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Enter SEO
June 20, 2007

On Monday, we discussed search engine marketing in general, but times change and now even that topic has become passé. Recently, companies’ Web strategies have evolved to increasingly revolve around what has become known as “search engine optimization” (SEO).

Wikipedia (if it can be believed) defines SEO as: 

The process of improving the quality and volume of traffic t a Web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results, or the higher it “ranks,” the more searchers will visit that site.

Granted, SEO is nothing especially new; Wikipedia also tells us that SEO has been around in some form since the earliest days of the Web. In fact, says Wikipedia:

[T]he earliest known use of the phrase “search engine optimization” was a spam message posted on Usenet on July 26, 1997.

Figures, doesn’t it?

SEO can be considered a subset of search engine marketing. The difference, for our purposes, is that search engine marketing typically involves the purchasing of specific search terms while SEO typically involves tweaking one’s own site so that search engines automatically place it higher in their rankings.

As an indication of how SEO is capturing the attention of marketers, in the Summer 2007 Industry Measure Design & Production survey, 19% of ad agencies cited “search engine optimization” as a business challenge. This is the first survey in which we asked about SEO, and it will be interesting to see how this challenge develops in the future.

Why is SEO such a challenge—or even a challenge at all? It’s not just a question of deciding whether to do it, but how to do and, perhaps most importantly, finding the resources to do it and do it effectively. It’s more than just tweaking some HTML code and calling it a day. Instead, SEO often involves overhauling entire content management systems, and smaller companies often don’t have the staff or the money for such an undertaking.

Some good case studies for SEO can be found in the latest issue of Folio: magazine. Folio: is the biggest trade magazine for the magazine publishing industry, but the challenges publishers (be they large or small) face vis-à-vis SEO are a good analogue for those that companies in any industry face.

On Friday, we will offer some specific advice regarding SEO, while at the same time looking at why SEO may not be the be-all and end-all of your Web marketing strategy.

Posted by Richard Romano on June 20, 2007 | Comments (0)