We are not ready for Industry-Wide SEO Standards

The topic of SEO standardization has been beaten to death in recent weeks. Many big names have come out and voiced their two cents on this concept that would have a huge impact on every current and future search engine marketers if it becomes a reality. It sounds good in theory, but are we ready for it yet?

I’m no stranger to SEO Standards, same goes for all the in-house SEOs that have worked in a large corporation. At AOL, a series of SEO Standards is in place to serve as a guideline and benchmark to ensure all SEO processes and implementations meet the corporate code of ethics and the unofficial industry standards (white hat SEO). By having SEO Standards, it also dramatically decreases the chance of disagreement on SEO approaches between various work groups and/or colleagues. Standards may not need to be closely policed, but they do require some sort of enforcment, otherwise it becomes inane and meaningless. A corporation could conduct SEO audits from time to time to ensure that the standards are not broken, but how do we enforce industry-wide standards without a consensus amongst all the members within the industry?

Theoretically, in a perfect world, a series of regulated industry-wide SEO Standards will provide some forms of protection and peace of mind to the clients who, in turn, may need to pay a premium fee for the SEO services by the certified members. It will allow the public to easily identify and distinguish the black-hats and less-qualified search engine marketers from the legit search engine marketers. It will also protect the industry as well as the individual members from the negative press and bad reputation as a result of frauds and illegal activities conducted by the bad apples.

But, unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world and standardizing an industry where the technical requirements and best practices totally depend on many external factors. It is almost impossible to qualify anyone as a legitimate SEO. Do we rate each other based on skills? Experience? Background? Connections? Reputation? We hate to admit it, but we all know some black hats are just as skillful and experienced as the rest of the white hats SEOs.

Let’s assume that we finally come up with the SEO Standards that every professional in this industry could agree upon with; how will the governing body enforce the Standards? Aren’t we also creating some types of barriers of entry for all the people who are interested in learning and practicing SEO?

I agree with Jessica Bowman’s sentiments on in-house SEO Standards, and I think it is much easier to maintain, update and regulate than the industry-wide version. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against the idea of industry-wide SEO Standards; I actually believe that such idea would be beneficial to both the clients and the industry, but on the other hand, I feel that the current state of our industry is not ready for such proposition just yet.