How can someone really be an internet expert?
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 10:16PMHad a great lunch today with a fellow SEO (search engine optimizer)- and it got me thinking, how can anyone ever really be an "internet guru?" If I am ever away from the internet for an afternoon, I feel like I know absolutely nothing. No really, NOTHING.
In this job, there are always new things to learn, new techniques, new sites, new measurement features ... it never ends! How can anyone really be an expert? 
Just because something worked well for one client doesn't mean it may translate to your next. The shelf life of anything online is comparable to those greasy noodles from a Chinese restaurant. When you leave it out on a napkin overnight, it disintegrates into it's own goo. (Try it! Now imagine what it's doing to your body.)
I would be afraid of an SEO that touts they can guarantee placement, and says they are the greatest SEO out there. Confidence is a wonderful thing, but when your job is to keep your clients as relevant as possible, check your ego at the door and let the teacher be the student.
Reader Comments (1)
I agree, there's some little loophole where you can exaggerate if you honestly believe it. Kind of like people do on dating sites. We're #1 is customer service is apparently subjective, I suppose their idea of "they made an honest effort and that's what counts" is what matters in business. That and the love em and leave em sales. I learned in Marketing 3010 (which I later dropped) that you need to form relationships not by fancy commercials or outlandish claims/gimmicks, but by providing a good service and product. Word of mouth will be a good way to get noticed though you do have to do some marketing so you have to know your market, the competition etc. Also, a mission statement says a lot and is a constant reminder. Lots of stuff like that. I dunno if I even have my book still. Besides, the Rennaisanc (sic) age is gone. No one person can possible know everything, not even about the internet which basically catalogues everything. He's pretty much full of it or was taught this in college. Even in college you can learn bunk, and a PhD teaching bunk is showing their credentials as Piled High & Deep, not a true mastery of their subject. It's not surprising this is online. It's like relying 100% on wikipedia. Many colleges don't accept that as reference even with claims that major encyclopedias like the Britannica has just as many or more errors.