Negative SEO blog : SEOassassin

Recently, I was talking via email to a high-profile SEO type, and it occured to me that although there are lots of people working in and around SEO, I run into the same faces again and again. I’m sure other people see the same effect, although the specific faces can vary from person to person, depending on which groups you belong to.

That sparked a whimsical thought - what does the world look like if you are an SE engineer? You work all day with a well-informed, savvy, highly intelligent group of people. You go to the top conferences, and do the prime sessions, after which you are surrounded by A-list SEOs, and adoring throngs of lesser mortals. Occasionally, you will be contacted by the press to dispense a pearl of wisdom on some burning search issue of the day.

On very few occasions will you have to do a 3-hour presentation for a room full of corporate numpties who will judge you more by your PowerPoint skills than anything you say. Rarely will you have to explain to a client why outbound links don’t “leak PageRank” like holes in a jerry can for the fifth time. How infrequent are the hour-long pleading phone calls asking a client not to submit their site to x0,000 search engines, for just $19.99! / replace all your carefully crafted title tags with the company name / get a redesign done in Flash / sack you in favour of their nephew “who knows all about SEO. He learned it at college”

I would love to take an SE engineer out on a real client pitch occasionally, to let them see some of the pain us front-line types have to put up on occasion. I can guarantee there would be a more meaningful dialogue afterwards. Step out of your talent bubbles, guys, come and see how we live…