Over the past few years SEO has become one of the most popular buzz words with regards to online marketing and web design. You can't really travel far online without bumping into some kind of Search Engine expert, and don't get me wrong, there are plenty of them out there. I personaly don't believe that SEO is anything that requires a masters in quantum physics to do, and I have read and studied with great enthusiasm the latest trends, opinions and debates that rage alll over the world about the latest happenings. I have success in applying SEO techniques in web sites designed specifically for optimisation and I advise clients on strategies that should be taken. However, one thing I will never do, and that is declare that I am any kind of expert.
To explain, I will draw on a footballing analogy. Teams win and lose and enjoy periods of highs and lows, when a team is in the ascendency their football fans crow over their triumphs, which antagonises their opponents. One thing is always true, and that is nothing stays the same and eventually those tables will turn and those who crow the loudest when their team are winning are usually the ones feeling the silliest when they are losing.
With SEO the same can be said, the only people who know exactly what is going on is the lab guys in Google et al. Every other SEO expert is only applying knowledge that reacts to what search engines do. Therefore, changes in search engine algorithms can seriously affect the performance of ranking with little prior notice. There is nothing sillier than someone who boasts about ranking high one day only to find that further along the line their site is languishing in no mans land.
I suppose that goes with most things though, I don't think that I like or listen to anyone who boasts about how good they are in their profession, because usually they aren't. That is why I am unlikely to do so when it comes to my own profession.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
People keep calling me an SEO expert, but all I do is experiment, test and track, and try to put some theories to what may be happening.
I don't work as a consultant, so generally SEOs don't look on my blog as "one of the crowd" which in many ways is a good thing.
If I was a consultant, I am not sure I would recommend my strategies to a client, not because I can't show them to work, but because there is no safety net of being able to claim you used industry accepted practice.