Recently I have been reading some very opinionated posts. Here is a round up polemics in the past two days.
Micheal Martinez comments on SEO Idiocy highlights the concept of forum/blog gurus, and a strong stance on the purpose of SEO.

SEO is not, never has been, and never will be about making money. Search engine optimization is about placing pages in search engine results

Granted there are some serious egos out there, but I don’t think I have every met anyone who is paying for SEO who had a non-monetary goal. Whether you are the new Web 2.0 gadget, a business, or a blogger you are looking for visibility to move something. Your brand, your pageviews, your product, etc. in the end those are all money. There are rare cases in reputation management where pride is the major driving factor, but even then you can breakdown an individuals pride being more valuable to them than their money.

So Micheal, if you hate rigidity so much how do you rationalize all of your definitive future-telling statements?

Shari Thurow tells us we are all idiots because we don’t think about sitemaps the way she does.

An XML site map provides access to all URLs on a web site, and access to information is exactly what a site map should provide, right? A single page with a semi-organized list of blue, underlined text links also provides access to all URLs on a web site, as does a series of pages that constitute a larger site map.

And right there is where search engine optimizers have it wrong. They stop at access. For some odd reason, search-engine friendly web design, site architecture, and site maps have come to mean access only.

Shari goes on to say access is a bunk goal. But she largely ignores the fact that an XML sitemap is not meant for human consumption. She addresses the issues of how to properly construct information architecture in a sitemap intended for human use (sitemap.html) but continually attacks SEO professionals as being small minded for not making sitemaps that are intended for human use.

Shari, we have two sitemaps with different goals one assumes you are a chunk of software, the other that you are a chunk of flesh. Maybe you are right and as an industry we could use library science education, but that doesn’t absolve you from making trying to crowbar the intentions of one type of sitemap on to the other.

Last, Rand Fishkin tells us that the long-tail doesn’t apply to social media.

Social media in general has yet to reach a level of popularity where fragmentation and demand is spread out. It would be akin to saying that in 1930, there was great demand for more broadcast television channels – not only had most folks not heard of the medium, many didn’t even know why they might want on.

That is a strong point. Right now demand isn’t high but there are many people entering the space for one very important reason. In 1930 there were few competitors in the space and now television is the single largest media space in number of users. The longtail of social media is like putting a little bit of money into whoever owns transmission channels. Not every channel struck it rich but the most valuable today (Turner Broadcasting) didn’t even exist until the 70′s. The barrier to entry is low now and when these channels do break the mainstream even smaller providers get a boost from the larger providers being bought by Google, MSN, and Yahoo. Flickr, Blogger, etc. all drew attention to a medium and opened opportunities for competitors to thrive. Being part of these communities now provide a solid footing as the mainstream approaches the channel.

“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” — Warren Buffet

So why is the industry so polemic? Why do we try to stuff our pet ideas into every hole we find — even when it is misguided?

Because it pays. It pays in links, it pays in traffic, and it pays in exposure. Every hairball statement of fact we make increases the forum fodder that leads back to each of us and makes people respond when we bring up the next just soft enough argument. But ultimately the three articles above each have a seed of truth — let me dig them out.

• Rigidity will kill you in a growing space
• If you ignore your visitors they WILL go away. Accept the wisdom of other industries.
• Try as many perspectives as possible, even the ones that fail can teach you a lesson.