Does the SEO industry need new denominations, terms?

More transparent service descriptions needed? A brainstorm approach.

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Thread 2748 at Forum 5 "Is SEO dead? Expectations from SEO" [webmasterworld.com] has exhibited an interesting development. SEO, so the general summary, is far from dead but the evolution of services along with the ever changing SE market is about to alter the industry landscape gradually. I was wondering if it wouldn’t be about time for the largest webmaster community on earth to step up to that challenge and recommend new terms for the evolving new service landscape?

SEO is not dead at all we have learned at the mentioned thread but it shapes rapidly into many facets.

For My2¢ the entire industry needs to address this evolution with crisp service offerings and terms. Wouldn't you all agree that your clients and companies you work for/with need transparency for what service they could purchase, expect?

SEO doesn't cover it anymore, Internet Marketing is way to generic and conflicts with much of the client's terminology for their own web efforts.

How about kicking lose a brand new discussion, brainstorm round for everyone involved here as of how to address the future landscape with clear terminology (if possible at all)?

Actually we are looking at several value propositions here. There is SEO classic, SEO evolving into different directions where more sophisticated elements are incorporated, you have Online Content Marketing where you teach your clients how to apply classical marketing rules to new online learnings and even more complex offerings.

As a startup proposition:

The “hands-on” outsource options:
SEO = Search Engine Optimization (classic tweaking for SE’s)
SEM = Search Engine Marketing (incl. PPC, directories, linking strategies and policies, online partnering and what have you)

The consultancy options (teaching companies to build the SEM expertise and combine with their existing expertise):
OCM = Online Content Marketing (incl. keyword efficiency marketing etc.)
TOM = Total Online Marketing (help clients -suitable for large corporations only- to add online marketing expertise to their existing marketing capabilities, a one-timer but could be a full-year job for really large companies.)

Anyone wants to throw in your2¢?

If this is feasible why don’t we try to come up with something meaningful for everyone to buy in and suggest some kind of structure to other pro’s like the designers, programmers and such to put up a new service foundation in terms of clear understanding what the offerings mean to provide? Or do we want to wait for some self proclaimed marketing guru to impose something even less meaningful to the online world because he’s got some trademark interest on some term?

Maybe it’s nothing, maybe we really think we need more transparency? Let’s talk, thanks for participating, have fun, Jens

[StanBo]

Paraphrasing a well-known saying "the term is not what matters, what matters is how you use it" :)
As long as the actual term SEO is treated and used like it was several years ago, its up-to-date meaning will be misunderstood. A new term might (and will) cause an additional confusion, especially among those who are not versed enough in the market status.
For myself I feel pretty much comfortable with either SEO SEM or SEwhatever as long as my customers use the term with the same meaning and are well aware of the possible term abuses by competition :))

[fom2001uk]

I'd put PPC into SEA (Search Engine Advertising). I know advertising is part of marketing, but advertising is such a huge area, it needs its own category.