Since I wrote a blog post critical of marketer Seth Godin’s SEO Advice, there been a number of responses from the blogosphere. The most critical came from the Chief Interactive Officer of a company called HitTail: Mike Levin. According to his company bio he was
“inspired by the notion that Search Engine Optimization and Public Relations are founded on the same underlying principles…”
Hey that sounds great, so why would this guy’s recent posts embody all the misunderstandings people have for what quality search engine optimizers actually do? Well let’s look at what Mike thinks they do:
In his words:
“… that’s why HitTail recommends getting started with BLOGGING SOFTWARE. And in Seth’s case, he uses TypePad from SixApart, so he doesn’t need to worry about SEO. What he says is absolutely true. TypePad does enough things correctly enough that you don’t even need to customize. If you just start a TypePad blog and follow Seth’s advice, it’s going to work for you.”
So Mike says you don’t need to worry about SEO? You just sign up for a TypePad blog, start typing away and like magic links and exposure will start pouring in, right? Not so fast!
First of all there are over 45 million blogs, most of which go unread. What makes the good ones stand out? SEO isn’t just about manipulating keywords and website structure. This can be done with software (although this method is usually done incorrectly especially if you factor in usability and being able to leverage new technology and features that encourage user generated content and community building).
SEO is about understanding how to use an ever-changing set of methodologies based on internet technology in combination with general marketing savvy to promote one website above it’s competitors. It’s about looking at the internet and understanding how various technologies work together, how markets can be approached, how communities work and how to influence them. It’s a strange cross-discipline involving marketing savvy and extreme technical competence born out of the confusion that arose as businesses moved online.
Some of what SEO is involves low level tasks, but that is not the core of getting a site to rank, getting more traffic and making that website work when other similar sites fail. It’s not about one thing, it’s about everything. It’s about how I spend 12 hours online and track the latest trends, about how I read countless marketing blogs each week and how I continually adapt to emerging technologies while refining my work to meet my website user’s needs. There is no replacement for what I do, it takes a human being. It’s about understanding how the whole picture of the online community comes together and how visitors stumble across the vast internet landscape and find sites. It’s also about what makes them stay there, what influences them to share what they found and how to make a site that outperforms others that do the same thing.
Search Marketing (I currently use this word instead of SEO because it encompasses more elements and avoids the negative associations of SEO) is not becoming less important, as Mike and Seth seem to think; it’s becoming more important. Technology is moving ahead at a blistering speed. Businesses and individuals need good, qualified advice and help on how to use that technology for maximum impact online.
Go ahead, don’t pay attention to SEO, but don’t be surprised when you get crushed online by someone who does. Someone who isn’t leaving that up to chance, but actively and aggressively using creativity and technical savvy to open new markets and drive traffic to their website. I sure as hell wouldn’t try to launch a website without a serious Search Marketing strategy, because your website’s life or death depends on it. Remember good blogs go unread, many great sites fail and the purists oversimplify everything. The internet landscape is a jungle and search engine optimizers work hard to straighten out the confusion to help businesses leverage new technology, to gain readers, to gain traffic and ultimately, to be more successful online and off.
Mike Levin went even further with a follow up post containing an experiment where he’s signing up for a default TypePad installation and tracking the results. Wow, what a way to compete online – with a default blog with nothing particular setting it apart from any other blog, complete with a domain slapped with typepad.com at the end. Good luck getting that site to rank for anything competitive, good luck getting traffic. In fact Mike blogs every day (that’s a lot of writing) his blog (company blog with a forum and lots of users / customers) has been going for a long time and in all that time it’s drawn less links than this blog has in the last 2 months (we’re new).
I think I’ll do a series soon where I’ll go into detail about what I actually do for my clients. Maybe then people will better understand the importance of the cross-discipline of SEO. Although, because of statements like those from Mike, Seth and other individuals, I’ve stopped calling what I do SEO; instead I use search marketing or online marketing and web development. It’s about perspective and branding, but remember a search engine optimizer is not just someone who spams for links or adjusts pages for keywords. A quality SEO is someone who understands the methodologies for promoting a site online and uses this knowledge to help their clients stand out and be more successful.
[tagsMike Levin, Hittail, SEO[/tags
I do not know why you bother with the blind leading the blind, Solomon: they are just making our job easy, and making us shine: type advertising consultant blog into Google! I do not see any typepad blogs, but I do see mine!
Uh, Solomon, thanks for the publicity. You won’t find any pissing match from me. You validate pretty much all of my points when the reader takes the time to carefully consider. You even posted my own words “HitTail recommends getting started with blogging software.”
For any of you reading this, do the following experiment. Google HitTail. The number is around 300,000 results. Google socialmediasystems. The number is around 700. Also, check out the PageRank we’ve accumulated in 5 months.
I only write this to correct the facts of your second-to-last paragraph.
Hi Mike, not looking for a pissing match just stating my opinion in my blog, that’s what they’re for. Also your point about 300,000 results for hittail has no relevancy, I wasn’t referring to your branding, you’ve spent a bunch of money building hittail, so I expect a lot of results when searching for your brand. I was referring to your blog, which is what this article is about. When you mention 700 results for our brand, remember this site and that brand where created 2 months ago.
If you watch this site we’ll achieve a pr of 5 or higher within 60 days (from 0 and a launch of 2 date of 2 months ago) and we’re picking up blog links and publicity.
