The SEMMYS are an annual awards event honoring the great content produced across the search and online marketing industry. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) has grown to include a variety of disciplines, including blogging, social media, reputation management, and more. The SEMMYS attempt to include all these elements into one awards event. We hope the SEMMYS serve as a complement to the excellent existing awards which honor blogs and bloggers.
Where Do the Nominees Come From?
In January, 2007, I began keeping track of my favorite search marketing blog posts and kept them organized by category. I posted my list at the end of January, and realized that if I did this every month, I’d have a nice list of great blog posts by the end of the year.
At the same time, I realized … We have some great Search Marketing Awards already in place for the best blogs and bloggers, but we don’t have any for the best blog posts & articles. I came up with the name SEMMYS and registered this domain in March. I’ve kept track of 200+ blogs since then and tracked all my favorite posts and articles, and those are the nominees in each category.
A team of expert judges will review the nominees and select finalists in each category. At that time, public voting will determine the winners of each SEMMY.
Why Isn’t My Post/Article Included? You Missed a Lot of Good Content!
I’m well aware of the limitations in this first edition of the SEMMYS. The nominees represent a wide variety of web sites and blogs, but there’s no way for one person to read everything written about search engine marketing. I tend to gravitate toward “how to” articles, so the great writers and blogs who produce more news-oriented content and/or thought pieces are likely underrepresented. Imperfect or not, I think it’s important to honor great content.
After we conclude the first SEMMYS, I hope that you will help think of ways to improve the system so that the 2009 SEMMYS represent even more great authors and articles/blog posts. If the industry supports and likes the idea and purpose of the SEMMYS, I would be interested in creating an advisory board to refine the idea in the future.
If you feel slighted in some way, please accept my apologies. And please also keep in mind this is just for fun. 
- Matt McGee
SEMMYS.org was developed by:
- Matt McGee - Matt came up with the idea for the SEMMYS as a way to honor all the great content his SEM peers produce. Matt writes at Small Business SEM, although his articles and posts are not eligible for the SEMMYS. You can read Matt’s best articles of 2007 on his blog.
- David Mihm - David is a website designer based in Portland, OR. He came up with the original design and layout for SEMMYS.org, and installed his work into the WordPress platform. David specializes in great-looking, search-friendly designs for small businesses.
- Logoworks - Logoworks by HP is the world’s largest and fastest-growing provider of logo design services to small businesses. The company’s mission is to help small businesses look great by solving a simple problem — small businesses don’t have good options for getting a well-designed logo, website, business card or other graphic design services at an affordable price. The company pioneered a new, disruptive model of design that leverages a team of designers on each project in order to create more variety and choice for the customer. To date, Logoworks has empowered thousands of businesses with the same quality of design that used to be available only to larger businesses, at prices just a fraction of the cost: $299-$599. For more information about Logoworks, please visit www.Logoworks.com.
