Seth Godins worst ever blog

First time I have ever read a blog by Seth Godin and wanted to spit. Seth doesn't believe in SEO. Fair enough, but I think it is irresponsible in his position as marketing guru to imply people should ignore a vital part of an online marketers toolkit. It's like saying "I don't know how to get a positive ROI from email marketing so email marketing is obviously a black art that people should avoid - if I can't do it it MUST be crap". Why the heck should sombody not put a small amount of effort and resource into something that potentially has huge gains - paying for traffic you could get for free? IMO marketing should use every trick in the book in a coordinated, integrated way, not "stick to the stuff I am familiar with".

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2004/07/the_problem_wit.html

Sorry to be the one to say this Seth but you are wrong. Yeah, noone will listen to me like they do a real guru but I had to say it. Just because you don't understand something does not mean it is useless, how arrogant is that? If you don't know an expert get referrals from people you trust, just like hiring a solicitor or an accountant.

Not being found in organic search results damages a companies credibility. Advising people to not even bother trying to be found damages Seths credibility. Sad day.

D'oh!

 

 

6 Comments

  • I think the point trying to be made by Seth is that SEO really is just trial and error, it's not something you can test the quality of, unlike programming or building.



    That's not to say all of SEO is bad - I agree with having decent content, well-formed html and descriptions for images etc. But there's no guarantee when you start keyword-stuffing, and try to take advantage of the semantic importance of H tags, for instance - and then it just becomes a gamble, as opposed to proper marketing.



    Not to mention that you start polluting your product with meaningless information, at the detriment of your customers. You're right about the credibility though, which is why people will always try to take advantage of search engines.



    Thanks for posting this, looking forward to reading what other people think.

  • I have to agree with Seth to a certain extent on this (and not because hes a guru). It all depends on the expenses incurred. If it cost $100.00 to have someone do some SEO for you, then fine...why not? Somehow, I doubt costs in that range are the norm (else the earlier poster wouldn't base his life on the business).



    Just for fun, consider what Seth would say if he were to take the opposite stance?:



    1.) SEO is great because you can spend LOTS of money and see only a fraction of the ROI you might see spending that money on a more credible and creative marketing idea.



    2.) SEO is awesome because there is only a substantial possibility that someone else will do a better job than you and totally null and void your effort!



    3.) SEO rocks because it gives your company an obvious "do anything for a buck" image - especially when it accidentally comes up first on searches that have nothing to do with your content.



  • Chris - so how do you spot a good SEO? Surely they're always the first hit in Google for Search Engine Optimization :-)

  • Scott: The current top result is not necessarily the best - if that persons site has been the top result for that phrase for a year then I would say they are probably very good :O)



    I don't think you "spot" a good SEO, I think you ask around and get good referrals from people you trust that are in your (or related) industry. Before you do that you get someone in your organisation or yourself as educated on the subject as you can. I highly recommend even clients do as much of it as possible, they know their subject domain better than anyone and it really helps with the rest of their marketing work when they see through the eyes of their audience in a really structured way.



  • The real meat behind SEO is having well-written, focused, meaningful (and keyword-laden, of course) content for your visitors anyway, so if you spend time to have good content you've already done the bulk of the work behind SEO. You can't avoid SEO while at the same time developing good content for your site. The two are inseparable - indeed, they are one in the same!

  • There is a limited amount of things a search engine can grade a page on.



    The "art" of SEO is just getting people to link to you with your keywords in the text. There are many different ways you can do that, but when it comes down to it that is really most of what SEO is.



    Also for those who expect high rankings on an SEOs website you must remember that they may be busy on clients sites, and it is many many many hours of hard work and many many many dollars to rank well for stuff like "seo" or "search engine marketing."



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