Kate Morris

Funny, I started this post in Seattle and with the blog move, never got back to it. Now Rand has gone and done so much better, but I still have somethings to say about all this.

I recently asked Matt Cutts about topics he thought I might research for my Master’s thesis. I thought paid linking and he said it was going to be sooo 2007. I disagreed because I had seen so many people still doing it. When we got to Seattle, what I said was backed up.

Now I am a seasoned veteran of sorts in this space. Not a leader by any means, but I’ve been around the block a time or two. Hearing black hat things at the show did not bother me, I enjoying hearing some of them. It was more something Jay Young said: “We are marketers not moralists.” Jay is a smart man, and a great guy from what I hear, but that kind of thinking is so irritating to me.

I almost left business a few years ago. I was tired of the BS, the backstabbing, and the greed. I wanted to be somewhere that I could use my talents for the betterment of other people, not myself. Does that make me pathetic or a bad marketer? I don’t think so. It makes me a good person. And I really don’t like being made fun of for it.

But the rest of his speech made some good points about fear. No one should fear Matt Cutts. No one should fear link brokers. They all have their jobs, and they are not out to mess with anyone else. Matt does what he does for society as a whole. Trying to give them the most unbiased answers to their questions. Putting the small company on the same playing field as the big ones. The internet is not about who has the bigger marketing budget and that is what I see as Google’s standpoint.

But the link brokers are just helping small companies play the games that the search engines set up themselves. Links are needed and they are helping people get them. Is paid linking going to die totally? No. But should the search engines stop trying to discount them? No. That is their job, they are going to do it. This industry is risky at times. It’s like gambling, if you want the short term fast results you have to put a lot on the line. And sometimes, and more recently a lot, you get burned, bad. That’s the game.

Fear shouldn’t have a place in our industry - good business sense, ethics, and all that should. Do your job the right way, and with some patience, the best results will win out.

When do you fix problems with your product? Traditional business says only when required or when the cost of NOT fixing it out weighs the cost of fixing it.

When did we stop being decent human beings? I read that in my Managerial Accounting text book just a week ago and it baffled me. Then today, I see yet another story about American Airlines. Only this time it’s not wiring, it’s landing gear issues.

In the story, they mention that AA will only fix what the FAA requires. The FAA is 4 year behind schedule! There is something to be said about fixing what is broken WHEN someone recognizes it’s broken.

This goes not just for those with physical products, but also for services. In the SEM world, we are starting to realize that paid links maybe aren’t the best thing. Leaders everywhere are commenting on it. But I still see it widely done on the agency side. We are not rectifying past decisions, even though they might be detrimental now. “Don’t mention it to the client … we don’t have a fix or it’ll cost to much to fix.”

It’s time for the SEM industry and the world to fix their mistakes. Take responsibility for your actions. Do what you teach, it applies to you as well as your 6 year old son.

I’ve changed jobs, and now working for a company who knows the value of search engine marketing. They are moving from having an agency to bringing SEM in house. As I review what has been done in the past few months, I see a new term … a new term to me. Rented Link

So I’ve been doing some research there. All I can come up with is that a rented link is just a paid link in the short term. Remember the beginning of paid links? You bought it for a year, whatever? It was still a paid link. Well these rented links are paid for monthly, and when you stop paying the link is removed.

How is this any different? It’s just like in managerial accounting. All costs are variable in the long run. They can be variable or fixed for the short term, but they all end up being the same kind of cost.

A paid link is a paid link is a paid link. If you pay for it, it’s still a paid link. I think agencies are using this as a way of dealing with client fears until they can come up with a better way of dealing with the hole they’ve dug.

So Microsoft didn’t buy Facebook, but they made the relationship stronger. Things should get really interesting now. With a good chunk of the SEM world mad at Google for the paid link thing, MSN making moves to improve their search AND tell people about it, and their already dominance on all PCs initially, this could make an interest shift in the search world.

Not one I am particularly happy about (I’m for Ask, the real undergog), but this does prove the already proven point that SEMs are not in danger of losing their jobs anytime soon. The market changes too fast, and if you aren’t keeping up, your website could suffer.

Just in the past 48 hours we have seen many high ranked sites drop because of paid linking practices, and a major buy in social marketing. Not reacting properly to this in certain markets could mean the death of your site in the future.

So I’m with Lisa. I’m not worried about my profession any time soon.

Barry notes today that a number of sites have been wrist slapped by Google for selling paid links. Good for Google. I hate to say it, but Barry is right, Google gave plenty of warning.

Google can do what it wants, what it thinks is best for the end user, not the advertiser. If you want to do well in Google, you have to do what they say. It’s as simple as that. If you want to buy links, go for it. It just won’t help anymore.

Search Engine Watch just posted a rant about paid linking. One of many since SES San Jose (I’m still mad that I didn’t go. Matt told me to, I should have.)

After everyone in the SEM world harking on Google for their initiative to go after paid linkers, I really hope they don’t drop it. Paid linking is the source for many bad sites being ranked just because they have money.

This whole thing is like file sharing. When it’s a random person (or site in this case) doing it, it’s not a big deal. The music industry doesn’t lose a ton of money really. People will continue to buy CDs, but sometimes its nice to get something free from a friend, which is how this started.

Paid linking in general is not horrible, but Google is saying if you do it in excess, and they see that the site is not bringing anything to the end user, those paid links will not count. Guess what, they still count in Yahoo and MSN and Ask. They have not said what Google has said. So calm down. It’s Google’s search engine. They get to do what they want. That may be a good or bad thing, but as with all Web 2.0, if you don’t like it, don’t use it. The mass drop of Google will make them change their minds. Not just bitching about it.

I am sure I will talk about this issue a lot. So this is just number one. I didn’t get to attend SES San Jose, and I still regret it. But one of the things brought up there was the paid link debate. Since then a number of SEMs have gotten in on the debate, and the consensus from what I’ve seen is that seasoned SEMs don’t care for Google’s stance.

Matt Cutts has said that Google will not count link love from a paid source. You won’t be banned, but that money will have gone to nothing when it comes to your Google rank. Okay. I get this. Google is trying to keep money out of relevance as much as possible. Score one for the underdog white hats that don’t have the arsenal of money behind them.

What every posting I have seen says is that Google can’t catch everyone. But here is what every post has missed so far: Google is aware that they can’t catch everyone. It’s impossible. It’s like trying to catch every kid that steals a piece of candy.

The other point has been that you shouldn’t just think about Google in your SEM efforts. While that is true to a point (I tell my company that they need to focus on the end user religiously), Google still holds the market. You have to give them more consideration until someone else takes over that top spot.

And then I go back to what Matt says (I am not saying verbatim, but I did hear him say something like it) “Don’t build your site for us, build it for your end user. You have the right to ignore our guidelines, there are no laws online. But we have the right to take you out of our index as well.”

Will I do paid linking? Not really. I don’t see true value. My company happens to have a fantastic base of affiliates to link build with. Content rich related sites that we can get to link to us. Does everyone else have this? No. Should they do paid linking? Maybe. It’s your choice. But Google makes known what they like and don’t like. You are free to go against it, but it’s your choice.

You take the risk. With risk comes with great reward sometimes, but also great loss.