It maybe that Jason Calacanis just likes stirring up the SEO crowd, or it could be that he really feels a certain way about them. Either way, the hostility that met him at the beginning of the week meets him again at its close.
David Utter reported that Calacanis’s appearance at Kelsey Group’s Interactive Local Media/SES Local event in Los Angeles (slated for November) would not be too welcome. Come Friday and the Web 2.0 conference, Calacanis blogs:
I think that SEOs have such a small amount of actual advice that they never say anything in these panels/clinics because if they did you wouldn’t need to hire them. I’ve seen a half dozen SEO-related panels over the year and it’s always the same thing… like some infomercial where they will tell you their five secrets… IF you give them $199.95.
Well, them’s more fightin’ words. Michael Gray, also known as GrayWolf, decided to give the SEO treatment to Mahalo, free of charge. Gray found numerous SEO mistakes in his detailed and lengthy report (which becomes a great tutorial, too).
The fun part of Gray’s post is where he calls out code that shows an interest in being ranked in the search results:
It’s kinda hard to make the claim that you aren’t interested in SEO when this is a comment on your page <!– Main Content for serps ***********************–>
Gray concludes with this explanation:
Why did I spend the time writing this? I know you’re a smart guy, and just because you happen to have run into some sleazy SEO’s in the past doesn’t mean we are all bad. We’re no different than any other profession, there are good people and bad people, but it’s unfair to critcize an entire industry just because of a few bad apples. I also would like to think that you’re a big enough person to realize when you’ve made a mistake, and aren’t afraid to admit it.
Well, we’ll see, won’t we?
