SEOs love to argue about our craft. You can barely read two blog posts about SEO that don’t mention or involve some argument about a particular point of contention.

Generally speaking I believe there are two types of arguments that are pervasive in the SEO industry. The first is what I call ‘tactical‘ arguments. In these tactical debates, the finer points of SEO implementation are argued over, from how to best build links to what an optimal title tag looks like.

I think these sorts of arguments are important and valuable, because they help us improve and refine our craft. Without conflict, nothing ever improves.

But there’s another sort of argument that is pervasive to our industry, one that I believe is less constructive. These I’d classify as ‘meta‘ debates, and they involve the nature of SEO, its place in the marketing mix and in the wider world. (more…)