SES San Jose 2007 - Day Three - SEO Reputation

August 23rd, 2007

Managing SEO’s Reputation - SES San Jose 2007 - Day Three
by Laura Thieme

Kris Jones (pepperJam Search), Kathleen Fealy, Jennifer Laycock, Shari Thurow and Jeffrey Rohrs talked about the issue facing search engine optimization (SEO) professionals - managing their reputations - all due to those in the industry who give SEO a bad name.  It’s just like any industry - there are some people who scam others out of some money, whereas the majority of companies offer ethical services and product delivery.  SEO and search marketing is no exception to the rule.  How do small SEO companies and single SEO practitioners compete with the companies who advertise in Google for guaranteed first page listings?  Kris mentioned companies who were offering $49.99 - $199/month service -guaranteed first page listings within 7 days.

This to me is about misleading advertising.  One of the panelists mentioned their desire for SEMPO.org to regulate this.  I also suggested Better Business Bureau, and a peer advisory review, which many industries support.  The latter suggestion was not well received at all by some of the attendees in the session, as well as a couple of the panelists.  The one panelist, whom I have not mentioned above by name, who indicated he did not believe BBB was the way to go, also added Traffic Power was part of BBB.  He also said he wouldn’t do BBB because no one there understanded technology.  This to me sums up a rather negative experience.  In my personal and professional opinion - to build reputation you have to give, dedicate, put your name out there, and do things that create positive reputation over a long period of time.  It’s expensive, everyone has their own opinion and there are always two sides to every story.  Managing reputation is not easy but required to lead a successful business.  I’ll add more to this story as I catch up on all these entries over the weekend.

Posted in SES San Jose 2007.

 

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