Read page two of what our SEO Consultants Directory Membership have to say...

  1. 2004-12-07 - First, I would like to thank you for putting this out on the table. I believe SEO Consultants has a membership of professionals and the credentials to get the ball rolling.

    I am just going to address one reason SEO Standards needs to exist, rather than a long list of benefits.

    Consumers and SEO Standards

    I believe consumers of search engine optimization services have a large benefit from the establishment of SEO standards. When someone hires an SEO that says they conform to the standards set by the SEO Industry, the consumer can refer to those standards to clearly understand what services they are getting.

    Standards are not going to hurt anyone. It is a structured and evolving foundation which other methodologies in search engine optimization can be built or improved upon.

    When my business is employed to do a cleanup job on a website so it meets the standards set by the W3C, the client has a hardcopy of those standards and understands what the end result should look like.

    I believe the consumer has a right to understand what the standards are about, and know that a SEO company follows those standards. We can let the consumer police a job based on an agreement between the SEO and consumer to follow those standards. The W3C does not police web developers for not following standards - the consumer knows what to expect and if they don't get it the responsibility falls on the web developer.

    My business takes on several SEO cleanup jobs each year, and many of those client experiences are based around a lack of understanding of what is ethical and what is not. A prime example is the small business that hires someone who claims to be an SEO, but does not practice ethical SEO. Standards will in some ways (help) to filter good SEO companies for the consumer. SEO Standards should in part be an educational experience for mom and pop to corporate companies who invest dollars in to the services.

    Standards may help cleanup the SEO industry in terms of relationships between consumers and most important the Search Engines. I can only imagine standards would benefit Yahoo!, MSN, and Google when evaluating websites in their directories or when dealing with issues around websites in the SERPs. And perhaps I am stretching that too far.

    I would like to see standards for SEO, and I know there are many other benefits from establishing an authority for those standards. Agreeably there are going to be a lot of battles in this process, but there are going to be more good and acceptance as the foundation for SEO standards takes shape.

    Count me in!

  2. 2004-12-07 - I like your effort towards SEO standards. I know that the DDV (German Association of Direct Marketing Companies) has developed a set of SEO guidelines, which make sense. You can even be certified for matching those criteria. Perhaps those guidelines could be a good point to start from. What do you think?
  3. 2004-12-08 - I completely agree with you over the issue of disclosure to clients. My hobby-horse has always been we should be policing ourselves to get rid of the scammers - not obsess over search engine spammers (the definition of which varies daily).

    So, anything you would like me to do, say, write or propose - just let me know. Hopefully, a concerted effort by a few better known members of SEO Consultants might make a difference.

  4. 2004-12-08 - Yes, I think SEO Consultants would be a good choice to introduce standards to our industry.

    Common Questions Associated with Standards in our Industry

    Will the search engine marketing industry ever follow a set of standards?
    Over time I believe the majority will. The rest will be, as always, mavericks or those who like to play near the edge of the game.

    Who will govern and enforce those standards?
    Not sure what the answer to this question will be, but whoever does it will need a lot of support and have a much better vision to represent SEO's than SEMPO at this time.

    Does this industry need an organization that advocates standards?
    Yes, I think it will give credibility to our industry. Some general guidelines available to the public would be of great help to them. I get email and calls often asking what I think of such and such company, is what they are doing safe, etc.

    Do standards really matter in the search engine marketing industry?
    I think they will once established. There will always be those opposed to standards within the industry. Once the public accepts standards for our industry, SEO's will want to follow them because most of the businesses will expect standards to be used in their projects.

    I hope SEO Consultants chooses to work on standards. You've been successful in evaluating SEO businesses for best practices. Why not become the leader in standards?

  5. 2004-12-08 - Regarding standards. Years ago I helped produce a "Bill of Rights" for people who contributed money, mostly to higher education. I would be interested in developing a similar concept for SEO/SEM clients. Something like:

    "The Client has the right to...

    • Understand the techniques the SEO is undertaking;
    • Control the content that is added to their site and/or code;
    • Be provided timely reporting on PPC clicks that show all proper metrics;
    • Etc..."

    I think its important for clients to understand what to expect and what is the general cost of receiving those services. So many prospects we speak to have expectations that are out of whack from reality based on misleading advertising from some SEO/SEM providers.

  6. 2004-12-08 - Hello, having read the promising feedback on the standards subject, I like to give my support to the speaker who stated "I think you've already jumped off that bridge. SEO Consultants has already set a standard for membership. I value my listing in SEO Consultants for that very reason, it is selective."

    Being a rather new member of SEO Consultants I do not wish to express a very strong opinion in this matter, but I'd like to convey the following thought/?...

    Any party that wishes "their" standards to be followed and/or respected by others, will have to be an "authority" in the eyes of all those others. Isn't it the wisest way then to "just" go on building the SEO Consultants Directory, based on an explicit set of standards for admittance? This way SEO Consultants could further develop into a "natural authority", as a "natural" result of which our standards for membership could "automatically" become the standards (or at least an important and/or respected version of it) for best practices in the SEO field (...?)

    Just a thought... hope it will contribute to a well based decision in this matter.

