SEMPO – From Greatness to Mediocrity?

Posted on | October 31, 2009 | No Comments

Valiant Arbiter Did you know that within the search marketing industry, there exists a professional non-profit organization built to provide a foundation for industry growth through fostering awareness, providing education, promoting the industry, generating research and creating a better understanding of search and its role in marketing?

No? Well, there is: SEMPO – Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization.

Maybe as a first phase, SEMPO should focus on ‘fostering awareness’ of its own existence and promoting itself in the search industry.

In 2003 perhaps, when the search marketing industry was fledgling, barely in existence and Google started to gain some traction, SEMPO came galloping in, the valiant arbiter in a lawless, unchartered online world.

Suddenly there was a professional institution that stood for the search marketer – creating credibility where mostly business was done in dark waters. In the world of black hat, cloaking and doorway pages, there was little to define the ‘white hat’ marketer.

The SEMPO logo was the sign of a professional elite that stood for ethical search marketing and upholding the integrity of the field. Brandishing the SEMPO logo was a sign of a safe haven for hundreds of businesses that tried in vain to navigate these murky online SEO waters.

What happened to SEMPO as a professional organization? For an organization that calls itself ‘international’, its 700 strong membership base is modest at most if not rather embarrassing.

What went wrong?

This is not something that an impartial observer can hope to answer, but it certainly seems that in the tempestuous evolution that has swept the search marketing industry in the last few years, SEMPO lost sight of what it wanted to be. In this struggle, without a clear goal or direction, the organization has continued to trudge along, but perhaps rather aimlessly.

Even the SEMPO website looks rather tired and outdated. One could say that SEMPO has completely missed the boat on Web2.0 and could do with a significant revamp of the site. Even the case studies section seems to have hit a standstill with the archive only going as far back at October 2005!

What about a blog? Twitter? Real-time updates? Interactivity?

It all just feels a little bit stale, which is sad, depressing in a way. How is it that the organization purporting to be the official representative of one of the most exciting, fast moving and evolving industries in the world, can be getting it so wrong?

The irony lies in the fact that it is some of the best of the best in search, who came together to start SEMPO. Has all this amalgamated greatness resulted in a formula that produces mediocrity?