Yesterday, one of the most popular web design portals, AListApart, unveiled their latest project - a survey for web designers and developers. Here's their pitch:
People who make websites have been at it for more than a dozen years, yet almost nothing is known, statistically, about our profession. Who are we? Where do we live? What are our titles, our skills, our educational backgrounds? Where and with whom do we work? What do we earn? What do we value?
The survey itself itself is here (and I'll probably take it myself). More relevant to this blog, however, would be learning more about our own industry - the search marketing field. Granted, SEOmoz doesn't reach everyone in search the same way that ALA reaches almost everyone in webdev, but we've got about 12,000 feed readers (on a good day) and 10,000+ unique visitors (on weekdays), so there's at least a sizable audience. My question for you is - would you be willing to contribute in and see value in results from a "state of the search marketing profession" style survey?
If you are interested, please also leave comments below about the questions you'd like to see asked and the kinds of things you'd hope to learn from the study. My feeling is that if we could get 2-5,000 participants, the work would be both valuable and demographically representative.
p.s. Yes, yes, I know about the SEMPO studies and I've participated a couple times. Let's just say I'm not a fan, and the invite-only model has its advantages and drawbacks and is basically a different animal.
I totally agree on your points about the SEMPO study, so I think this would generate valuable learnings. Some thoughts on questions:
Training - that's a very good one.
Here's a brief list of things that I'd like to see in the SEM/O survey that I didn't necessarily see in the ALA version:
I think it's a great idea to do this survey--should be really informative!
**Sorry, the formatting was screwed up the first time I posted this**
Would be interesting to have a survey with those sorts of questions :)
If Google asked you to work for them, would you?
Doing what, getting them to the top of Google?
Wow, that was the worst joke ever. Bad Jane.
awwww... made me laugh though!
Here is a question that I DON'T like - taken from A List Apart's survey and most of the others that I see.
So where does a white hispanic such as myself fit into this scheme? I always check other or abandon the survey all together and I am just getting tired of having to choose "other" just because the survey people still believe that race matters somehow. When will we all be equal?
(Sorry for my political rant here on the Moz but this just REALLY bothers me and I tend to not complete surveys that use the 'ethnicity' question)
I love ticking "Pacific Islander" because, technically, it's true.
Jane, you're about as Caucasian as it comes!
And no, being surrounded by Samoans, Fijian's and local Moari for most of our lives does not give us "Pacifc Islander" rights... :(
I was born on an island in the Pacific. Thus, I am a Pacific Islander. No, I'm not Fijian, Samoan, Maori or Hawaiian, but that wasn't the question.
Don't get me started.
You're telling me you didn't live on a diet of pies and sausages with cheese in the middle (yumm...) while in the land of the long white cloud...
My home town Wanganui (North Island) is split down the line between being part of Polynesia so I'm not a pacific islander :(
See the Map of Polynesia, Wikipeadia!
Hahaha! That is classic. Just showing you what a load of crap you can find on Wikipedia if you try hard enough. I'm from Wellington, so I guess it depends on where that line really falls... a southern suburb wouldl have excluded me, but I may have been far enough north. Oh but having lived in Napier, I definitely count.
It has also just occurred to me that this map says that everyone from the east coast of the North Island is in Polynesia, but Aucklanders, Northlanders and everyone south of Nelson isn't. Really, Wikipedia? Really?
I think you're the one for the job to convince the wikipeadians responsible of that article what a joke that map is.
Think we can preach "revelant content" to wiki? :?
The most ironic thing of all is that the city with the highest population of Fijians, Samoans, Tongans etc is Auckland and it doesn't fall within Wikipedia's stupid little triangle. If I were a college professor and some kid sited Wikipedia, they'd be getting an F.
I have yet to see Swedish-Danish-Czech-German-Irishman as an option, so I leave it blank :) Seriously, though, it's one thing if the survey is testing a race-based question (such as pay disparity), but most of the time I just don't see the relevance and, as you say, the categories we typically use are inherently prejudicial.
Here's another question:
- What is your biggest ongoing challenge as an SEO?
I just took the "A List Apart" web survey and found it interesting. Hopefully there will be eneough respondents that it will point us towards true results and findings.
I thnk it would be agood idea for SEOmoz to create a survey, hopefully people will answer truthfully and we can gain some insight into our profession.
I think that you might need two tracks... one for the biz that does work for others... second track for the biz that works for their own projects.
Yes, but you are getting into deep waters here!
In-house
Consultancy
Own sites
Or, as is often the case, a mixture of two or even three of the above.
I agree. We could learn a lot more if different questions were posed to each group rahter than just one set of questions for everyone.
Am I the only one who finds it slightly amusing that people who answered "No, I think it's a Waste of Time" took the time to answer a survey about whether or not it's a waste of time? :)
I have the same trouble with these surveys that I do with research my local professional associations do: mainly, I'm not really full-time in a lot of the niche areas that I'm active in. I'm essentially a part-time CTO for one client, do development for a couple of other clients, and generally specialize in usability. I've started integrating SEO into my practice and am fascinated by the current state of the field, but whenever I see surveys like this, I think "I probably shouldn't participate, because I'm not really an SEO". Maybe it's just me, but I get the sense that this is the case for a lot of web developers, especially independents; we tend to wear a variety of hats.