  7. 2004-12-08 - I think the idea is good - the industry is crying out for it, but doesn't being a member of the SEOD mean we all practice good standards - as decided by peer review?

    Perhaps membership application should be more vigorous i.e. each member must supply three client references that are followed up by the SEOD with a 'Best Business Practice' questionnaire. Nothing technical just questions like:

    • Did your supplier explain the difference between organic and PPC marketing?
    • Did your supplier provide you with clear and transparent reports on your SEM performance?
    • Did your supplier research/report on which keywords were most suitable for your web site?
    • Etc...

    I know this is an increased overhead for SEOD, but you could easily double your fee. I would also suggest you charge an annual membership for further review.

    The problem is however, what happens when a client chooses an SEOD member and they are unhappy with their service - will SEOD investigate/adjudicate?

    If you don't, what's the point of having the standards?

  8. 2004-12-08 - As ever I think you are doing a sterling job!

    I used to work in insurance, selling the stuff. I got out of doing it because the regulatory stuff had overtaken common sense, it was no longer enjoyable for us the advisors or the clients buying the policies due to the red tape. As much as I am in favor of flushing our rogues in any line of work do you think if we take an age to have a governing board, or 3 volumes of rules and regulations that these rogues are going to abide by them? It's a rhetorical question and we all know the answer.

    We are some way into the whole search arena being a viable entity for sales promotion, there is way sufficient anecdotal evidence of who the good guys and rogues are, for me the important thing is to work on the way in which the clients looking for solutions don't end up down some dark alley.

    Admin Note: I just had to highlight this below piece, good stuff...

    "Self-regulation is a good thing, but not if it means we are going to become a bunch of rule toting vigilantes lynching some SEO company because they contravened rule 2.7.4 of the SEO "bible". The entire white hat/black hat issue means that one set of rules for one type of client would not be appropriate for another if they happened to be in a certain sector."

    Any form of advertising carries a risk, in Search it's important that we continue to convey those risks as well as the good things and let the clients choose if they are prepared to take the risk.

    On a separate note how about a client "black list" where perennial non-payers can be placed to protect SEO companies falling prey to clients who don't want to pay for a service they have received. Unlike a lot of markets where you don't pay for the goods/services they can be taken back, in Search it's difficult to take the traffic back once it's been delivered, and the legal system doesn't get Search well enough yet to be able to pass judgment on the technical proficiency of company A versus company B so going to court to claim for your fees might not yield the result you expect.

  9. 2004-12-09 - Hmm standard setting, I'm having a bit of dejavu here, there is an internet marketing umbrella organisation in Germany, a bit like SEMPO really but just for Germany and I have to say with much more of a name and branding as SEMPO which about a year ago sat down to set standards. Around the table were seven of the countries leading search engine marketing companies and the talks went on for two days. The result was... forget setting standards.

    the reason was because no one could agree on set standards. Certainly no one could define spam and nobody was content just to say the Google guidelines are the law. The consensus was that standards should be correlated to business practices and professionalism rather than optimization methodology.

    Many companies on the panel used doorway pages or used layers on graphic intensive pages, some were whiter than white and looked in horror when they heard what was being proposed as an acceptable standard. You will in all honesty not be able to make all the directory members happy with any form of optimization standard. Most will say ok, I know what they want to do here and type a bunch of white hat standards in when in fact they practice something else entirely.

    To me standards should be based on transparency of cost calculation and full disclosure of risks that are taken when proposing a certain methodology that is gray area. You COULD I guess add a statement about the very black hat stuff such as redirected doorway pages that do not deep link but all go to one page etc. Or of course include a relevancy clause in that all pages are 100% relevant to the clients domain/branch. Personally I think the high standards you need to have to even get into this directory are sufficient and an additional standards charter is going too far.

    A consensus (as in real not BS) is never likely to happen and you could end up causing a split in SEO Consultants goals and members than bringing members together.

  10. 2004-12-09 - Whatever is eventually agreed, it will all come down to publicity (and cost) to make it effective, so that it's not just the SEO/SEM community that knows about it, but the unknowing / unsuspecting market who don't understand this area but just want traffic! This group will need to compete with others (such as SEMPO and SMA-UK) to become the 'recognised' body.

    You already have a set of standards to accept members to the directory - and the high decline rate makes them look pretty tough (but fair, of course!). You should build on these but may need to set the levels quite low first to get wide agreement, before moving to more 'contentious' issues.

    It's certainly worth a go as this is something so often talked about but never achieved successfully yet. Each company has its own set of standards to whatever level they wish to use, but some common measures would be good, although how would they be policed and what would be the penalties?

    Keep going with it and we'll certainly contribute where we can.

Comments and/or Questions?

If you've read this far, that probably means you have interest in what we are proposing. If that is the case, send us an email (to the address you have on file for us, or use our contact form) letting us know your thoughts on the issues we've addressed in this section and any others you feel are pertinent. We would first like to get a feel from our membership as to whether or not we are barking up the wrong tree as they say. Is it time? Or, should we let it go? Are we (the SEO Consultants Directory Membership) the right people to start the ball rolling?

Last modified: 2008-02-03T10:06:31-0800

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