SEODid-It Does It Again – Uninformed Controversy As Publicity

Did-It Does It Again - Uninformed Controversy As Publicity

It seems that being controversial is a major way to get new business in the Web 3.0 world over at Did-It, if the company’s editor-in-chief Steve Baldwin’s article about this week’s SES conference is any indication.

Remember, one of the company’s founders, Dave Pasternak’s statements about SEO “not being rocket science” and a company that can’t get you into the top 5 on Google as worthless. His statements met strong criticism and obviously got the company a lot of attention and links which they most probably redirected to improve their ranking. Hey “not rocket science” but crafty manipulation works.

So this morning as SES NY begins they are at it again. An article that cleverly takes shots at the conference in a backhand way got my attention and no doubt will hit the major online blogs and publications. But what is it saying? Baldwin lists 10 things no longer being discussed at the panels this week. His “lost buzzwords” that apparently he spent hours looking over previous agendas to compare against this week’s panels.

First, and foremost, he should have spent more time looking at the current agenda and not just the titles. SES has moved away from titling their panels – Paid Inclusion, Widgets, etc – obviously the audience is more educated about our industry and can comprehend more interesting titles than SEO 101. But let’s look at the points one by one.

1. Paid Inclusion – Yahoo still offers it but it is now branded as Search Submit and has been discussed at many recent panels – hell I did one last month in London and was the least attended of all sessions. Guess people know about this long standing service and want to know more about other things. Generally this is mentioned during advanced ppc since you have to pay per click once indexed. I wonder if Did-It has that in its proprietorial conversion tracking software?

2. Blogs, boards and posts – True boards do not get as much play as they used to – guess the no follow stuff has killed a lot of the impact – but Steve in case you did not know Twitter is microblogging. Plus many sites are now run on blogging software as CMS which gets attention at sessions. Those “rocket science” methods you guys used to do SEO are called spam now. But the “Online Communities” session covers this area and the “Blogging for Business” and “SEO Through Blogs & Feeds” sessions he just must have missed.

3. Viral marketing – funny – kind of like what you are doing with your article – so where do I stick the Mentos? Viral marketing is very much alive and living in social media – but then it is not paid search so I guess you have missed that one over at Did-It. The “Branding Without Borders” is viral session – guess we should have written the title in 25 characters so Did-It could understand it.

4. Click Fraud – well I am on the Click Quality Council and we have a dinner, but as far as panels… I am sure it will be discussed at “The State of Search” and “The Advanced Paid Search” sessions. “In these hard times, it’s more fun to talk about silly tweets than evil cheats,” he notes. But could it be they are becoming an alternative that may impact click fraud?

5. Rich Media – there are sessions on “Beyond Googling”, “Update on Social Media Optimization” – Steve – YouTube is social in case you “didn’t” know. “Small Voices, Big Impact” and “Thinking Outside Your Website” are two that come to mind that cover this directly.

6. Podcast optimization – well podcasts are now videos and most are hosted on YouTube. There are plenty of sessions about them – try “Video Search Engine Optimization: 2009 and Beyond”.

7. Search Convergence – you are reaching here and I hope the Did-It software is better updated than your understanding of industry terms. “Universal and Blended Search” may be the session for you.

8. Widgets and Gadgets – okay at this stage I know Steve spent no time reading the agenda for this conference. Mobile apps are discussed at “Getting Mobilized! Mobile Marketing Strategies” and “SearchAppalooza – Kick-Ass Apps Contest & Talking Search Beyond Google” jump off the conference agenda.

9. Pay Per Call – yes was predicted to be big and tanked – but including a phone number in your PPC works and gets you free clients. And there is an interesting session on “Pay Per Conversation” but not quite on topic.

10. Cashing out your company – well yes in these economic times it is harder and the model has shifted, but companies are still being bought and sold. The conference this year does cover the new buzz term of economic hardships.

I know Steve will cry he was discussing “buzz terms” but really mate. Do a little better journalistic research before weighing in with an attention grabbing article – your founder should have told you that… but then he has disappeared like the frogs you used to hand out at the booth – guess they lost their buzz too.

I may suggest you attend this session – “First Timer’s Guide to SES and SEM”.

 

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