Regulate SEM and SEO?
I am preparing to start a new SEM campaign and recalled a TechCrunch post this summer regarding regulating the industry, http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/13/the-time-has-come-to-regulate-search-engine-marketing-and-seo/. It is written by an anonymous writer that is a “well known executive”, and argues that the algorithms for ranking on search engines should be disclosed. The writer compares it to free trade and controlling of boarders, where Google is the boarder patrol and can allow or disallow companies into the ecosystem at their will.
The only way I’d agree with this is if Google does have a conspiracy to omit selected sites based on personal bias. I have never heard of this being proven, although some companies do complain that partnerships with Google competitors seem to drop their rankings.
Overall, I disagree with this author for many of the reasons listed in the comments, and one big one: there are other ways to advertise your product besides Google. The main reason to work on SEO and SEM campaigns is to take advantage of this form of advertising. There are plenty of other ways to advertise a product online, including other search engines, niche ad networks, link building (to actually reach other interested customers, not just increase PageRank), and partnerships, to name a few. If all of these are performed well, and you have a relevant URL to match your company or product, there is no way that Google can keep your company down in the rankings. This applies to both start ups and established companies.
The other thing to look at, even if you’re a pure internet company, it doesn’t mean that marketing has to be done purely online. How did people advertise before the mid-90′s when there was no internet? Print, TV, radio, door-to-door, conferences, trade shows… All these methods are still valid. And the big upside, even with all of the fancy analytics to be gained from online metrics, nothing compares to meeting and talking to your customers face-to-face. You get genuine feedback, suggestions, and take a huge step in customer service in establishing a solid relationship. That, in turn, will help bring in more revenue than a top ranking on Google.