eMarketing and SEO Forum?

[DuaneJackson]

A few times I've made posts and couldn't decide if they should be in the marketing forum or the internet forum.

I know an SEO forum has been suggested. Do we need a new forum just for eMarketing and SEO related discussion?

[fridayteam]

YES

[dcraigdc]

Definitely

[creacom]

Good idea.

[SEOscotland.co.uk]

I think it's a good idea. It would be much easier for SEO people to find the SEO posts that need some replies.

[Cornish Steve]

It could start to become rather overwhelming, especially to new members, if you create too many forums.

[Tin]

A surefire recipe for it being the most argumentative and contentious part of the forum. Would it really benefit members if it consisted of constantly opposing views as to what should and shouldn't be done to a page/site as that's how I see it going?
SEO by it's very nature is one of those areas which will always have it's so called experts and sooner or later these things seem to degenerate into a bickering ground where little useful knowledge is imparted with any degree of clarity. This often leaves the author of the original question more than slightly bemused as to where the good advice lies. :roll:

Personally, I'm not too sure on it's ultimate worth and I for one, would bow out from advising further on threads once the bickering effect has kicked in.
I voted no in the poll for the reasons above, but I'm happy to see how things develop and would be happier to contribute as long as no one says "Seconds out, Round 1" :-)

[DuaneJackson]

... sooner or later these things seem to degenerate into a bickering ground where little useful knowledge is imparted with any degree of clarity. This often leaves the author of the original question more than slightly bemused as to where the good advice lies.

Remind me how that's any different to the rest of the forums : )

I'm sure with appropriate moderation it'd be fine though - just as the rest of the forums are.

Ultimiate decision will be down to Ozzy. So all comments for and against are useful.

[Tin]

Thanks Duane

Personally I don't think we have a particularly argumentative bunch here anyway, :wink: there's always going to be some fallouts but the vast majority of members are very respectful and equally helpful. I just think seo brings out the worst in people.
Mind you, you could always name the forum as "SEO, members from hell"

Anyway, I'd much prefer to see a 'dictatorship' here rather than 'free speech' but too many people get shot that way. :wink:

[mattk]

I tend to agree with Tin on this. SEO is very much based on opinion rather than hard fact and there have already been a few threads were people have made very bold statements, without backing them up with any evidence.

If you actually look at the SEO threads that do appear they tend to be either:
"Why doesn't my site appear on Google?"
"How can I make my site appear higher on Google?"
"Who wants to trade links"
or variations on the above three themes.

[DuaneJackson]

If you actually look at the SEO threads that do appear they tend to be either

True, which is why I suggested a combined forum to include eMarketing. An ideal place for posts about "should I spam or not", "adwords help" or my recent one about purchasing a mailing list.

Also true that on the SEO side a lot is theory rather than fact, but to some degree this also applies to general marketing.

[welshnoonoo]

I personally think that an e-marketing forum would be highly useful as this would be to the benefit of all business with websites, not just those who are techy.

I try hard to keep out of the SEO discussions (as hard as it is!) as a web marketer myself, and save that for the technical SEO forums that I use elsewhere as it just gets all too messy and as someone has already said, alot of SEO stuff is theory - as is the nature of the beast. I personally trust no-one's opinion but that which I have seen to be true and have tested for myself. However, I am sure there are some people on here who would benefit from an SEO forum, but it could be a "Lion's Cave"!!

[SEOscotland.co.uk]

SEO by it's very nature is one of those areas which will always have it's so called experts and sooner or later these things seem to degenerate into a bickering ground where little useful knowledge is imparted with any degree of clarity.

As Duane mentioned, everyone is always going to have differing opinions on different subjects. That's what happens on forums.

I would expect that anyone giving advice can back it up with evidence so that the "taker" of the advice can make their own judgements. I would never spend money, invest time or effort in something plucked out of thin air without credible evidence for its worth.

I think an e-marketing forum would be a good idea for the UKbusinessforums.

People come here to talk about all aspects of business, a large number of discussions are about online business which SEO is an essential part of.

Running an online business without any consideration for the search market would be like setting up a shop in the middle of the desert with no one around to see it or know it exists.

If this forum can generate a place of reference where these "so called experts" can give advice, have discussions and share knowledge based on things that work then I'm sure it would be welcomed by a large population of the forum's current members who conduct their business online.

[mattk]

Why not split down the IT and Internet forums then? All posts like:

"My printer is broke"
"How do I save a file" etc. can go in the IT forums and then everything Web, hosting, HTML, email, SEO etc related can go in Internet?

I just feel a distinct forum for SEO/eMarketing could get very samey very quickly!

[Ozzy]

In my opinion there is a lot of confusion and overlap between the IT forum, the Ecommerce forum, and the Marketing forum in relation to website, and online advertising. It is possible that adding this suggested forum in could confuse matters even more.

Perhaps all the forums need a bit of a rejig? Add in some better structure?

[Tin]

Ozzy, only my 2 cents worth but I think it's quite easy on occasion to wonder where to put a particular post as some crossing over exists between the forums you mentioned. You've hit the nail on the head for me if you can define each forum structure more clearly.

Or maybe it's just me :roll:

[KM-Tiger]

But isn't this just part of E-commerce which already has its own forum?