SEO Works
May 30th, 2007 by 
Amish Parashar
I recently got in to quite a discussion with an aspiring entrepreneur. He was fairly certain that Search Engine Optimization (SEO as it is often called) was, to paraphrase, taking advantage of the information asymmetry that exists between IT service providers and their clients. That is, those of us that do SEO are duping our unsuspicious customers into paying for something they don’t really need. While this could easily have turned to a discussion on business ethics, I promised him a blog post instead…
The advice we (frequently) give entrepreneurs is to listen to their customers. If you want to know how to price a product, how to improve your design, how to add complimentary goods or services, or even how to enter the marketplace, ask your customers! Time and time again, successful ventures have been acutely aware of their customers, have been able to reach out to them, and been responsive to their needs. SEO fits in with this fine tradition of enhanced communications with your customer(s).
Effective SEO, which results in higher rankings on popular search engines (such as Google or Yahoo), along with targeted paid advertising campaigns, brings your business to where the customers are looking. For example, a search for ‘plumber’ on Google results in over 10.4 Million links. By systematically updating the content of your webpage, modifying keywords, using statistically valid advertising keywords (paid ads), and some other strategies you can stand out from this crowd. If I were working for RotoRooter or their closest competitors it would be important for me to have an active presence where my future customers are looking…
This is obviously a cursory top-down view of SEO – this may be the first in a series of posts on SEO. Future topics may include Statistically Rigorous SEO Methods, SEO on a tight budget, and a comparison of organic and paid search results.
Thoughts?
Posted in Entrepreneurial, Solutions, Technology | 