Comments on: What A Waste…Oh The SEO!!

By: SEO in Toronto, Canada

SEO in Toronto, Canada — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 19:39:00 +0000

To be fair, sometimes it is the clients that sabotage their own SEO efforts for many reasons.

But I do agree there are way too many folks that have read a dozen blog posts on SEO then try and pass themselves off as experts. I think a big onus needs to be on the client to look into the meat behind an SEO’s claims. They should be checking for how the SEO’s own site ranks and if the have case studies posted.

By: Victoria Blount

Victoria Blount — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 09:34:50 +0000

This is a very informative post for a newcomer like me. Reading the article and blogs, i am a little confused as to why a company like American express would advise small businesses against SEO, and can’t help feel there is a method behind it. I believed SEO can really work and improve traffic to small businesses via the web.

By: Julie Joyce

Julie Joyce — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:59:03 +0000

@Fionn: I completely agree that small businesses are hungry for SEO advice. That’s a brilliant point…more than almost anyone, the small business owner is the type of client that I like the best, simply because they tend to want to work with you and learn from you. At my previous job, my favorite clients were the small local ones, mainly because of the interaction. They’d ask a billion questions and I’d have to constantly stay on top of everything, and I loved it. The fact that a quasi-respectable company like Amex would intentionally vote against using SEO services for small businesses is true proof of the fact that they are the ones who don’t have a clue.

By: Fionn

Fionn — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:55:57 +0000

A month ago I did two half hour workshops on search engine marketing at an American Express Open for samll business convention co-branded with SCORE. The enitre conference had about 400 people the two sessions pulled in 250 people. I could not go to the bathroom wihtout a line of people coming up to me. I sat in the lobby and ran site clinics all day between sessions. Small business are hungry for good advice not this rubbish from American Express. If they want to help the small business community they should provide them with good quality information not made up crap.

Even more astounding this industry is still debating if we need standards.

Looks like American Express may need some reputation management over this I hope they call me!!!!

By: Julie Joyce

Julie Joyce — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:05:31 +0000

@Elizabeth: thanks for your comment. I will say that there are some instances in which black hat techniques are REQUESTED by a client, since I’ve had those services, ahem, requested of me before. The sites did insanely well with those tactics and the client made enough money that, when things finally simmered down, it no longer mattered to them. I think the bigger problem in SEO isn’t necessarily black hat at all; it’s simple incompetence. Whether you do black or white hat, if you don’t do it well, you make us all look like idiots.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:35:25 +0000

I think AMEX should do more research into the industry before condemning it. I defend myself a lot against accusations like these even though I’ve never used black hat SEO or put any of my customers at risk with sneaky, underhanded techniques. It’s getting old, honestly, and I’m sure this won’t help.

By: lots of keyword stuffing please

lots of keyword stuffing please — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:51:18 +0000

AMEX needs to have a realistic expectation of SEO, and possibly revamp their online style. Amex is perceived as an old school corporate monolith, Mastercard is priceless.

By: Julie Joyce

Julie Joyce — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:07:00 +0000

@everyone: thanks for the comments. Amex is getting raked over the coals for being kind of a shite card anyway, and no one seems surprised that they’d make such a stupid declaration as to say that SEO is a waste. Generally speaking, they aren’t enjoying a lot of favor in any sector that I can see right now.

@Mr Happy and Jenny: thanks for your comments. Getting this type of discussion going helps everyone, and it’s nice to see people reaching out to each other. I’m going to go hug a tree now.

By: Mr Happy

Mr Happy — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 10:38:13 +0000

Hi Jenny,
Just had a quick squizz at your site. From what I can see you already have the SEO Title tag plugin for wordpress installed – one way you could be getting better positions is by using this functionality more fully than you are at present – title tags look the same as your article headings.
As a guess I think you should maybe have a look at refining your keyword research and locking onto a couple of core niche areas where you could be getting traffic. do some quick brain storming on all the words you think could be appropriate to you (and your audience) – rattle these into a keyword estimator tool you can use http://www.keyworddiscovery.com for free (just sign up for a trial).
You’re already doing some pretty cool things – pinging out to pingomatic – if you increased your ping list you should get some more places knowing about you. That said having a technorati authority of 465 is well cool – if you could show my bloggers how to do that would be cool :p Using the do-follow blog roll was a great idea!
Hope that helps

By: Patrick Ryall

Patrick Ryall — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:40:40 +0000

Hey all, I went as far to voice my disgust at a moronic comment but that is as far as I bothered. Mainly as a day later I went on holiday YAY – No computer no clients for days only beaches and sunshine so needed it.

It is no wonder they are the worlds least accepted card, charge outrageous merchant fees and most places as pointed out don’t want to know.

It is interesting though how far this little article reached out to the community.