Nodal Bits

The recent kerfluffle surrounding “TOP SEOs” rating service reminded me that I actually did a sort of rating directory of in-house SEO professionals myself a few years ago. Today, I revisited that listing of professionals in: Top In-House SEOs: Where Are They Now?

I never claimed to have used some consistent/formalized approach in producing that original list of people – as it fell out, it ended up being people who worked for highly-recognizable brands as SEOs and disclosed that fact through LinkedIn, blogging, and speaking at conferences. Nothing very scientific.

However, the experience of just publishing that informal list made me realize immediately how difficult it is to really rate people fairly. If you do ratings, you need to be very open about the criteria you’re using, and it should be real criteria as opposed to doing it merely based on being paid. Recent uproars over Yelp ratings and TopSEOs.com highlight how sensitive such an exercise can be. (more…)