Fox News Calls Internet Marketing a Scam
I was writing a blog on landing page optimization and came across this page in my Tweet Deck stream:
Needless to say, I stopped writing my other article.
Growing up in the Y generation has given me a different perspective on news. In all honesty, I watch little to no news on television, primarily because I feel that I cannot trust the integrity of the information.
The advent of social media (and the internet) has changed the way people get their information. We no longer have to shift our focus to the television in the morning or evening to get our fill of daily happenings. As the web spawns more user generated content, I anticipate more attention being spent on various non-mainstream news channels.
Fox News’ crack on Search Engine Marketers is downright appalling and juvenile, especially considering they have their own SEO team. Their quote from the article says it all:
”Ever wonder why “nonsense” Web sites sometimes turn up in your search results on Google or Yahoo? That’s because search engine optimizing scammers work full-time to create thousands of other Web sites that link to the spam site. For example, the creator of spamlaw.com is hoping to dupe would-be visitors to spamlaws.com, a legitimate site that bills itself as an online security resource.”
Sorry, Fox News, a Search Engine Marketer is a valid profession. In fact, they even have legitimate agencies where they are employed. Showing a domain parker page as a reason to discount the integrity of an SEO professional just isn’t proving much.
There have been corrupt television newscasters for years. In fact, the movie Network (1976) focused on the corruption in the television news industry:
So why the hard feelings from Fox? Is it because more and more people are shifting to the internet? Or maybe it’s because it has been proven that Internet Marketing is one of the most effective forms of advertising? (Too bad for TV…)
I am not sure, but I do know that my friends have not left me because of my involvement with SEO.
August 18th, 2009 at 8:59 PM
These Fox people don’t even know what SEO is apparently. Somebody send them to wikipedia. And it’s gonna leave your friendless? What the hell are these people doing, crack in the back room?
Wikipedia cleary states what SEO is, and that this spam indexing (last paragraph) are the black hatters.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (”organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Typically, the earlier a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence.
As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.
The acronym “SEO” can also refer to “search engine optimizers,” a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term “search engine friendly” may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems, images, videos, shopping carts, and other elements that have been optimized for the purpose of search engine exposure.
Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or Spamdexing, use methods such as link farms, keyword stuffing and article spinning that degrade both the relevance of search results and the user-experience of search engines. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques in order to remove them from their indices.
August 18th, 2009 at 9:00 PM
I just stopped by your blog and thought I would say hello. I like your site design. Looking forward to reading more down the road.