Robert Scoble is a Big Baby

Last week Internet industry pundit Robert Scoble started (yet another) firestorm with his blog post about how SEO won’t matter any more in 2010. Naturally, the very headline caused a knee-jerk reaction of condemnation in the SEO industry — we have enough trouble explaining to clients why what we do is important to them (and it is important) without some wag confusing them.

A great counter argument was posted later that day by Lisa Barone at Outspoken Media. She calls him on his silly premise, and (rightly) points out that SEO isn’t about the techniques (many of which have changed over the years, and will continue to do so). SEO, according to Lisa, is about the concept of proper coding, good content, and other standard stuff that all adds up to getting the right visitors to your website. That aspect of SEO will never die.

The really funny stuff happens in the comments on Lisa’s blog, though. Readers pitch in on their two-cents, and then Scoble gets into the act with a back-and-forth with Lisa. First, he accuses her of attacking him for calling him “silly,” then two posts later he calls another reader an idiot. Nice.

Scoble’s stated intent for his original post was to point out that it isn’t enough to focus solely on SEO, that a broader focus on internet marketing is needed. To do this, he employs the old-school technique of using a provocative title on his post. (As did I – mea culpa.) He then talked about other stuff peripherally connected with that title.

Let’s see if I can do this too…

Scoble was born an infant, which is physiologically equivalent to his present state except much smaller. Thus, the adult Scoble is basically a larger version of infant Scoble — a big baby, if you will.

This quote makes my blog post title technically true, and (perhaps) provocative enough to make Scoble proud. It doesn’t change the underlying fact, though, that I applaud Lisa’s points and echo her sentiments. SEO is still important, and still relevant. As I’ve said before, SEO is the art of making a web site that can easily be found by your customers. Sure the rules are changing, but they always change. It’s up to us SEO professionals to keep up with them, and to continue to provide our clients with good SEO services that help them get the most out of their websites.