Bob Massa on SEO’s greatest weakness

When asked What do you say are our Search Engine Marketing industry BIGGEST growing pains? at the SearchEngineWatch forums, there were a number of different replies.

Some tried to lever the discussion towards an ethics debate, and my personal suggestion was that the worst growing pain was yet to come, and that was coporate business levering out small business from lucrative search positiions as they turn their million-dollar marketing budgets to the cause.

However, probably the most valuable so far was by Bob Massa, who made some very important points - not so much on growing pains, as much as general weakness in the SEO industry so far:

The lack of business acumen among search engine marketers. Far too many people claiming to be professional SEO’s have no educational background or experience in any kind of marketing or business.

There is still a perception clinging to the industry that there is gold in them thar hills if you just learn to be an SEO. This forum is undoubtedly the most visited on the web by real SEO by anyone’s definition of the term. Yet compare the threads about SEO ethics to the threads about investment, cost per action, estimating production times, scheduling, unemployment taxes, FICA, (anyone even know that what that stands for?)

The days are numbered, not for the search engine marketer who understands business, client acquisition, public relations, cost of goods and return, but for the sitting up all night in their underwear SEO, smoking three packs a day and bragging on a forum one day that he is number 2 for a VERY competitive term and crying on another the next day about being dropped by Yahoo when their site is obviously the best.

The more we as an industry learn about business and THEN search engine business specifically, the faster the industry will grow. Or more accurately perhaps, evolve.