explaining away usability problems, particularly as a fault of your users, is unacceptable. The comments to the stories above are revealing – a lot of supposed pros don’t give a damn. I’d suggest using it to your advantage.
