But again.. as the industry get’s more complex.. I believe everyone will specialize in one thing.
I tried as formula 1 Pilot and I failed… so I tried something that doesn’t require any skill at all: SEO

As one of admitted “web guys” I have to agree with John above. I’m not a web guy by your definition that I hold customers to ransom, but I am a strong generalist who has the ability to bring things together.

I agree that SEO needs a specialist and to be honest that what i’m better at than programming or SEO, however I think the need for what you call “web guys” is more from the customer and industry than from people pushing this.

For example, I recon 50% of the smaller businesses I develop websites for want me to design them a logo – or presume it’s included as standard in website design. They also presume I will write their content, do their SEO (if they know what that is), take photographs or “photoshop” their existing poorly taken ones to make them look beautiful, do all their programming, set up their email, and in some cases fix their computer or set up their accounting software. Some of these things I can do, others I wisely refrain much to their confusion. (YES I know you will say i’m dealing with the wrong customers!!!!)

Remember the world of computers and the internet etc to us is so broad that even within SEO there is in some cases micro-specialization – social bookmarkers vs social networks vs linkbaiters vs linkwheelers vs article marketing guys, press release guys, bloggers the list goes on. But this is our “world”. To the average Job Bloggs who wants a website that looks good and their customers will find, they don’t want to know about all this. To them it’s just one thing, their whole world might for example be cars or printing or clothing retail or bottled water delivery or anything at all – things that have their own complexities that we don’t understand. And thats what makes the world go around!

Matt
PS: My comment was long enough for a blog post in itself!

You are right though that anyone who thinks they can do it all on their own is dreaming.

Just like with the doctor, you go to your GP first, who refers you to specialists. You never go straight to specialists because, how do you know which ones you need? plus the specialist is too busy to care to qualify their leads.

It’s no different with web stuff.

I’ve been reading through a lot of your content and I like your honest seo approach (I write in a similar style) to try and expose the con artists and snake oil salesmen in the industry… most commonly found in the design agencies offering it as a bolt on.

Keep up the good work!

Andrew