Blame the Search Marketers

[Chris Sherman]

RustyBrick provided live coverage of Danny's SES Chicago keynote address, noting the key points. In today's SearchDay article, Search Marketing's About People and Principles, Not Just Algorithms, Andrew Goodman digs deeper into Danny's talk, offering his own insights and observations about why SEM is taking some bum raps recently, and what we should all do about it.

As always, comments welcome!

[The PR Guy]

I agree with Andrew that Danny's keynote was a watershed event. But I have to tip my (white) hat to Andrew for both capturing the essence of Danny's remarks and adding a whole lot of brilliant analysis. I was in the audience in Chicago and Andrew's article provided insights that I had mised.

If Danny knocked 'em dead in Chicago, Andrew just notified the next of kin.

I agree that search marketers need to rally together. "Factionalism is counterproductive now, as it always is when you've got something established to defend." I'm just grateful that all of us "crazy enough to go into search" in this "oddball" industry have something worth defending.

We have all come a long way, haven't we? Or, as another movie character once observed, "Not bad, not bad for a cowboy."

[Chris Boggs]

Agreed...great analysis. As a lifelong Redskins fan I particularly appreciated the following:

Legendary Washington Redskins running back John Riggins could fall down drunk at a gala and tell a Supreme Court Justice to "loosen up." But he was just a player, and players get judged mainly by their stats.

Which was preceeded by the point that

Search marketers will be seen as "normal people with normal jobs" only if they continue to work at being good people who do a good job.

I would agree that this is the basis for acceptance of the industry. However, this will also pave the way for greater appreciation of certain individuals and their support systems who rise above "normal" and gain consistently outstanding results. Without greater growth in the overall number of SEM's, this distinction is harder to see, in my opinion. The problem is that with growth comes people who really do not know what they are doing, and therefore tarnish the industry since they make up a still larger percentage. My moral: good SEO's out there need to hire and teach more people the right way to do things, in order to dilute the "bad seed" percentage. Also, groups like SMA-NA and SEMPO need to step up educational efforts this year in order to help "average joes" understand the good from the bad.

[Daria_Goetsch]

Must have been a great keynote speech, Andrew's article is excellent. If we spend our time in support of the many disciplines of search engine marketing and each other, we may improve our industry's overall image. By knowing our clients and their needs we may also gain ground, providing good communication, knowledge and value for services rendered, with a good reputation being the end result.

Each search engine marketer in their own way impacts the search engine marketing industry.

[The PR Guy]

Andrew's article finished as strongly as he opened. And his range of sources -- from John Stuart Mill to John Riggins -- is also impressive.

So, what's the next step? Should white hats buy a round of drinks for black hats? Should organics give a hug to advertisers?

Here's my modest proposal: I think it's time to create the Search Engine Marketing Hall of Fame. I know that Danny has talked about creating some awards for best PPC campaign or best SEO results. Those are nice stats for "palyers" -- but maybe we need to start recognizing the "builders."

I'm willing to nominate a couple of individuals "who step out on a limb, who accept special responsibility not just for winning on the playing field, but for putting the teams together, helping the stadiums get built, drawing the crowds, cheering on the teams, and debating standards." On my short list would be Danny Sullivan ... and Andrew Goodman ... and Matt Cutts ... and Mike Grehan.

Maybe it is time to recognize some of our champions -- thank a few of our role models. It's just a thought.

Or, we can just adopt the heros of other industries and eras -- like Edward R. Murrow or Scotty Bowman.

Nah. I like the idea of celebrating the folks who are helping to build the search industry better.

[andrewgoodman]

I hereby nominate Karen DeWeese.

And, of course, most of those early search scientists and innovators written about by the likes of Mike and Chris.

It's surprising to see John Battelle in the role of builder, considering how late he arrived to the search party per se. Then again, I guess being with Wired and the Industry Standard don't exactly make you late.

[Jill Whalen]

I hereby nominate Karen DeWeese.

ditto!