Search Engine Marketing Blog: piloSEO

MSNBC writer Gene Marks’ wrote an article and showed the world how ignorant he is. In his article “Tech ‘Solutions’ Your Small Biz Can’t Use” he lists 10 tech related tools and services that he believes are worthless to most small business owners. Of course he is wrong and his reasons on why they are not useful show that he simply does not know what he is talking about.

There are a few items on the list that do not concern search marketing or online technology so I will leave them alone. Based on what he has to say about the search related items I have to assume he is clueless about the other tools too but since it is outside of my knowledge base I can’t say for sure.

So how is he wrong about all of the Internet related tools and services?

1. RSS Feeds: He believes that RSS feeds are useless because it delivers “an endless stream of meaningless items displayed in an overly large browser window that winds up distracting more than informing.” I suppose this can be true if you sign up for every crappy feed available. The smart small business owner will sign up for feeds that provide relevant and useful information. All it takes is a few reads to determine if a feed is going to be useful. There are plenty of great feeds out there related to almost any business and it can be very beneficial to small businesses. There are also readers that are convenient and allow you to preview every feed item that you receive. On top of that you can sign up for email feeds that deliver the feed directly to your inbox. On top of that if you think a feed is useless you can STOP receiving it. It’s actually very easy.
2. Blogs: He believes blogs are worthless because according to his rationale blogs are only for tech related industries. He also believes that readers want new content every day or they will become disinterested. He uses a hardware store owner as an example. Bad example. A hardware store owner could offer a ton of useful commentary in a blog that many readers would find interesting. From how to articles about home repair and improvement to funny things he has seen in his store from people trying to fix things themselves. It does not need to be updated daily as long as the blog provides useful information. On top of that well designed blogs can rank very well in search engines so when someone is looking for information on fixing their bathroom sink they could come across your blog in a search engine and actually buy the hardware they need to complete their project.
3. Search Engine Optimization: This one really gets me fired up. He said “I forked over a bunch of dough to a firm in California that promised to get my company’s name on “all the major search engines” when someone was looking for products that we sell. How did they plan to do this? I’m still not really sure, but it had something to do with spiders, black hats, and link farms.” Well, that’s not SEO, that’s SPAM. It’s amazing when someone who is supposed to represent and speak to small business owners would admit that he sunk a large sum of money into a service he knew nothing about. SEO can help any small business compete against the big players but like anything else you have to smart about it. Do some research. Learn about the best practices and most importantly learn about what should be avoided. Just because you may not be knowledgeable when it comes to SEO details does not mean you should just throw your money at a service to the nearest snake oil salesman. Ask questions, read about SEO, ask more questions, talk to more than one SEO, and make an educated decision. You don’t need to know everything but having at least a basic knowledge is a good start.
4. AdWords: He believes that AdWords and other PPC programs should be left to the big players. He could not be more wrong. AdWords are a great way to get your website exposure while waiting for your SEO efforts to pay off. It can be daunting but it does not have to be. There is plenty of information out there in blogs, forums, and even at Google to help you understand how PPC works and how to effectively advertise. It seems like he believes that most small business owners are not smart enough to figure out how to advertise in the PPC world. Maybe in his case that is true but I believe that most small business owners are intelligent enough to have success at least exposing their business to an online audience. There are many features available that can help the small business owner learn more and avoid busting their budget in a day or two,
5. Web 2.0: Again he highlights his ignorance when discussing Web 2.0. From the looks of it he really did not even do enough research to figure out what it is. Web 2.0 is the evolution of the web that makes it more open and collaborative. It allows people to discuss, share, and network related topics. Small business owners would benefit greatly by hearing from their customers, networking with other business owners, and sharing related news items and blog posts. The idea behind Web 2.0 is that it opens up the flow of information to everyone. Instead of a few mainstream media sources controlling how information is disseminated it allows everyone to be involved. Maybe that is why he does not like it. After all, he does work at one of those old school media sources that are still trying to hang on to their ability to control and manipulate how the masses get their information. The Internet and Web 2.0 scare them.

In the end I think his article is not only poorly researched and full of misinformation but it is also providing small business owners some really bad advice. These tools and services can help any small business if they take a little time to learn how to use them. Successful small business owners will take advantage of all of the technology available to help them succeed. Small business owners who want to take short cuts or ignore tools that can help them will fail and maybe end up writing about it for MSNBC.

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