“Going out with the old, moving in with the new”- The Digital Analytics Association (DAA) announced that SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization) is now a part of DAA, growing the membership base and expanding the DAA brand.
Kindly Note: The members of SEMPO voted by email to put up with DAA and bid adieu to SEMPO.
About Digital Analytics Association (DAA)
The DAA is a not-for-profit, volunteer-powered association founded by executives who are a part of the web analytics industry. Its sole mission is to advance the use of data to understand and improve the digital world via professional development and community.
This is how the DAA describes their mission:
“Advancing the use of data to understand and improve the digital world through professional development and community.”
And elsewhere:
“Unite web analytic professionals, consultants, and end-users to discuss, combine forces and powerfully promote our common interests worldwide.”
Is the DAA an Ideal Fit for SEMPO Members?
The core focus of the DAA is analytics, which seems confined and constrained when compared to the broader scope of what SEMPO represented as a search engine marketing organization.
It remains to be seen what will result from this “absorption” as it is called by DAA.
The announcement implies a continued focus on analytics.
According to the official announcement:
“DAA is committed to helping former SEMPO members become fully integrated into DAA, and will be forming a special interest group (SIG) for search analytics.”
Days Of Old SEMPO:
SEMPO was organized somewhere around 2003 as an organization for search marketers. Many of the board members, advisers and people who were active in the creation of SEMPO were an important part of who’s-who of search marketing. The people involved in the creation of SEMPO were industry veterans including: Christine Churchill, Brett Tabke and Danny Sullivan.
As I recall there was a lot of excitement in the air about the formation of an industry group at a time when few knew what SEO was and many organizations were devoid of an in-house SEO division.
SEMPO helped give the industry legitimacy and a hope for building high standards.
But criticism about the organization existed early on, involving the charges of a lack of democracy, ineffective messaging and (as I recall) that the organization was perceived as representing the interests of the higher level elite members and didn’t adequately represent the independent sector of search marketing.
End Of An Era: SEMPO
SEMPO was one of the well-known web marketing associations. Although there are many smaller regional organizations as well as numerous Meetup groups present. But there has been nothing as good as SEMPO.
End of SEMPO marks the end of an era in itself; one which sees the industry without an organization with the prestige of SEMPO.
