Search Engine Optimization

I would define Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as:

The art of getting your website found ahead of your competition in the search engine result pages.

SEO is a constantly changing and evolving business, with new “experts” coming online every day. Some guarantee you first page rankings, others are confident they can get you rankings for numerous keywords, others just say they can, but not when or how long it will take.

The fact of the matter is no “expert” SEO company or individual can guarantee you anything when it comes to SEO. If they say they can, then this is your first sign to run for the door screaming. SEO as per my definition is an art, and that art just like any other is often judged on quality based on the eye of the beholder. In the case of SEO, we want to catch the eye of Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines. The problem is, each of the companies have their own style, and method for judging quality. The standard name for this style is a search algorithm, but even that is only a portion of your rankings. Search engines are now making decisions outside of the algorithm that also affect your rankings.

What I look for in an SEO firm, is a company that is willing to meet and talk with me about our goals for the business. By letting the SEO know where you want to be in 3 months, 6 months, 2 years, 5 years, etc. they can help build an action plan for getting you there. Once the company understands where you want to go, and they can help define the keywords required to get you to your target. SEO should be about driving your website relevant traffic through the search engines, rather than just trying to get you number one rankings so you can tell your friends.

I would much rather rank for a keyword that brings me one relevant client per day, than to rank first for 10 keywords that bring me nothing but click throughs but no conversions (sales).

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