This new blog is ranked higher then yours via technorati, but just wait it will rank higher in the serps and have more influence shortly. I quote you, because I like to write well rounded posts even when I’m expressing a negative opinion or critique of someone else.
I’m not one dimensional. Thanks for joining the conversation!
Type social media advertisig into Google: we already rank with this 45 day old blog.
We have some older posts in here (migrated from another blog), but this blog was launched on February 25, so it’s VERY new.
Double-check the facts. Do that Google search. Do that Technorati search.
And it only took us 7 days to get into Google.
Thanks for allowing the comments to post!
Dude, it is not about your proper name! It is about people finding you who do not know your name! Internet advertising consultant is a searched for, coveted, targeted search (check it with Google) which brings up over 51,000,000 documents, and is searched for over 5000 times per month: it targets our market exactly, and 4 of the top five results are me or my representatives: I make one or two sales per week from this placement alone (my six month old blog and articles on associated content). When you have proof of performance like that, or like online advertising consultant, or just advertising consultant, you make money. Not a cut, just a fact.
“Dude”, you’re chatting with the folks who created HitTail. We’re almost on page 1 for the 2-word combo long tail. And we’re converting many/day.
Needless to say, we eat 3-word combo’s for lunch. We’re at the point where we’re educating the rest of the world how to do the same… proper nouns or not.
I understand that: we routinely do one and two word searches for our clients: the point is that you are touting obscure proper names and non-main-stream searches as proof: the only thing we consider proof of anything is what we do for our clients.
And anybody who suggests that a typepad blog, or anyblog that is on someone elses system is as good as an authortity source that belongs to and originates with the client is simply mistaken.
Ah, but I believe I will convince even you, and value the opportunity. It’s like having the ultimate straight-man.
And now that I understand you think the long tail is non-mainstream, the entire discussion is making more sense to me now.
I’m laughing, because isn’t a 3-word combo more long-tail than a 2-word combo? I would actually think that 3,4, and 5 word long-tail combos would be more focused on specific phrases that convert. Am I wrong? I think HitTail would be more suitably used for finding some incredibly obscure longtail 8 word phrases that convert 90% of the time.
Barry, you’re right. 3-words is where things start to get easy. 8 words, while a cinch, is too unique for multiple occurrences. The sweet spot is 3 to 5. Therefore, we only brag about competitive 2-word combo’s above the longtail space anymore, because that’s what separates out the pro’s. We’re really positioning HitTail as a mass-market, anyone can do it thing. Our SEO services are a completely different matter.
Yes, long-tail terms are usually 3+ words, and fairly easy. The tough ones are the 2-word combo’s. HitTail generally doesn’t help with those.
Hey Mike you can’t say 3 words is harder than 2 words, because it greatly depends on the particular phrase. For example my personal site ranks for a few 1 word searches (a bunch of two words ones as well, but I wanted to use 1 as an example) on google “slept” (not a particularly useful search, but cool huh?), but I consider the phrase “watch free movie” to be much harder (of which I’m #11, but will be in break the top 10 later this month).
Actually, I said 3 words are generally easier than 2. Sure, there’s exceptions, and these latest examples of yours are the to have even enough traffic to show up on Google Trends. Thanks. It’s nice to see a decent example. But since we’re trading keywords, try pr firm. Now THAT converts.
I was using a personal example for fun.
I’ll use an example in the same industry you just mentioned. SS|PR is one of our clients.
They currently rank for: pr agency
publicity firms
, pr agencies,
public relations agency, public relations agencies, public relations firm
I could post more rankings to include hundreds of search terms and lots of traffic and all of that improvement in a short period of time (months not years). They didn’t use to rank for any of that!!! I’m not done either, as I’m currently in development of an enhanced site with a lot of link bait potential that should really push them over the edge. SS|PR use to not be in the top 10 pages, now they’re on the front page for a whole list of terms and closing in on many more. Gotta love that!
And for real estate try (these 3 word searches are more competitive than most two word searches)
real estate news
real estate magazine
real estate information
RISMedia is our client from that search and were about to launch something huge with REALLY aggressive search marketing plans already in the works see RISMedia.info. Their entire online publication is being redesigned right now.
How’s that? I’m was just giving some examples, not trying to have a pissing match. Also make sure to watch “pr firm” it’s one of my targets when I finish a complete re-design for SS|PR. I’m going to be on the first page for THAT search, the EXACT search you just mentioned.
Hey Mike, regarding your pr firm example, you don’t show up for any of the derivatives, like pr firms, public relations firm, or public relations firms. When I pick a target I try to rank for all the derivaties (or plural versions) of the trophy phrase as well (see pr examples above). I’m surprised that while Conors ranks for pr firm I can’t find them on the first page for any other 2 word / 3 word combination of that keyword?
The comments are moderated, but I generally approve everything. I’ve got some comment upgrades I’ve been dying to add, but am currently absolutely slammed. I wish you luck on your future projects as well. This thread has been fun to write / follow and I hope you enjoyed the discussion as well. I don’t know if I’ll be going to SES; after working 60+ hour weeks it’s hard to get excited about paying a bunch of money to go to a SE conference. Of course I would probably qualify to present or speak, but I’d rather just express my opinions in my blog.
Are you speaking there Mike or are you an exhibitor or an attendee? PS. I’m not baiting, but sincerely interested.
Thanks for the links Geoff. Gary is one of HitTail’s many enthusiastic supporters. Be sure to check out his most recent article. And SES was awesome!