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So, S.E.O. (Search Engine Optimization) is finally main stream. I remember trying to tell clients the importance of making a website search friendly and them looking at me like it was not worth the time and expense. This was only a few years ago and now everywhere you look there is a new company sprouting up boasting that they know search engines and can get you higher page rankings. So far I have worked with two such companies and neither has taught me anything new. The basics of S.E.O. have not changed… much. Only the game.

In early 2000 the sites I created where hitting the top search pages with almost no effort, simply because the content was rich in keywords and the pages where filled with useful content. Adding the proper meta tags would ensure the page got found. Now its a totally different game. With the US spending over $20Billion a year on web advertising its hard for the little guy to get there.

When it came to SEO this year we decided to look at some new companies. We currently spend $3000 US a month for our SEO company just to maintain and stay aware of our rankings. This new guy came into our office last week to pitch his companies plan to kick-start the SEO on a new project we are starting. His company is large and doing quite well (I will not disclose the name). We sat in anxiously waiting to learn something new as he laid out his plan. It took about an hour going over his definition of SEO, talking about Qualitative and Quantitative links and he drew a chart on the board and took a lot of time explaining how qualitative links are better than quantitative links. We found out later that only two people in the room figured out what he was talking about even though everyone was acting impressed during the meeting.

This guy spent three (total) hours of our time to explain that it’s important to have other websites that are similar to yours, link to you. This is a quality link and google likes that better than a link to you from a site which has different subject matter. Are you kidding me?!!! You flew on a plane to come here and waste three hours of our time to tell us we need links. Thats the basics of SEO!!!

This is the second company we have looked into and believe me we are looking for the best. In the end I think it all boils down to the old saying. The good content gets the most hits.

Businessmen have hitched a ride on this SEO wave as its a hot issue and they will suck you dry. They use fancy analytics tools and techniques, so they say, but when you start to ask questions about specifics you can see them begin to crack.

My advice is this: Even if you hire a company to handle your SEO. Do your own research. Google tells you flat out what to do to make your site SEO ready in their webmaster tools and even gives you those fancy analytics tools the other guys brag about for free. Don’t cheat the system, you don’t want to be blacklisted. And most of all; Serve good, exclusive (when possible) content. Share links with relative websites and be friendly out there. Everyone can spot an ass just trying to make a buck.