I was recently followed on Twitter by someone who had crowned himself a “Senior SEO Analyst.”
Granted, he was 24, so he’s certainly entitled to a degree of hubris that is (mostly) reserved for the 20-somethings entering the workforce, but a quick visit to his profile assured me that not only would I not be competing with him for potential freelancing/consulting jobs, but that he is, in fact, a complete charlatan.
How and why do I make this claim?
Let me present the evidence.
The first thing that caught my eye was when he mentioned – and I quote verbatim – that he is a “Senior SEO Analyst that Tweet’s tips 3-5 times a day.”
If you’re reading this blog, it’s obvious that you’re brilliant enough to have caught what made my hair stand on end in that sentence. However, in case the coffee has yet to kick in, it should be noted that this “Senior SEO Analyst” made “Tweets” possessive.
Alright, alright. Nobody likes a grammar Nazi. (Well, save Grammar Girl – everyone loves her.) The point I am attempting to make here, however, is that a true Senior SEO Analyst would know the difference between Tweets and Tweet’s.
Trying to save him a bit of humiliation, I sent a direct message that simply said: There’s an error on your Twitter profile. In your bio, it should be “tweets” not “Tweet’s.” Colleague to colleague tip. Cheers!
His response: Thanks! Yeah i’m horrible at spelling haha lolz
Let’s all cringe together.
Companies and decision makers, do you honestly want someone optimizing your keywords that responds like this? Or can’t even spell “Tweets?”
Search engine optimization can be a fantastic added value to your website, but you can probably do it yourself. Google offers many free training programs/workshops to help beginners learn all there is to know about Google AdWords. This will take time, so if you’re in a rush to do a campaign (or you’re spending thousands of dollars) you probably want some help. But really, if you have the time and enjoying new skills, you should read up on AdWords. It’s not rocket science, trust me.
It seems that SEO “experts” and “digital marketing experts” are everywhere. Twitter is particularly infested by these folks. And some, fortunately, are very good! There are many reputable companies and individuals that would be great campaign managers for any SEO effort you may be interested in making. Unfortunately, however, there are many more of these self-proclaimed experts that create a terrible name for the rest of us and are frankly guilty of professional negligence.
Ah, the modern day snake oil salespeople!
So wrapping things up, what’s your best defense? Self-education. Mashable has a great resource that explains SEO and also provides current updates about SEO trends. Understanding what your keywords are is also important; see the previously mentioned Google links for more information.
