“What if you no longer needed an SEO Expert?” asks HubSpot’s lastest ad, “because you had software that made it easy to improve your rank?” “What if someone took all the hassles out of marketing?”
The idea that SEOers are among the factors making marketing “a hassle” will hit
home with a lot of people. SEO professionals have a terrible reputation in the
marketing industry.
They speak in strange geeky jargon. They’re often rude, unshaven, sometimes flaky. They’ve been known to tarnish big brands with their Black Hat antics. Right or wrong, they are preceived by many as juvenile, obnoxious and of dubious value.
No wonder nobody outside of a tiny trade organization gives a damn about them.
Why not get rid of these unlovable, expendable outsourceables?
Because, I would argue, the actual business case for using an SEO expert remains valid. If you’re fighting a high-stakes battle for visibility in search engines that you can’t afford to lose, you’re not going to fight such a battle on auto-pilot.
Such battles often call for more flexibility than can be provided by an all-in-one SEO/SEM dashboard-oriented tool, even the best one.
And while you may not currently be using stealth, surprise, or unconventional optimization tactics in your search campaigns, it’s nice to know these things can be done. All of this requires a human in the loop, a smart, resourceful, responsive individual — armed with highly specialized tools — making decisions in real time.
True – most businesses will never need this level of skill and capability to carry out routine online campaigns. But some — the serious ones who live and die by Internet marketing– will, because they must win.
And that’s why SEO experts — despite all the bashing and the onslaught of software designed to replace them — are going to remain with us for a long time.
