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Is The UK SEO Industry In A Mess?

By Scott Boyd
Expert Author
Article Date: 2007-08-29

This is a little bit of a rant about the state of the SEO industry (specifically the UK SEO industry) - we're plagued with dodgy agencies and consultants dragging our collective name through the mud - do we do something about it or just wade through and mind our business?

A little background first

I've spent a lot of time this year dealing with companies and people that are somehow ripping people off. Most examples of this are in my self interest of course (competitors) and others just happened to walk in front of me on a bad day. :) But all have been pimping bad SEO services in some way, (usually by misrepresenting what they are selling to clients, or simply offering bad advice). Perhaps they have been selling crap on the back of "high Google rankings" they didn't have, or they are simply selling a bad service which ranges from something the client really doesn't need to something that genuinely hurts the client's business - regardless, all these experiences with the SEO industry are really bringing down our collective reputation.

What bothers me about these people is the nasty aftertaste they leave in the mouths of their clients - this is something we all have to contend with as a result and in my opinion is seriously poisoning the SEO industry. I've done a lot of UK small business and UK local SEO work over the past few years and the general opinion that very significant group of customers has about SEOs is awful.

I'm going down a somewhat more gentle approach to blogging today - I won't name names. OK, I might later if you ask nicely, but not right now. The point here is that small list of complaints isn't just taken at random. Point 1 is something every SEO will hear. Point 2 is referring to a small UK SEO agency that is notoriously bad for getting their client's sites banned in Google. Point 3 refers to a reasonably well known (and from the outside, reasonably respectable) UK SEO agency. Point 4 refers to a well known, large, big brand SEO agency.

The decay of our industry is coming from all sides. Misrepresentation at the low levels - small outfits trying to play with the big boys - ineptitude at the high levels - badly managed firms with inexperienced staff.

Yes, client naivety, lack of understanding and general stubbornness does play a part

Clients do need to be educated about SEO. This IMO is one of the core issues facing our industry just now (and has been the case for a long time). It's bad enough that small agencies and consultants will prey on little fish - this is common in all industries - but when agencies of all sizes will do the same with big clients I think we need to take stock of the situation.

A few weeks ago I saw a classic example. A big brand name hired a big brand agency to do SEO work for them. What's the problem? They don't need SEO!

The agency have them targeting top level generic keywords that basically the brand name is already synonymous for (kinda like optimising the McDonalds site for the term "burger") - WTF is the point of that? Absolutely every person searching for the generic term already know the brand name and would directly type in the URL!

No doubt their management team have given orders for someone to look into SEO - they went on to find some agencies to pitch for the business and ended up getting a bunch of hounds salivating for the juicy "privilege" of being SEO to the stars! What the company doesn't realise (and the point of this rant) is that instead of paying £xx,xxx per year for "SEO" they could have grabbed Aaron's book and done all the on site stuff themselves. Then the sheer weight of their domain would have propelled them to SEO success without much more effort. But no, better to pay an agency £x,xxx per month for the piece of mind! Lol!

It's not like they could have spent the money on a professional marketing campaign to promote their product, which would result in brand exposure, increased confidence in their product, higher sales conversions and gone some way to educate users about their service…

But no - a technology / Internet based *needs* SEO (or I would imagine the sales pitch went…)

What to do?

There is a little voice in my head that tells me to mind my own business when I start a little rant like this. :) Well, it is my fucking business! It's your business too!

If someone came along tomorrow and halved the conversion rates of all your affiliate sites, you would stand up and do something about it wouldn't you? Then why doesn't the same apply to selling SEO services? Spend some time on business forums and get an idea of just how much every bad SEO experience a business has will impact the rest of our industry.

At least those consultants and agencies who really screw up client sites are doing us a favour - there's business to be had in fixing other people's "work" and generally most clients (in my experience anyway) who have worked with bad SEOs are gasping out for some quality SEO work.

SEO as a product isn't that hard to sell. But selling SEO as a concept is more difficult. Should we be marketing our own industry? No easy job - on top of the issues here we also have a multitude of cliques, personal / corporate agendas and the usual range of industry factors.

What I would do

I most likely won't do it (it's a large step from mildly annoyed blog post to influencing industry wide change), but I'll put some ideas on the table for discussion.

1. We need some kind of SEO buyers guide. Not the utter shit that agencies throw up on their sites (which IMO are the most crass pieces of corporate BS in the history of marketing - c'mon how up your own arse do you need to be to think that your customers actually believe that shit?). Likewise not the marketing publications that come out every year (these tend to be no more than paid for listings).

It needs to be something independent. Perhaps government or a business organisation - maybe the small business gateway (eww, look at their URLs! Someone go pitch them lol!) in the UK would be a start? Or even a panel or group of SEOs together to avoid any corporate agendas poisoning the document.

It needs to cover:

What is SEO?
Do you need SEO?
Pricing guide.
Risks and dangers
What a SEO should do
What a SEO shouldn't do
Any suggestions?

I think this would be a great start for many businesses and help them avoid forking out for SEO they don't need or SEO that will harm their business. It helps us as an industry because it reduces the influx of negative opinions about our business.

2. Name and shame them! Ha! I know many of you won't agree with this, but I'm just a "if you shit on my doorstep, I'll rip out the doorstep and chuck it through your window" kind of guy! ;)

OK there are different issues here:

Spam reporting a competitor. We've all done it but where do you draw the line? Perhaps the client isn't to blame? Do you have a word with the SEO? Do you even want to help a competitor improve their service or would you rather sit back and watch them screw up?

Optimising negative comments for their brand terms. Not many SEOs are big on branding, but those that are leave themselves open to attack. A legal and PR minefield and can lead to all out war, but nonetheless, still an option. It's funny that for some people, their "ethical barometer" won't let them do this, but watching businesses waste loads of cash on bad SEO services is fine.

Have a word with the client. I've tried having a polite word with the client (not mine) in the past - just to receive a verbal bitch slap because they've "known the guy for years and he'd never do anything to harm the site". Perhaps it was just lack of experience on the SEOs part, but then should they really selling SEO services? Is it your place to say anything in the first place?

I'd be interested to hear where everyone stands on these issues - I know there will be a huge variation throughout the industry. I do hate to bring ethics back into any SEO discussion but I do genuinely feel that it is an issue worth chatting about. How you approach your business (services, clients, competitors) has a notable impact on the rest of the industry.

So not to end on a down note, I would like to add that I don't think the SEO industry is all doom and gloom. This post is just covering on little part of it, but I think it is worth ending on another, more positive note:

I've been in this business for 6 years now. I've been around most the big forums, read a multitude of blogs and been privy to an infinite amount of discussions with both SEOs and clients alike. During this time I have developed the utmost respect for a lot of people in the industry - not just their SEO skills and knowledge but also the way they conduct themselves and their respective businesses. For all the negative comments and stories I've heard about SEO, I've never heard anything bad said about people and companies I have previously built up respect for.

In my opinion, that says a lot about the industry. It does have a solid core - it's just being tainted a little by others which is a situation I think is worth keeping an eye on.

MG

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About the Author:
Scott Boyd (aka Marketing Guy) is an Edinburgh based online marketing consultant with over 6 years experience in the industry. He is the founder of SEO agency eFlaunt, where he mixes a blend of traditional marketing and SEO.

Scott's musings relating to the marketing and SEO industries can be found on his blog - Fused Nation.

Is the UK SEO industry in a mess