Is search engine optimization a gimmick?

Answer 1

As a marketing technique and industry, search engine optimization is not a gimmick. It's an ongoing process with the overall goal of higher rankings in search engines' results pages. Unfortunately, because the process is widely misunderstood, many companies claiming to offer SEO services are being gimmicky or misleading.

An SEO company can over-represent its offerings in many ways. The most prominent methods that I've come across: promising #1 rankings on keywords with little traffic and no competition, charging a one-time fee to clean up HTML with no guarantee of positive benefits, or charging $100 an hour for low-value link building and outsourcing it for $5 an hour.

It's an industry where trust and proven results are highly important. There are a handful of companies who can successfully manage your website as well as relationships with owners of related sites to aid the organic growth of links to your site, but there are many companies who are essentially selling you snake oil.

It is important to remember that with any industry, there are those who have perfected their craft and those who get by just enough to make a buck. Search engine optimization itself is not a gimmick. With all the competition for search engine visibility, it is harder to obtain the search engine results you may want for your web site.

To remain visible in the search engine results pages, it is necessary to optimize your site.

That being said, there are a few things to keep in mind if you decide to hire a company for your web site's search engine optimization:

1. Visit their site. Do they appear credible? Are their client's sites displayed as a reference?

2. Do they outsource? As a general rule, most reliable companies have talented professionals that work in-house.

3. Is their site optimized? Does it appear credible with appropriate ads, and related links?

4. Do your homework. After consulting with a web professional about a possible search engine optimization proposal, go home and research what they have suggested for your company. Certain methods are much more credible than others. For example a company that recommends content optimization is much more reliable than a company that recommends link stuffing. Results with a credible company will be apparent, with good conversion and visibility in the search engine results pages.

The results you will see with a less qualified company with give your company sometimes immediate results, but no staying power, and their methods may result in your web site being banned from the search engines altogether.

SEO, itself, it not a gimmick. You can do SEO yourself and, as long as you have a solid strategy, you will see improvements over time. More than 80% of people use search engines to research a product/service they are going t purchase. For your business to be successful, you must implement some kind of SEO strategy for these qualified prospective customers to find you online.