Is SEO Really Needed

mwaraitch · 11-10-2007, 11:41 AM

Hello,
May sound funny. I have been working for some years now on seo things for own and customer sites. I generally have started to have feeling the seo is just created by some for some sort of motives of making money and all that. If the purpose is to generate traffic I find that other methods not linked with seo more effective and less effort consuming as well.

Turbine · 11-10-2007, 12:15 PM

Ahh, the wonderful world of Search Engine Optimization. It's roots are as old as the internet, back when "Search Engine Optimization" was typing your targeted keyword over and over in a gateway page and set the background color and font to #000000. Back then SEO was much more powerful, but as seach engines got smarter, the less search engines could be tricked into popping a site to #1 with little effort.

SEO is still a practice today, but ultimately this is the general rule of thumb: Optimizing, W3C Validation, All alt tags filled, naming images after keywords, all of this is thought to "help" search engine ratings, but ultimately it is a hit-and-miss market. It is not an exact science. And there is a reason for that. Search engines have always been tight lipped about how exactly they rank.

Over time it was all about what you put in a page that directly helped it's ranking. Now? Search engines rely on backlinks primarily to judge your website. Remember, Search Engine Optimization is the act of optimizing a site/page for better results, not just adding keywords to your image alt tags, so if you spend your time making backlinks from unique IPs and networking with one-way links? That is optimizing, and that does work, so yes, SEO works.

Most of the time the clients that request SEO work are the types that don't really understand how it works. As SEO professionals we advise them we cannot ensure a #1 ranking, but we will improve their chances of being ranked higher by setting the pages up accordingly. Good keyword density, maybe a couple of one-way backlinks, and so on.

Some aspects of SEO isn't hard at all. There are blackhat methods of SEO, but can often lead you penalized and are very aggressive, but they can land a brand-new website with no history a bit higher. However, if you create a website that is worth a darn, you can expect a reasonable search result for your targeted keyword. Time for websites is like time for plants, they love time to grow and become bigger.

So, the question: Does SEO work and is it worth practicing?

Yes, it is worth practicing. There are so many things you can do to improve search engine results I half-expect you to be incorporating some of the basic optimization in your webdesign (I know I do.) but there comes a time when you will be working too hard for search engine results. It is my opinion that you want to practice the basics to semi-advanced techniques, but always diversify! A search engine is NOT the end-all be-all. Ten hours of SEO work is worth 1 hour of stepping outside and pinning up flyers on corkboards outside of supermarkets.

To some websites, SEO is more important then others, because their search engine results are more important. If someone is ONLY advertising on the internet, the search engine will be how they expect to land a portion of their sales. If they're trying to sell something that has heavy competition, they need to beat out the competition on the search engines otherwise they might lose a sell to their counterparts.

I've seen websites that are optimized directly with page-side adjustments, but since the site was so new it hasn't been alive too long, and thus very few backlinks. That SEO optimized website was beat out by a website that was around longer, had gathered many backlinks, and wasn't SEO optimized. It's how the internet works, nowadays. Search engines are getting harder and harder to blatantly trick into spitting you out #1, but back a few years ago when SEO was really popular, the internet was a different place.

Nowadays I feel the hardcore SEO players are closely related to hackers. They want to solve the puzzle that is the search engines by doing whatever they can do to improve their ratings. They're the type of people that get into the gritty specifics and hunt down the latest SEO tips and tricks. They love knowing and they love testing out new techniques and like to learn about the optimization process. Some can argue it is becoming somewhat of an art. I do feel that through marketing, over-promotion and hype SEO professionals are in higher demand. I've seen companies specifically focused in SEO work, which is a bit odd in my eyes, but really I feel that's exactly what it is: Hype. We cannot promise results, but somehow every SEO client I've had has expected specific results.

So, final word: SEO is worth it. (A little.) A website that has a little bit of SEO done to it and has time behind it to gather backlinks has a much higher chance to beat out a website that is just as old but isn't optimized, but remember! This is situational.

-Turbine.

swapw · 11-10-2007, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mwaraitch

Hello,
May sound funny. I have been working for some years now on seo things for own and customer sites. I generally have started to have feeling the seo is just created by some for some sort of motives of making money and all that. If the purpose is to generate traffic I find that other methods not linked with seo more effective and less effort consuming as well.

Well, it depends if you have the cash. If you do, heck PPC all the way to jump ahead of the crowd. However once the money stop, the rank stops.

