February 9, 2005 Archives

What would you call it, SEO or SEM? Today on Cre8asite forums there is an excellent thread where one of the members, Barry Welford, details an article he blogged on taking an overall aerial view of the SEM/SEO industry and where it might be headed. He questions what defines the industry as a whole? There has been discussion on this in the past, SEW in particular had a great thread last year about the history of SEM/SEO and why we call SEO...Search Engine Optimization? Do you know why? Generally since about that time or before then I have seen the adoption of "Search Marketing" as more of an accepted term to identify this group of marketers. I prefer these terms over SEO/SEM as it covers both, without having to explain what the acronyms mean to clients or friends.

One of the members Diane, who authored a very good blog entry on the existence of the SEO industry and the infamous nay-sayer Seth Godin who thinks there is none. Worth a good read here. She commented that the answer to this question is simple as defined by Webster:

a distinct group of productive or profit-making enterprises

The thread continues detailing the use of Search Engine Marketing or Search Engine Optimization today and how the term SEM has been adopted more and more by agencies and internet marketers. Barry W. goes on to make some grim predictions about the phrase "Search Engine Optimization" that it may eventually phase out of use in about 2-5 years time. I don't particularly agree with him, but I do understand where he is coming from. Using a better term for the industry such as one that contains the key term "marketing" will go further to strength the industry, where search engine optimization is contained below it as part of what you do in the industry. He says:

So I'm not saying bury the O. I'm saying trumpet the M, while continuing to milk the O.

:-) Nice quote.

They get into something called "sub optimization", but I will refrain from describing it as its a mathmatical term being applied to and paired with search engine optimization. The term means "Improving part of something may make the whole object less effective". Interesting, I guess as in a form of optimization making one part better, but loosing the effectiveness of the whole.

Finally one of the moderators jumps in and keeps the answer simple to the question in earnest:

As long as search engines exist, there will be a need for people to optimize sites for them.

Continue discussion the SEO Industry at Cre8asite Forums.

At DigitalPoint Forums, there is a thread in the register only forum that is named Contemplating Leaving DP... (must be registered). In that thread, a member discusses that he is dreaming about members and the forum at night. Let me take an except of the posting, for those who are not in the mood to register.

Contemplating Leaving DP...

...because mr SEbasic featured in my dream last night . (Don't worry, we only sat down for a meal...)
Not that I have a clue what he looks like but it was him. I know it was.
Can only mean one thing... Spending too much time here !
Saying this... I'll stay around. Only when it's AC or WeirFire I dream of then I'll reconsider by DP daily time spend.
I should be dreamin' about the DP girls...
Anyone else seeing unexpected adverse symptoms related to being here?

I found this incredibly funny. I would think that I would be dreaming this stuff, but thankfully, I have never had a dream that I remembered, that involved SEO forums or even SEO.

There is no doubt that most, if not all, SEOs are very pleased with how MSN Search is treating their Web pages. But does that make MSN more relevant? I won't be the one to say, yes, MSN Search is more relevant then Google, Yahoo or even Ask Jeeves. I was a bit surprised to see the reaction of some SEOs over at SEO Chat forums that said they are Switching to MSN.

It is one thing to be pleased with your rankings on a search engine. But to switch to a search engine because your highly optimized pages are doing well in the engine? That is just pride. Which makes me think...

Marketing... Relevancy... Marketing...

Which leads me back to an entry I wrote a while back about Relevancy's Importance in Microsoft's Quest. I am still scared.

Now that Google images are found in the main SERPs when conducting a normal Web search, it is time to look for ways to optimize your images for Google. Although, we discussed this in the past, there are new threads popping up on the topic, as an alternative way to drive targeted traffic to your site. One such new thread is at WebmasterWorld, under the name How to perform well in Google Image Search.

Besides for the white hat versus black hat link spam discussions, an other large topic that is debated in the wonderful world of SEO is to SEO by formula or to SEO by natural, organic, artistic means. What I mean by natural, organic, artistic means is - one should write copy so that it reads well and is user friendly. What I mean by SEO by formula is - one should test the copy to ensure it has the right amount of keyword density, right number of related words and so on.

There are those SEOs that do both. Some SEOs that write copy are actually so good at SEO Copywriting that they don't use formulas, they simply know what makes for good, optimized copy. In fact, most of the time, if you run it through one of those programs or have an algorithmic junky review the copy - they will agree that the copy is not bad. Then there are those who count the words on the page, ensure like (~) words are on the page enough times and run the page through programs.

Both work. One is pure science, and one is pure art. If you do not have the science part down and you do not have the art part down, then you simply don't have it. But practice does make perfect.

There is an interesting thread over at HighRankings, where typically you have the more artistic folks hang out. In that thread, they discuss a topic named Term Vector Theory and Keyword Weights (forum link to SEW), which was one of the many highly scientific threads started by Orion, Dr. E. Garcia, at SEW Forum. In this thread, you will see exactly what I am talking about above.

I don't mean to get on anyones bad side about a thread at HighRankings named "i'm Kinda Busy, Can You Send Me An Email?", Anybody ever hear this?, where well known SEO providers discuss how they often tell prospects to hang up the phone and send them an email with what they want.

I would never do that personally. Someone is looking for information about how my business can help their business, I'll talk to them about it. However, many in the thread prefer and sometimes require the initial discussion to take place over email. Maybe, I do not understand the SEO business. But in my business, I need to first learn about the client, the challenges they face, and get a feel of what they are willing to do to solve those challenges.

At the end of the call, I normally tell them that I will email them with more detail, on what I think will benefit them. Not the other way around. I put the effort into the initial call. Why? Because often, they do not understand what they need, because they do not know what options are available to them.

Again, this is just me. I have enough business at the time to turn people away. But, it does not mean that I turn my shoulder. Note, I am not saying that the people in the thread treat prospects wrong, I might have read the thread totally wrong. Read it for yourself here.

Back at the WebmasterWorld Conference in Las Vegas, a guy by the name of Daron Babin (aka SEGuru) launched WebmasterRadio.FM at http://www.webmasterradio.fm/. Since then, to be honest, rarely listened to any live show. Last night, I caught the first 30 minutes of a little show they call "SEO RockStars with hosts: Todd (Oilman) Friesen and Jake (bakedjake) Baillie." Last night's topic was about this Google update, with a nice discussion about what Oilman and BakedJake have personally experienced with this update. They discussed it is important to differentiate your anchor text, I think they also mentioned more deep linking and they also brought up the topic of LSI / LSA. That was fun. Anyway, if you haven't its worth checking out a show, check the schedule at http://www.webmasterradio.fm/.