Another week, another argument with the ill-informed on Facebook. I really need to stay off these things!
This week, I have been having a spirited debate pointless argument with a strong-willed narrow-minded gentleman idiot who believes his opinions on digital marketing are correct, despite having no valid experience in the sector whatsoever.
This chap even admitted how he’d had no success with digital marketing which, according to him, makes him an expert. He proudly boasted:
“I have websites for my other businesses, and nobody looks at them (despite them being fascinating content lol) unless I pay for ads, do email shots or someone refers the clients in.”
These other websites he was happy enough to share. The reason nobody looks at his websites is nothing to do with SEO not actually working, it’s because they’re poorly put together Wix websites filled with duplicate content. Since he’s thrown together terrible websites and copied and pasted his content from somewhere else online, he’s unsurprisingly not getting any traffic or business. This, however, doesn’t stop him from offering the advice of extensive experience in Facebook groups when people ask for help.
Let’s start from the beginning.
In one of the many business groups on Facebook, of which I am a member, someone posted asking for introductions to a content writer for that particular sector. The sector was serviced accommodation. I, along with a couple of other people, replied offering our assistance. As Engage Web has extensive experience writing content for the property and hotels sectors, it is something we can definitely help with.
One person replied exclaiming content, SEO and indeed websites were a complete waste of time. He went on to explain how he had never had any successes with websites, therefore there was no point spending any money on them. One of his comments explained:
“I’ve had a website rated 300,000 out of every website in UK, and nearly nobody found it by search for words and we paid a fortune for content writing.. Links from other sites and paid advertising was what brought in the clients.”
I presume, when he says ‘rated 300,000’ he’s not referring to ranking at position 300,000 in Google for a search. It’s more likely he’s referring to the Alexa rank for a website. Alexa is a sort of webmaster’s Tamagotchi where you could increase your ‘ranking’ by installing the Alexa toolbar and clicking on your own website. It only tracks visits to websites from people who have the Alexa toolbar installed, so is of no actual use when it comes to tracking the success of a website.
Naturally, this is what this chap then used.
He admitted that ‘nobody found it by search for words and we paid a fortune for content writing’. This tells us more about the quality of the website and of the content, than about the industry. I have a gym card in my wallet but I haven’t lost any weight this year, and I’ve paid a fortune in fees to David Lloyd. I haven’t actually been, but I could claim that gyms don’t work on the same basis.
For good measure, here’s selection of other nuggets of wisdom from this digital marketing naysayer:
What’s worse than this chap’s failure to grasp how digital marketing works is that he’s offering advice to others. It’s worrying that someone might actually listen to him. The ‘it never worked for me so it won’t work for you’ argument is something I’ve seen before, and it’s a very dangerous attitude.
There are a lot of people offering web design, digital marketing and content writing as services without really knowing what they’re doing and they’re damaging the industry. When people tell me they’ve tried SEO and it hasn’t worked, I instantly know they’ve tried it with someone who didn’t know how to do it. I see posts in web design groups every day from people asking how they can sell SEO to their clients, when they don’t know how to do it.
It’s tantamount to fraud, and it’s damaging the industry. It also leads to people like this vocal character in the Facebook group telling other people how content and websites don’t work. No, they don’t work – not the way you’ve done them. That doesn’t mean they won’t work if you do them correctly.
Be careful when you ask for advice, and to whom you listen. The first to offer it are often the last people who should.
- Win two hospitality tickets to watch Liverpool v Toulouse at Anfield - September 25, 2023
- Wanted: Web Developer - June 13, 2022
- Facebook adds ‘automatic invitations’ to invite page followers to your group - May 17, 2021
