Slightly hypocritical…and MARK, if you don’t like SEO you would not have comments enabled on your post.

This is nothing new. I’ve been using spam blog comment links for years. There are even complex software programs available to automate the blog commenting process on a massive scale. Some of the software can scrape the search engines for specific blog posts to comment on based upon the topic or keyword….then post a spun comments while rotating the urls and anchor text all on autopilot. And these are just some of the basic features of these products.

If you want your site to rank in the search engines you need links. The fastest and easiest way to get the links is to outsource it or automate it. Your not going to get them organically.

Blog commenting links are just one strategy for getting links. There’s article marketing, bookmarking, directory submissions, link exchanges, paid links, and more. There will always be people out there buiding links and more and more sophisticated software to automate the process. Since higher search engine ranking = money people will do what ever is needed to get the links and the money.

well said. anyone who puts their professional integrity before making a buck is doing the “right” thing.

You are correct Mark. Some SEO methods are very deceiving, and should be illegal, but some SEO companies that provide natural methods are now having to work twice as hard to compete with these illegal overseas linksters. It’s not fair to my clients to have to charge more because these overseas blogsters are driving up prices for legitimate SEO companies. I don’t know where it will all end, but I don’t see them closing down those overseas companies. Where there’s money to be made they will be there, and if you closed one then 5 more would pop up to take it’s place. This really does hurt small businesses that are trying to compete with the corporate giants.

With 15 yrs at a big-time Ad Agency in Chicago, before hitting 40 and being replaced with a bunch of hot 22 year olds, I saw first-hand what Fortune 100 clients think of Blogs, the web and SEO. And it isn’t much. I would chalk it up to curiosity and buying into new promotional tactics via slick sales reps (including their trusted Ad Agency who’s selling things they don’t have a clue what they’re talking about).

Using our top 5 clients as examples, each had a yearly marketing budget of around 5-20 million dollars. Of that, they each spent about $20,000 on web activity. Granted, these are CPG companies that sell in-store, just scratching the surface of web orders. When you consider these clients spend anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million just to place ONE coupon in the Sunday coupon section, $20,000 to experiment with web marketing matches what they spend on liquor alone for just one of their after-parties. It’s not even on the radar.

After watching curiously, I noticed that our agency-run client blogs are complete scams. For $20,000 we round up maybe two dozen blog posts over a couple weeks, most if not all of the posts are our employees using their personal email accounts. To the clients however, it’s all about ROI and profits. You’ll be safe if you always use that fact as your measurement of success.

With blogging, link-seeding, etc., there is little or no ROI, especially for companies who’s whole world revolves around getting their products on Walmart’s shelves. And for clients like ours, selling $0.50 candy bars over the internet is a financial loss. Thanks to the magic of ‘channel partners’ like wholesalers, brokers, stores and distributors, CPG companies can sell millions without any cost at all. And without the headaches of the internet, which none of the corporate execs understand anyway.

My theory is that we are still in the middle of the global ‘test’ and that test will fail miserably. Again, unless your company ONLY sells via the internet, the internet is simply not worth the hassle. One example is corporate branding and logo standards – which CPG’s take VERY seriously. It’s easier and cheaper to manage one national retailer or agency to insure brand and logo standards are being followed than it is to manage and babysit thousands of individuals, many of whom don’t even speak English or care.

To make a long story short, too late I know , Fortune 100 clients are currently being less than honest when they smile and pat their agencies on the back for their SEO, blog and web efforts. Privately, they see these efforts as a financial loss. However, due to their lack of understanding of the internet and the unpredictable future of it, they are still sticking with it, for now. But it’s only a matter of time before they officially admit that paying agencies to blog and create a web presence for their products and brand isn’t worth it and only creates more headaches than profits. When that finally happens, I think the rest of us will be able to go back to the basics and let the dishonest SEO market concentrate on the thin layer of clients that benefit from it – porn sites, gambling sites, pharma, start-ups, etc.

For the last 6 or 7 years, the cry was , “we need to create a brand experience” or “we need to make a personal connection with our customers and keep them engaged with our brand”. But the fact is, teenage girls don’t want to download corporate jingles from their tampon manufacturer, little kids would rather watch real cartoons than dumb agency-created clips, and teenage boys would rather play actual video games online than play pathetic corporate-generated games where the most they can do is choose which corporate colors to use to dress the brand’s mascot. If it’s all about ROI, SEO and blogs should being going the way of the dinosaur very soon.

Until then however, we’re going to keep our eye on the ball. Our website and news outlet is only two months old. Rather than spend our time and efforts on tricking Google into referring more readers to us via bogus return links, we spend all our time accumulating REAL links from REAL sites and genuine referrals from legitimate sites who’s readers actually value and follow-up on recommendations. That way, no matter which way the tricks and trends of SEO go, we should be okay. We’ll never be on the top of the search list. But as long as we concentrate on delivering content that people want and enjoy, we believe we’ll always be in the thick of things and that’s good enough for us, especially knowing our internet web isn’t hollow and fake. It’s real. It’s passionate. And it’s what SEO and web agencies all PRETEND to have. All we can do is hope that the old tried and true will always be the rule – quality products and services create repeat business. SEO and marketing scams only create customers who feel misled, used and tricked. You don’t get much repeat business that way. And in the world of business, repeat customers are the future, not bogus web links.

This great is article, but have you seen www. ??

Just kidding Mark, I actually agree wholeheartedly with your feelings on this topic. It would be an ideal world where the efforts we put into white hat SEO do not pose any risk of being out ranked by someone following these ‘gray hat’ practices. Certainly Google are aware and there can be no doubt have some bright sparks working on the best way to combat it.

However we should not deter encouraging our clients, the real experts in whatever business they are in to actively seek out blogs and forums and become regular contributers in order for recognition.

Unfortunately I’ve found that it’s bloody hard pursuading clients that they need to find time to carry out such practices, they want the extra business without having to engage in the SEO campaigns themselves.

I tend to make use of Google alerts and setup instant alerts for discussions on various topics relating to my campaigns, then when something does appear that I think my clients could contribute too, I let them know.

PS. I’d love to know exactly what that $200’000 pcm campaign entails.

Dave