MediaVision Blog : Search Engine Marketing

How do you define an expert of anything? Dictionary.com defines an expert as someone who has special skill or knowledge in a particular field. But who defines exactly what makes expert knowledge special? Someone may know all the theory in the world about a particular subject, but be completely helpless when it comes to implementing that knowledge in practice. Is that person still an expert? How about the person with no formal education but with unerring instincts that prove correct in almost any given situation, is that person an expert? The definition of “expert” is a tricky one, as is the definition of SEO. When you try and put the two together, the ground becomes undeniably soft and shaky underfoot.

Because SEO is very broad, it’s also very vague; and as many of its practices are shrouded in mystery to those who are not directly involved in it (and to some who are), it has had to claw its way through various scandals, rumours and a reputation for unscrupulous practitioners. While SEO services are slowly being recognised by the public at large and our reputation is being laundered clean, SEOs do themselves a disservice by their constant bickering, as they try to outdo each other to become the biggest celebrity, expert or advanced practitioner to hit the scene.

The truth is that search engine optimisation relies on a multitude of skills and while it’s fairly easy to become an expert at one or two of these skills, it’s very difficult to master them all. A few years ago, Shari Thurow, wrote a series of articles that divided SEO into three different skill-sets: beginners, intermediate and advanced. She put copywriters in the beginner’s level, information architects and interface designers in the intermediate level and web developers and programmers in the advanced level.

It may be that at that the time the differences between the skill-sets were more marked and her categorisation was pretty accurate. Times, however, have changed. The business has evolved remarkably over the last few years and will continue to do so well into the foreseeable future. Now, thanks to time, experience and the wealth of information available all skill-sets can be said to be of equal importance in the SEO industry. Good content is the cornerstone of all SEO ventures, but good content alone won’t make a blind bit of difference to a website without the designers and developers to make it all work. Just as a breathtakingly beautiful website with all the bells and whistles won’t do any good if it doesn’t have the content to support it.

Throw some link builders, project managers, solution architects and marketers into the mix and you start to get an accurate idea of all the hard work and skills that go into a successful SEO venture. Good SEO companies should be able to offer you expertise in all of these areas by employing a range of highly skilled and qualified professionals. Good SEO companies use all of their departments in a holistic manner to give their clients the best of everything.

Now, advanced SEOs can be found across all categories that comprise SEM, but as Thurow says, it takes a true expert to see how all the pieces fit together. A true expert is able to manage all of elements of SEO and unite them so that in the end the result is greater than the total of all of its parts.