Comments on: Where’s the Positivity in the SEO Industry: We’re no Criminals

By: New

New — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:09:21 +0000

This was an excellent read. I completely understand where you’re coming from.

BUT I think this is by-and-large a very friendly industry and the vast majority of relationships are positive.

Most of the people in SEO (and even the Google search engineers/editors :D) seem to be quite friendly, willing to help others. Perhaps that is because I am a relative newb and haven’t been around long enough to see the bad blood?

By: Michiel Van Kets

Michiel Van Kets — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 03:33:30 +0000

The thought that we can be considered criminals is an alarming one – let alone terrorists!. I genuinely love my work.

I agree that a positive approach is being open minded, optimist and willing to help other people. I do my job more than just as a job. Sure we all need to earn a living but as I really enjoy what I do and it provides benefits to others that gives me a real kick.

I try to operate my business with the mindset on my customers and what they want as well as giving good and thought out input to the web itself.

I agree with Gurgle that in some ways SEO professionals tend to be perfectionists generally – but not that they want to control every little part of the site they are working on but that they want to improve it and provide beneficial results.

Being a perfectionist can’t be a bad thing can it? When is being good at something turned into a negative?

I want to be good at what I do and if that makes me a perfectionist I am not adverse to that label but I don’t consider myself to be in any way a criminal.

I hope that there are some likeminded individuals out there who can see that some of us in SEO are generally doing the job we love to do.

Rgds
Michiel

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:44:55 +0000

I think SEO 2 would not depend on tools.

By: Henry Gilbert

Henry Gilbert — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:15:58 +0000

@Melanie

“We no longer ‘optimize a site for Google’. We tell site owners to write great content and do it often… Google does seem to love the fresh content”

In short, you get paid to do nothing.

By: Merlin Silk

Merlin Silk — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:18:26 +0000

It is such a refreshing new outlook that I see blossoming up anywhere. There you said it for SEO but where I noticed it before is in marketing, at least the one that is successful – being human-oriented, seeing a potential customer actually as a real human and not just a part of my ROI. I see the positive results so much on a commercial site I run. All the comments and testimonials are real – while I thought when I started that all testimonials on web pages are fake – and maybe they were, but my experience if you communicate in a positive way that will come back – multiplied.
And I can totally see that this must be true for SEO as well. It was just so tempting that with little effort and a bit cheating you could get all those visitors, but it is certainly much more satisfying to be in communication with others – real communication. The only problem I have with that is how I can make a few millions on the internet instead a few thousand….
Cheers
Merlin

By: Mat

Mat — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:47:33 +0000

Hmm i think not being in control adds a certain excitement to our work.At least there is some variation, though i agree, when you have worked hard and are finding it difficult to get the results that you want, that can be disheartening.

By: Melanie Prough

Melanie Prough — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:32:57 +0000

I agree totally. We have honestly moved to content driven results to start and then tweaking as needed when the results can be measured more accurately … We no longer “optimize a site for Google”. We tell site owners to write great content and do it often… Google does seem to love the fresh content.

By: Gurgle

Gurgle — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:10:17 +0000

I think in some ways SEO professionals tend to be perfectionists generally – they like to control every little part of the site they are working on. Essentially I guess that is what “optimisation” is – an eternal and impossible mission to be at the very best performance. Unfortunately such is the nature of SEO that such perfection cannot be achieved, hence the permanent misery!

By: onreact

onreact — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:49:40 +0000

Exactly Keith. That’s why it’s important to break free from the Google dependency.
Google is far too powerful now, you make it powerful by relying on it.

In SEO 2.0 you rely on people no matter what tools they use.

In SEO you too often mistake the means for the ends.

By: Keith Davis

Keith Davis — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:04:35 +0000

You are right… we are a gloomy lot.

It comes from not being in control of the engines, especially Google.

You do all the hard work, on page and links, but at the end of the month when you check the rankings!!!!

Who knows what you’re going to find.