Are you in the Game?

Search Engine Optimization has become BIG BUSINESS since the explosion of internet search. I recently read an interesting story about how BMW's webmaster wasn't happy with it's position for certain keywords, and how he set up doorway pages loaded with spam to try to trick the S.E.'s. This led to a quick PR0 and a subsequent drop for all major keywords. I can only assume he was fired.

These days, it's essential for every website to have an SEO consultant. As the BMW example proves, employing a webmaster just isn't enough. Personally, I think all webmasters should be well educated in the ways of SEO, since the two go hand in hand, but that's just one man's opinion.

But what if you don't have the funds to pay for such services, or even have a webmaster on staff? Although time is always scarce in the small business world, there's really only one thing you can do: Learn SEO on your own. Although this can seem overwhelming, with a few minutes a day reading Blogs and Forum posts, you can quickly learn the dos and don'ts in the SEO game. For anyone ambitious enough to take on this task, it's important to understand that the world of SEO is constantly changing, and therefore ones SEO education never ends. But once you've got a good foundation of knowledge, keeping up with the changes is easier than one might think.

The bottom line is, if you rely on search engine traffic for conversions, SEO should be a MAJOR part of your company's investment. Whether you do the leg work on your own, or choose to outsource the work, either way, your business depends on it. Of coarse, you could always overpay for Adwords instead :)