SEO is always long term. If you plan to be in the game for the long hall then do it by all means. (By the way SEO cost cheaper then PPC 90% of the time)

-Swapw

mwaraitch · 11-10-2007, 01:20 PM

Not that seo is not needed, I talk on comparative basis. Once we talk of money, I mention that effort is also worth cost. I worked on number of sites and could get these to top ranks at google and yahoo in tons of key words. Than also worked on other direct methods, not to mention ppc alone, once I put the traffic analysis in front, I mostly find that more coming from other sources. SEO is not only slower but also unpredictable as well as ever changing.
On long term, may be you people are right, yet the other methods are also sort of permanent.

swapw · 11-10-2007, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mwaraitch

Not that seo is not needed, I talk on comparative basis. Once we talk of money, I mention that effort is also worth cost. I worked on number of sites and could get these to top ranks at google and yahoo in tons of key words. Than also worked on other direct methods, not to mention ppc alone, once I put the traffic analysis in front, I mostly find that more coming from other sources. SEO is not only slower but also unpredictable as well as ever changing.
On long term, may be you people are right, yet the other methods are also sort of permanent.

Yes, SEO is ever changing but you don't SEO for just for the sake of traffic but also publicity purposes. Once you hit top spot and people like you, regardless if you fell from it your returning visitors are tremendous and the word of mouth is huge!

Look at John Chow's website for an instance. Not only did him dropping off on Google's listing not slow him down, he actually has gotten more buzz out of it. As a result, he has reached new heights. As long as you get your SEO priorities right and make something great for your visitors, you have customers of a lifetime my friend.

-Swapw

thebeacon · 11-10-2007, 03:05 PM

Turbine nice reply.. That kinda answers it all. In my experience with SEO is that it is nearly as important as backlinks. Specifically if the link name that is pointing to your website is what the website is all about. The more links with the same name pointing to your website the higher your website will rank for that keyword. I remember at one time when you searched for "miserable failure" on google it would take you to President's Bushed biography white house website, even when the actual page had nothing to do with "miserable failure".

mwaraitch · 11-10-2007, 04:03 PM

Woh, lots for SEO, may be we are fixed a bit, may be due to long times we have given it.

ezhel · 11-12-2007, 10:38 AM

Great post Turbine!it's very clear and informative.!

bogs · 11-12-2007, 11:50 AM

SEO.. one of the effective online marketing strategy.... is it all about money? well its a part of business...

corlock · 11-13-2007, 08:59 AM

is SEO really needed? it depends on the creator of site of course. if it just wanted to publish a site, then its like that, just publish it, that's all. but once the creator wants its site to be seen, known, or use as a medium for something like business, of course SEO is really needed.

marthrock · 11-13-2007, 02:31 PM

The short answer is yes, the long answer is yes. Now go do your homework and don't cut corners.

redeemer_spawn · 11-14-2007, 10:35 AM

For a business site SEO was really needed to boost it up.,

Seo Madrid · 11-14-2007, 10:45 AM

SEO is just another way to generate traffic, and it's compatible with PPC and every other online marketing activity. And, in the long term I'm convinced it's the most cost effective method to do it. SEO positions, for some companies are worth millions. Some months ago a big price comparison site in the UK lost their main SEO positions just before floating in the stock market, and the analysts started to talk about re-evaluating the value of the company just because of that factor.

2mymall · 11-14-2007, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swapw

Yes, SEO is ever changing but you don't SEO for just for the sake of traffic but also publicity purposes. Once you hit top spot and people like you, regardless if you fell from it your returning visitors are tremendous and the word of mouth is huge!
-Swapw

Well said and very true. You have to build a site with content that makes people come back or want to link back naturally. Basically, you have to create a following by trying to be an online idol in your area of expertise. You can do that by giving away freebies in terms of advice or actual goods.

casinofrontdesk · 11-14-2007, 03:04 PM

Getting a higher page rank can be achieved a number of different ways beside conventional SEO. You're right.

mcaronan · 11-14-2007, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marthrock

The short answer is yes, the long answer is yes. Now go do your homework and don't cut corners.

marthrock was right. Go and read stuffs. It can help to your question.

masterofthe · 11-14-2007, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mwaraitch

Hello,
May sound funny. I have been working for some years now on seo things for own and customer sites. I generally have started to have feeling the seo is just created by some for some sort of motives of making money and all that. If the purpose is to generate traffic I find that other methods not linked with seo more effective and less effort consuming as well.

As a general rule of thumb, SEO is still important to me and to most who are in to online business. It is not used for motives but for dire need to survive in the online battle as this was and is still required by the search engines.

redeemer_spawn · 11-17-2007, 10:16 AM

And even how nice and good your website., without SEO I think it will not boost to its higher level.,

Hafsoh · 11-18-2007, 10:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thebeacon

Turbine nice reply.. That kinda answers it all. In my experience with SEO is that it is nearly as important as backlinks. Specifically if the link name that is pointing to your website is what the website is all about. The more links with the same name pointing to your website the higher your website will rank for that keyword. I remember at one time when you searched for "miserable failure" on google it would take you to President's Bushed biography white house website, even when the actual page had nothing to do with "miserable failure".

Agree with you the more the link to a website the high the rank for the keyword.

mountlaurel · 11-18-2007, 11:34 PM

yes that's the way of pagerank..