Verified SEO - Vilification,Vindication & The Variety Show That Is The SEM Industry
Austin, Texas, March 29, 2010 - In March of 2010, seo consultant Charles Preston, a 10 + year veteran of the SEO industry, attempted to launch a
service designed to help consumers find qualified SEM consultants.
The premise behind the service, called Verified SEO, was to offer a 3rd party vetting service to SEM consultants with which
their previous track records of success could be vouched for by other industry professionals. Many consumers find it difficult to discern what to look for when hiring an SEM provider due in part to the highly technical aspects of the
service. The situation isn't helped much by vast consumer skepticism due to the number of consumers who
have had negative experiences with SEM. The service was designed to address that issue by
issuing a website seal that would show consumers that a Verified SEO provider had at least 5 years of experience
and had presented at least 20 case studies of prior or current client success.
This premise was based on the belief that the quality of any SEM provider should be judged almost entirely on
past and current client satisfaction.
"Most of the small business owners I have spoken with over the years have expressed to me how difficult it is to
find a good SEM provider. The primary problem is that they don't know enough about SEM in general, to accurately
perform their due diligence.", says Charles.
On March 26th, 2010, Verified SEO caught the attention of a small group of SEM providers who falsely accused Charles of perpetrating some kind of scam. Charles having spent the majority of his time over the years building his previous company, Click Response which was sold in 2008 and building a new consultancy had rarely participated in the SEM community at large.
"I just never placed much importance on trying to make a name for myself within the SEM community. I devoted most of
my time working on building a business that would better serve my clients.", says Charles.
The vicious, knee-jerk response derived primarily from the fact that nobody in the SEM community had ever
heard of Charles. Largely due to misunderstanding about what Charles was attempting to do,
in a very short time hundreds of articles, tweets and blog posts appeared online decrying the alleged scam being
perpetrated by Charles Preston.
"I can see now in an industry plagued by so much mistrust that it might have been beneficial for me to have been more active in the community. Nobody knew who I was and the hearsay and rumor about what they thought I was trying to do completely drowned out any rational discourse or explanation. My online reputation prior to this event was spotless.
Just Google Verified SEO & you will find yourself mouse deep in a plethora of puerile articulate matter. I was astonished by the vulgar & unprofessional nature of the response. It felt like being attacked by some kind of online mob.",
says Charles.
Fortunately it was Charles' prior reputation with his current and past clients that mitigated the fallout from this
event. After the initial attack had subsided Charles openly discussed his true intentions with the service
to the SEM community on a popular industry blog.
"I haven't lost any clients over this and I don't expect it to be a problem for me going forward. There were aspects of the idea that I admit, were not well thought out and it could have been executed better. However in some ways it had potential which was noted by a few members of the community. The majority of the community, however, made it quite clear that they are not interested in such a service. At the same time though, many in the community complain about the lack of something that would accomplish the very same goals. The one organization that you would think might could do something like this is SEMPO however SEMPO doesn't have that great of a reputation in the industry either. Go figure. It's something of an identity crisis I suppose and definitely a hot button issue as I learned. The problem is this - SEM is becoming more and more a service crucial to business success. The business community is watching and
waiting for the SEM community to get it's act together. I don't know what the solution is but I hope we
find one soon.", says Charles.
Currently false claims posted about Charles are being removed and the controversy has initiated debate
within the SEM community on whether or not there does need to be some kind of regulating body for the SEM
industry to help protect consumers from fraud or malpractice.