It is hard to miss: searchengineoptimization is booming. This becomes apparent not only because regulars-tables and conferences get more and more attendees every year and finding a job-posting for an inhouse-SEO position is not a novelty anymore either. It becomes especially apparent when you look at the rapid increase of contractors in this field. I get the feeling that not a day goes by, without a new SEO-agency being founded. In principle this is a good thing, though is also a side-effect associated with it that shows up more and more: somewhere, the quality of service gets left by the roadside.

The final straw that led me to write this post was an article by Randolf. He was told that Senkrecht IT, an SEO-firm in Cologne (there seems to be a hive there somewhere) was using one of his websites as a reference – and that wihtout ever having done any work for 3gstore.de. You could shrug it off as a one-time deal but this is sadly not the case: you have cellphone-vendors that say they are Google, agencies that have a “Head of SEO” who has supposedly done decades worth of successful SEO – but of whom no one in the sector has ever heard of and obscure series of events that tour through Germany, where the lecturers have to pay money to shower the unsuspecting public with their advertisements.

I have finally realized that the times, in which the majority of the actors in the sector were there because they had fun at dealing with this subject, are over. Today it's about making money – and seeing how everyone in Germany already owns two cellphones and the used-car-market not being what it used to be, SEO is the chance to do so. Personally, I think that the SEO-sector stands at a crossroads at the moment: either the market will manage to regulate itself and gets rid of the bad seeds, or we will get to the point where even the numerous reputable agencies will have a hard time getting a propper part of the advertisement-budget-pie.

In my opinion, there are two big levers: educated customers and transparency. Those customers that have a simple understanding of how searchengines and future-oriented SEO-methods work are not going to buy snakeoil over the phone and will also be able to asses the work a contractor does for them. Over the last year, Google has done a lot educational pieces that are a step towards this goal and it might also be quite helpful to have guidelines that the sector comes up with, which outline what customers should expect from reputable contractors. And then there is transparency: While SEM itemizes every click, most SEO-contracts usually ask a lump-sum for „something“. We offer software that makes it possible for customers to check and monitor the SEO-performance independently but I also think that the discussion over a improved certification for SEO-agencies that is going on between Philipp and Stefan (W&V) are exciting and should be supported. Next weeks Campixx will also have a discussion on this topic and I am excited to see where that goes.