Businesses and brands spend millions of dollars a year on search engine optimization (SEO), trying to move and keep their websites ranked near the top of the first page of Google searches for particular search terms. There’s good reason for that, as a top page rank can pay huge dividends if leveraged correctly. However, please don’t fall into the trap of thinking that a high page ranking on Google equates to anything other than a really good SEO effort.
Michael Fleishner, a marketing professional, seems not to understand (or not agree) with this. In his blog, which (as he points out to the point of being annoying) is ranked number one on Google for the search term “marketing blog”, Mr. Fleishner spends an awful lot of his time trying to convince his readers that this achievement means that his blog is a “top marketing blog.” I respectfully disagree.
As a fellow online marketing professional, I read my fair share of blogs dedicated to the subject, including Mr. Fleishner’s. While he does, from time to time, have something of interest to say, most of his posts are little more than generic information, widely available elsewhere. There’s nothing groundbreaking or exciting going on at The Marketing Blog.
The content on Mr. Fleishner’s blog is average, at best. I generally don’t like to criticize other people’s work, but when I read him proclaiming how amazing his site is on an almost weekly basis, I think he opens himself up to this type of criticism. As an example of the type of unabashed self-congratulating fluff that Mr. Fleishner posts, consider how he opened up one of his most recent blog posts…
A buddy of mine saw a great list of “Top Marketing Blogs” and said, “Michael, why aren’t you on the list?” In addition to being the top ranked marketing blog via Google, I hope that most of you (blog readers) find value in each and every post I’ve created over the last 4 years here on The Marketing Blog. All that being said I would think that I belong on a list of top marketing blogs.
My point with this little rant of mine isn’t to talk trash about Michael Fleishner’s blog (okay, maybe a little), but, rather, to point out that quality content isn’t necessarily the same thing as top-ranked content. Fleishner seems to either miss or willfully ignore this point and that’s fine. If his goal was to simply have his blog appear at the top of a Google search page, he’s accomplished that. However, if his goal was to have a high-quality blog, I think he has a lot of work left to do (maybe that’s why he’s put out a call for other people to start writing for his blog).
SEO is a very important part of any marketing effort. However, it’s important to keep things in perspective. If you do manage to achieve a top Google page ranking, it doesn’t mean that you’re the “best.” Similarly, having a lower page ranking doesn’t mean that you suck. Never lose sight of the fact that you should be trying to impress your customers, not Google’s algorithms.
-Dan Cheek
LaserBurnMedia.com
dan@laserbunrmedia.com
Twitter.com/laserburnmedia
(570)795-9467
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