Correction/Clarification to Danny Sullivan/SEO Article

I got an e-mail from Danny Sullivan today and he tells me that, contrary to what I wrote yesterday, he did in fact discuss the removal/replacement of the SMX panel entitled "Is SEO Bull?" on his site, SearchEngineLand.com.

I actually read SearchEngineLand.com every day, but I didn't see the discussion (it apparently appeared below the fold in an article on a broader topic that was also posted on Friday).

FWIW, I think Danny is an honest, ethical guy, and if what I wrote on Friday suggested that he was trying to "cover up" anything, I apologize. It just seemed peculiar to me that the SEO panel listed in the SMX agenda (which I continue to believe would have been unduly "pro-SEO," given the listed participants) was removed without any clarification. Given that I have learned that there was in fact a clarification of this issue posted publically (albeit in a place that was a bit hard to find), there is no question that Danny was and is on the up and up.

Danny Sullivan Removes Pro-SEO Forum From SMX Conference Agenda

As you may know, my full-time job is Marketing Manager for Did-it Search Marketing, and I regularly communicate with founders Kevin Lee and Dave Pasternack. So I witnessed the incredible flap that happened over a six-month stretch when the SEO community massively overreacted to a very reasonable comment that Dave made when he noted that "SEO is Not Rocket Science."

Search maven Danny Sullivan, who has insisted that "SEO is Rocket Science" on numerous occasions, recently decided to add a session to his forthcoming SMX (Search Marketing Expo) entitled "Is SEO Bull?" to capitalize on the furor and stocked the panel with pro-SEO partisans and, presumably, someone who would take issue with the "SEO is Rocket Science/SEO Rockstars Deserve $500 an hour" camp.

OK, fair enough: it's Danny's show, and he can run it anyway he wants. But I noticed something interesting today when I checked SMX's agenda: the "Is SEO Bull" session has been deleted without any explanation. You can see this yourself by comparing the Google Cache for the conference agenda with the live page.

I'm very glad that Danny decided to cancel this "debate," which would have been one-sided and largely self-serving to his SEO pals. But why didn't we read about this cancellation on Danny's site, SearchEngineLand.com? Maybe because such an announcement would have served as an admission that the debate was lost long ago, and those who insist that SEO is Rocket Science are a rapidly dwindling fringe group.