As a search marketer, I am often outnumbered at marketing events by young men. Of speakers at search marketing shows only about 22% are women, of the nine people on our SEMpdx Board of Directors I am one of two women (I am so not complaining;) I am also outnumbered by my younger search marketing brethren, average age of search marketers at the shows is around 28-30, I’m 42.

Having been in web marketing for 11 years and search marketing for 7, I am ready to share a revelation. These guys are smart. I don’t just mean intellectually smart, but worldly smart, emotionally smart, business smart.
As I was researching a little about Aaron Wall (author of SEO Book) for moderating his webinar yesterday I was impressed at the maturity of the information he shared on his About page. What a forward-thinking young man. His own biography is enormously unassuming (though his work has been cited in Time, Forbes, Business Week and other prestigious magazines). He is openly honest about his past, good and bad. The piece he choose to close out the page is a wonderful music video by Johnny Cash of the song, “Hurt”. He shares some very mature insights into the business, his family, art and life in general.

I was reading one of Neil Patel’s blogs, Quick Sprout, and it too is filled with the insights of a much older and wiser man, I believe Neil is 23. At SMX Social last year in New York he was talking about social marketing audiences and he framed the conversation in “the very young audience 15-18, the younger audience 19-23, the old audience 24-30 and the really old audience 30-40″. He was kidding and it was all the funnier because he was poking fun at the medium, those of us in the unmentioned bracket who aren’t embracing social marketing and even at himself for being a youngster being paid to school people much older than he is.

When Gab Goldberg introduced himself after a session I spoke at this year, he made no apologies for the makeshift business card he gave me. Refreshing considering sales people in other industries make such a show about what things look like, he’s confident enough in his skills to know that “proof is in the pudding” not in how flashy your business cards are.

Adam Audette, considered to be the first second generation search marketer (his father is Internet marketing pioneer John Audette), recently wrote an article about the history of the word search engine optimization. Though he disagreed with a previous citation, he expressed his opinion succinctly and with a great deal of tact so as not to offend the writer of the original citation. That takes maturity and grace.

I read a great article recently in Fast Company about Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe, the co-founders of MySpace. These bright young men are mature enough to understand the need for their continued infusion of vision as well as the need for experienced management to strike a balance for business success.

It inspires me that people this young can be such great communicators, writers, speakers, listeners and collaborators.

I think people from other industries look at these young whiz kids and think of them as nerdy guys who sit in front of their computers all day, disconnected from the real world. As I get to know more and more of them, I find the opposite to be true.

As an outsider it may be easy to dismiss these young people and write off their success or impending success as “at the right place at the right time”, but you’d be missing something. Take a closer look. They are interesting, innovative, mature and self-deprecating. They are philanthropic, ready to help others, kind with their time and intention and willing to share their expertise. They approach their work and their lives with an enormous amount of passion and creativity. They are the future, not just of SEM, but of marketing itself.

Considering I am a mother of 17 & 18 year old children, the young men mentioned here will forgive what may otherwise be interpreted as condescending and maternal when I say I am enormously proud of them, as young men and as search professionals and business visionaries.

As the rest of the world begins to understand the importance and place of search marketing, I’m encouraged that these are the people who are crafting the perception and future of our disciple.

If you’re learning about how search marketing can help grow your businees, don’t miss Aaron Wall’s Webinar “SEO Strategies for the 21st Century” tomorrow, October 21, 2008 12PM Pacific Time.

Aaron’s book “SEO Book” has been used as course text for MBA classes and Aaron has spoken at industry conferences and schools about search engine optimization and internet marketing.

The webinar is free, register now. and is co-sponsored by Corvent and SEMpdx.

It’s the best hour you’ll spend learning about Search Marketing, topics include:

* New tools you can use for SEO and competitive research
* How “search suggest” will shape the future of SEO
* Effective link building techniques in a market where link building is getting harder by the day

I’ll be moderating the event and they’re will be a Q & A session after Aaron’s presentation, Hope you’ll join us,

My mother taught us to be nice, that being kind was one of the finest pursuits you could achieve as a human being. She reminded us that, almost without exception, people are doing the best they can and they deserve kindness. If we were asked to dance, we were instructed to say “Yes, thank you, that would be lovely”, because the walk back to the table after someone rejects your offer is a miserable experience. We were taught to offer a smile to everyone we met. Though Henry James is noted for the advice, mom iterated the sentiment often in here own way “There are three things important in life, be kind, be kind and be kind.” You get the picture.

So it is with great trepidation and reluctance I write this post. Come on people, you gotta be f&*%$ kidding me. When it comes to SEO, it’s time for a reality check.

