There's a big problem in the SEO industry and that's the fact that people are not using SEO terms correctly. Jill Whalen has written a great post on Search Engine Land to this effect -- she says that due to there being no industry definitions, lack of knowledge (or laziness), and "old wives tales" (where people misinterpret something happening due to something else), SEO terms are not really understood at all times. She closes her great wirteup with a powerful statement: "After all, if the very people who make up our industry can't get it right, how will others?"
Would you disagree that this is a problem? Most Sphinners think that Jill is spot on the money. Here's a great response to the article from SEOAly:
Part of this problem comes from a combination of ignorance and being cheap on the part of site owners and designers opting for SEO consultation, rather than hiring an SEO to do the work. Some aspects of SEO can't be dumbed down into a bullet point list of tasks for those who will actually be making the changes. Hence the common reference to ALT tags, headers, title META tags, etc. - they don't understand enough about the concept of SEO as a whole to know what the terms actually refer to.
Aly also makes a rational follow-up "argument" that I personally identify with -- a lot. A lot of people, she says, claim that they know SEO when they don't. Those who know SEO don't usually say "hey, I know SEO!" There are a lot of charlatans out there.
Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.
