In Response to, In Response to, In Response to….

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I’d like to thank Pandia for responding to my initial post on Indian SEO, as open dialogue is one of the things that makes the internet the exceptional resource that it is.

First and foremost, I want to state that I do not hold a person’s linguistic abilities against them, regardless of their ethnicity, race or country of origin. That doesn’t mean I would hire someone underqualified for an English speaking (or writing) position, simply that I don’t discriminate outside of the qualifications necessary for the work at hand. Furthermore, I failed to point out in my previous post (and in fact, did make a sweeping generalization to the contrary) that I’m sure there are some Indian SEO firms who do exceptional work. I have yet to run across one, but nevertheless…



As for other areas of the IT field, it’s common knowledge that India is becoming quite a powerhouse, but information technology and search engine optimization are two very different things.

I did mention, despite this article’s critique, that there are many unscrupulous U.S. firms operating in our industry. My overall point was that on the whole, you’re likely to get far better optimization from a U.S. firm, and I stand by it.

The response from Pandia brings up a few points of interest.

Pandia states that they know eBrandz from the latter’s sponsorship of the former, yet they also state in the same article that they are relatively unfamiliar with their quality of work. Joe’s post summarizes my feelings on an information based website choosing sponsors (and consequently writing articles featuring them) without first determining the quality of their products or services. He stated, and I agree, that it “looks bad on them”.

The second point I want to make is that a site featuring a quote stating, “Whereas other popular and reputed SEO companies in United States charge anywhere from $ 50 to $ 500 per hour, eBrandz is able to bring down the cost to about $ 11 to $15 per hour,” without indicating that the specified company’s services may not be on par with what is offered in the U.S., is practicing irresponsible journalism. Pandia themselves stated in the response to my initial post that, “…we do not know eBrandz that well; nor do we have any statistics measuring the quality of Indian SEO.”

Pandia also states that, “It turns out Alan does not know so much about India after all. English is actually one of the official languages of India.” The latter point is true. English, official or not, is one of over 400 dialects in the country of India. English is also one of the “official” languages of Singapore and the Philippines, two countries I’m intimately familiar with. What that has to do with the ability to write a proper web page is beyond me. Democracy is the official form of government here in the U.S., but that doesn’t make me an expert on it. The Eastern Bluebird is the official state bird of New York, but I wouldn’t know one from a Mountain Bluebird or a Western Bluebird if it landed on my head. If you need further proof, call Dell customer service and let me know how “official” that conversation sounds. Pandia goes on to state that “They have a large number of people who speaks and write English pretty well.” Aside from the obvious irony of the grammatical error in that sentence (yes, I know the writer is likely from Norway), “pretty well” isn’t a phrase that adequately summarizes what most business owners are looking for.

The last point I want to make is in regard to this statement by Pandia: “We are glad India is making progress in so many areas, and hopefully the Indian search engine marketing industry will provide one small contribution towards the efforts of eradicating poverty in that part of the world. If that means that some American SEO companies loose a few clients, so be it.”

Yes, another error (spelling or grammatical, take your pick), but that’s not the point. The point is, no one likes poverty and I’m sure everyone wants India to do well economically. What the statement fails to recognize is that American SEO companies are not the only “easy victim” when it comes to outsourcing SEO overseas to a country with a high percentage of less than qualified firms (which India is known for in SEO circles). American businesses are as well.