SEO is a waste of effort – at least that’s what some people will lead you to believe.
Every now and then, waves of debates erupt on various blogs, forums and other online discussion groups with statements that search engine optimisation is over-rated, dead, outdated or simply an impossible goal. I frequently watch these from the sidelines and silently chuckle to myself. Usually, the SEO "nay-sayer" is involved in another form of online marketing such as web design, affiliate marketing, or banner advertising.
What usually tickles me is that these folks typically offer "alternative" approaches that work "way better than SEO". These "anti-SEO" approaches include – developing a content-rich site, networking online to get others to link to your content, making sure that your site is well-structured and standards compliant, etc, etc, etc. What amazes me is that no one ever really points out to them that these "alternatives" are the foundations for any decent SEO campaign. So basically SEO is a waste of time and dead because all you need to do to achieve decent results in the search engines is… effective on-page and off-page optimisation but just don’t call it "SEO".
As Kerry mentioned a few days back, a recent eMarketer.com survey demonstrates how important SEO has become to many organisations and this would not be the case if it simply didn’t work.
In my opinion, the problem isn’t with SEO itself; but with the hordes of unscrupulous companies that are selling SEO services to businesses without any knowledge, capability or expertise at all. There are thousands of companies in the UK (and elsewhere) who are paying for SEO services and simply not getting anything in return.
If you are looking to purchase SEO services, please take some time to understand the capability of the company or companies in question. Understand the experience and training of their staff. Are they specialists? If not, what percentage of their time is spent on SEO compared with other activities (e.g. web design or development). How will they monitor your campaign? How frequently will they review your campaign (internally and with you more formally)? What are the "key performance indicators"? What do their clients say about them?
SEO is definitely worth the effort – but it can be a complete waste of time if you are not getting the expertise, care or attention that it requires.
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