Jason Calacanis Does It Again

Once again, Jason Calacanis has enraged the SEO Community.

His keynote address at SMX Social Media, as reported by Lisa Barone, contained the following statement:

"SEO is a wasted industry. You're wasting your time fighting off ranking problems instead of creating great content. You're just spinning your wheels hoping the Google gods won't kick you out. It's a bad way to live your life. Using a human service is a better way to go about it."

It didn't take long for the blood to start boiling. It got picked up on Sphinn pretty quickly, with follow-up posts and Sphinn rants not far behind. Wow, is this industry sensitive or what? Here are some thoughts:

Make a Point, Please
If you read though all the posts and comments and replies, you'll find that the most thought out retort anybody has so far is that All Conferences Should Heretofore Ban Jason Calacanis from Speaking, Forever (and Ever). What's notably missing is a coherent argument against  Jason's position. To do this, you'd have to demonstrate that the skills and practices used by SEOs today have a long term value proposition to both clients and search engines alike. You'd have to further predict, convincingly, how search technology will evolve (or won't) and what the future for SEO is in the context of that evolution.

Jason's point is simple, and I agree with it, that current day SEO is largely an act of attempting to influence the (flawed) link-based page rank (and thus relevancy) algorithms in an attempt to achieve higher search engine rankings. As the link-based algorithms go the way of the do-do bird, the basics of SEO will be left behind and these basics will likely not require an entire independent industry to support them. I've had this argument myself with an SEO or two, and have yet to hear a compelling counter position.

Stop Being Suckers
Is it not evidently clear why Jason Calacanis makes statements like these in public forums? Despite their loathsome contempt for Mr. Calacanis, the SEO industry has just created a ton of press for him, his keynote address, and his current endeavor (Mahalo). The best part about all this is watching Jason reply to Sphinn comments, basically egging on the community, and they fall for it every time.  Jane Copland put it best when, on Sphinn, she said:

"There were two or three things he said that were either unfortunately worded or deliberately baity. No one's really paying much attention to anything else he said, but the grand total of about 100 words have made him the story of SMX Social Media. Calacanis wins."

Right now, the SEO Community looks like the rats that Jason the Pied Piper is leading around as he chooses - all for his own amusement and benefit.

Calacanis Wins.

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Comments

[SlightlyShadySEO]

I didn't counter Jason's argument because I wasn't arguing it. I was just saying that he wasn't qualified to be speaking at a conference, and wasn't what most people wanted to hear there. He's just used for buzz.

I'm not looking to be preached at going to a conference, and I'm not looking to better my ethics. And I certainly am not looking to pay for either of those.

Instead, I'm looking to meet people in the same industry, and learn what I can. Jason is neither in the same industry, nor teaching anything.

I suppose I could've argued against his position, but I really didn't want to make it about that, and I wasn't directing my thoughts at Jason. It was about how he speaks(hyping a product) and the fact he wasn't even a part of our industry. And also I suppose that his entire way of introducing his product revolves around an idea(a LOT of money lost, or VC to start) that simply isn't relevant.

I appreciate the mention, and just wish I could've known that entry would explode like it did(courtesy of twitter) and wish that I could've articulated the purpose a bit better perhaps.

I'm ranting now, so I'll disappear for a bit. Adios.

[Tin Pig]

Thanks for the comment, Shady. I certainly understand how Jason can get people's ire up. Also, I wasn't directing my post at anybody in particular, but at the industry as a whole. There's a lot of complaining about that thorn in their side but personally I'd be interested in seeing some thoughtful dialog on why Mahalo (and thus Calacanis) should be ignored.

[DarkMatter]

I think we should stop talking about this guy, period. If there's no buzz in the industry media about him, there's no reason to have him speaking at conferences.