Good answer, Doc! I wear so many hats, my head is sweating profusely. The joys of working for a small business. Some days I feel like an overpaid data entry clerk.
Definitely worthwhile.
Some questions would be how to handle folks who want to do unorthodox business arrangements. How to quote on an ecommerce site whne the owner is clueless about the platform (There could be hundreds of hours pulling hair out if the platform totally sucks!) How to handle potential conflicts of interest.
I'd be specifically interested in "in-house" data: What are you responsible for, what's your title, what do you make, what's the pay structure look like (salary + bonus, quarterly performance bonus, etc.). Of course, it would have to be anonymous, but it would be great stuff.
Dan
you should ask the mozzers' club if they want to meet in some organized conference way, to share experiences!
Wasn't their an SEO mashup I saw a year ago, showing where SEO's lived in the world? I cant remember the link.
You mean SEO frappr Mashup?
Here's the old forum thread at SEW
I'd love to see a collection of standard marketing survey type questions focused on people employed by a company in SEO then possibly a separate one for those who are self-employed.
The reason is, this will possibly skew employee salaries once an industry average - or even an industry median - can be deduced. If the sort of general marketing survey questions can therefore be employed, those who are client-side or agency-side and not working for themselves will have a better idea if they are being underpaid or in that sweet spot of being overpaid.
:-)
However, an industry standard of any sort is a start - that done, refining it is the next step.
"I'd love to see a collection of standard marketing survey type questions focused on people employed by a company in SEO then possibly a separate one for those who are self-employed."
I agree, there's a lot of us working in a Company or self-employed doing SEO, it would be very interesting to see the results of such survey, I would be glad to participate, great idea!
Good point--and to go a bit further, are you in a exclusive SEO business, interactive agency, traditional full service agency, etc.--and how large is said employer?
That is, if you aren't just an in-houser.
I think it's a great idea Rand. Bravo. Definitely interested. I did take the ALA survey, but I felt it fell short...I honestly felt theirs was too brief and incomplete - a lot more data could have been captured. You guys could easily do better. I'd like to see additional questions about:
If I think of any more I'll add my 2 cents again. :)
From business who uses seo, instead of a professional seo business standpoint it could be beneficial to see where the biggest return on investment is had (organic, paid, linking, etc...).
Also another question might be where you see most businesses hiring an outside professional instead of attempting in-house.
For small to mid-sized companies this information could be valuable in understanding where to spend limited budgets most effectively.
Just some thoughts from an e-commerce perspective. :)
I'd like to know (I know some have been mentioned in one form or another but just want to show the interest in certain questions):
That's it for now, look forward to the results!
Yup visser I think that is it!
I would love to contribute.
This would be great!!
Average client budget
Average client spend on services
Average length of project
Average length of time a client remains a client
Biggest challenge with clients
Most requested service a client requests
I took the ALA survey and put a fancy little badge on my profile page
I'd love to see some concrete pricing structures and real life fee schedules, but its not gonna happen.
The biggest mystery of SEO is the cost structure, and few firms divulge this information. There are many reasons for this, such as not wanting your clients to shop the competition for the lowest price like a Wal-Mart blue light special.
So who is the top Pro Bono SEO?
Ownership / shares in company - obviously a lot of people are running small shops where they own the lot, but I'm interested across the industry in people's funding methods and how they motivate employees in an industry where people who have picked up some competence are incredibly valuable.
I'd be really interested in knowing how SEM/SEO pros got started in the business ... marketing their own sites, freelancing, working for a small business, internship at a large agency, etc.
Yes, it would be beneficial and I personally would contribute as much as I could! I have seen simialr attempts in the past, but many of the studies that popped up seemed to be lacking participation and a name users would recognize and visit regularly.
Having one sponsored or offered by Mozzers would certainly be full of participants and users interested in the content from the studies.
There's no doubt you can take collaborative ideas from your current audience and make something better than anything we have seen along these lines in the past.
It'd be useful to find out the most effective or favorite SEM/O technique.
Well, we're up to 40...
I'd be interested in knowing...
I think this would be an awesome survey for SEOmozzers. I think EGOL is on the right track though, in that it would need to have an in-house and out-house?? version. I'm looking forward to it already.
Employed, self-employed, or hobby?
Have you purchased a .mobi domain?
How many online classes have you taken?
Do you have health insurance?
Do you own a hobby site? Run a hobby site?
How many domains names do you own? (I need a 12-step program!)
Do you write a blog?
What blogs do you read every day?
What political party do you favor?
Which two search engines (out of G-Y-M) do you have the most success with?
How many conferences have you attended?
Are you a premium member of SEOmoz?
How many comments on SEOmoz have you left?
Do you upload videos at YouTube, Google Video, etc.?
How many hours a day are you on the computer?
Has your health been adversely effected by too much time on the computer?
Is your home wireless?
Do you have a pocket device for Internet access?
What percent of your income is from web projects?