We got a request asking that a company be placed number #1 on Google for the words “moving” “moving company” and “movers” and they wanted to spend less than $1000. Really?? I want to have a commercial during the Super Bowl and spend $8.50, how about that.

It’s like when people make requests for SEO bids they’re playing a game show. “I’ll try ‘Authority Linking’ for $200 Alex”, “I’ll take ‘Content Development’ for $300 Jack”. And at the end of a half hour program, ta da, you’re in the money. Give me a break.

We’ve been patient for a very long time, but help me out here. Search Marketing is a legitimate marketing discipline with one of the best ROI track records of any medium. As Search Professionals, we want to help you, but you gotta work with us. There are times when it’s all I can do not to go into a Jerry Maguire, “Help me, help you, help me to help you!” For the love of everything holy, quit asking stupid questions.

There are 209,000,000 results for the word “wine”. Yes million. How much do you think you should pay for the #1 spot on Google for that term? How long do you think it might take to acquire that position? If you said $450 and 3 weeks, WRONG, go back to your office, email that spammer who keeps telling you you can have it all for just $29.99 and leave me alone.

Please quit asking for the magic SEO short cut. It’s like dieting. There is only one way to be fit-exercise and eat right. Yes you can go on a coffee and peanuts diet and maybe have short term results, but true fitness comes from having a lifestyle that supports fitness. There are varying levels of fitness. You haven’t exercised in 10 years, you can’t run your pantyhose without getting out of breath. You’re not gonna be Tyra Banks overnight . By the same token, your site sucks. Big time. Your not likely going to have a PageRank 7 site and generate thousands of visits daily the day after tomorrow. Get over it.

My mother, who is a hairstylist, used to tell her customers who’d come in looking like Gallagher that they want to look like Andy Gibb, “It’s a pair of scissors dear, not a magic wand”.

Please quit coming to search marketing shows, passing me (and my SEO brethren) business cards and expecting to learn everything we learned about web marketing in the last 12 years over a cocktail and those tiny little sausages. Stop it, stop it right now.

I think this problem started with the concept that anybody can be a search marketer, and it’s true they can. But to be a search marketer that achieves results you need education, expertise and time on the job. Many strategies have to be implemented to create SEO/SEM success. So the next time you have a search marketing question, know that we’re here to help, within reason. If what you’re looking for is a marketing campaign that can help you grow your business over time, with great planning and a reasonable investment, search is just the answer for you. If you’re looking for “become a millionaire overnight”, “grow hair where you’ve never had hair before” or “you too can speak Japanese in just 3 days”, get religion, or a Ouiji board or a trip to the Wizard of Oz or a magic wand…(do me a favor and don’t tell me mom I wrote this;)

If you’re choosing a Search Marketing agency, prepare yourself with some important questions.

1* How long have you been in business? -This can be an important issue, especially considering there are consultants with little experience who just decide to put up a shingle and call themselves search marketers. Newer agencies can be a good choice, depending upon their experience, education and the results they have provided for their customers.

2* What kind of results do you provide for your clients? Show me the money;) If an SEO can’t show you quantifiable results and share references, that could be a red flag that they’re enormously inexperienced.

3* Will you share case studies with me? Same as last question but requires a little more detail. Ask for improvements to lead generation, revenue and other site goals.

4* How do you measure your success? If your SEO only measures success with rankings, run. Success needs to be measured with attachment to revenue and/or site goals. Personalized search also makes it hard to call an exact position (what may show as #2 for me might show as #5 for someone else. Make sure your goals are quantifiable and relevant to your bottom line.

5* Do you have clients in my industry? This can be hard, having an SEO who verticalizes in a particular industry can be powerful. Just make sure there’s no conflict and you won’t be competing against a current client.

6* How do you report site changes and other strategy implementation? There’s not one single silver bullet. Good SEO requires a lot of work on a lot of fronts. However, it’s important that your SEO share changes they make whether it’s content, linking or other search strategies.

7* Do you know how to implement local search? Don’t use an sledge hammer when a pin hammer will work. Local search can be enormously effective if that’s your business focus. It may be more cost effective and just as powerful to focus on a local search strategy.

8* What SEO strategies do you implement? There’s more than one way to skin a cat and there are many techniques employed for SEO. However, information architecture, content and linking are fundamental. A great linking strategy won’t do you as much good if you haven’t done keyword research.

9* How can I communicate with you? You should have an account manager or point of contact you can reach at any (reasonable) time. We use a project management tool that allows our customers to view status of all projects relevant to their site so they can monitor progress.

10* How do I know when we’re done? Again, create quantifiable goals. Nothing is more frustrating for an SEO or a client than hearing, are we there yet? and not having an answer. Learn more about choosing a Search Marketing agency.