Whenever there is some new technology or update emerging on the search engine scenario , the first thing people start posting on their blogs is – “So, Is SEO Dead With The Advent Of ….”

The Online marketing scene keeps on changing at a very fast pace and every year we have new trends emerging unlike the traditional form of marketing where more than the trend it was the strategies which had to be kept on changing.The emerging online marketing trends are due to the technological changes and the improvements in the internet services which have reached even to the remote and not so developed places .

As the year end approaches we keep on hearing that one form of marketing is a passé and some new form of marketing shall rule the roost in the forthcoming year. We have heard statements like Banner Ads. Are Dead, Email is Dead, SEO is Dead in the past years but inspite of all these claims we still see that these banner ads., email and SEO are still very much alive along with the fast emerging trends like social media.

I want to focus on SEO being very much alive inspite of all the developments and enhancements in the web world.

Let me give you a small example of a project we undertook in the year 2000. We were supposed to register the domain, develop the site, host the site and submit it to the search engines (yes we called it search engine submissions in 2000 rather than SEO ) The cost of the domain was Rs.3,000/- The hosting was approx. Rs.15,000/ - Rs. 20,000/- The development charges of a simple static site of 10 pages with a flash banner was Rs. 30,000/- but when we were talking about search engines to the client and explaining to him what a search engine was and of course the demo of search was given on www.altavista.com as that was the supreme uno search engine which everyone wanted a presence on in early 2000. The charges quoted for search engine submissions were Rs. 10,000/-

But now the scenario after 10 years is completely reversed as far as the cost of domain, hosting, development and SEO are concerned. Now SEO is the most sort after and a premium service and nobody thinks of having a website without optimizing it. So, this shows that though many times false alarms are raised by people that SEO is dead , SEO keeps on living infact keeps on evolving and growing with time and in fact become richer as a service when search engines enhance their search algorithms and keep adding more search options.

It is simple logic that SEO is search engine optimization so this service keeps on evolving and improving according to the evolution and improvements on the search engines.

Apart from the developments on the search engines on the other side the users are also more specific with their searches , more net savvy and are looking for more and more options . With these changes in the search behavior the competition among the search engines also gets an impetus leading to quality output from the search engines.

Hence the changes may cause some upheaval on the search scene and may give an impression of SEO no longer having its existence but the truth is that it just changes the approach to SEO and the modifications add more life to SEO rather than making it lifeless.

One more thing that needs to be kept in mind before making such ultimate statements like ‘SEO IS DEAD’ is that the search engines get their true identity because of organic search and if organic search is demeaned or given less importance to, the search engines will become advertising platforms or paid directories where there are no categories.

Organic search makes the web developer and SEO think about the nuances of the website and make the website more complete with the metatags giving an identity to the website and the other SEO aspects like content, alt text, headings, anchor text , clean code add to the quality and identity of the website reducing clutter on the web too. For paid listings you need not bother about these nuances of the site and yet get a ranking due to the purchasing power the company has.

Moreover, the search industry has given livelihood to so many people involved in SEO and also hopes to the SMEs and SMBs to target the global market competing with the giants of the same industry on the search engines. As search engines do not rank sites on the basis of balance sheets but on the basis of the site being up to the mark according to the search engine algorithms. This offers an equality of opportunities to all once you get a lead due to organic search which may have even gone to the top shot of that industry , how you deal and go ahead with the finalization of the deal depends on your expertise and knowledge which is fair enough.

 
Every business small or big cannot think of ignoring the online presence of their company, products and services. When we talk of online presence the first thing that comes to our mind is the website, then its visibility on the web mainly via search engines and social media sites. Yes, online visibility is important and is the lifeline of every marketing campaign and reaching out to the people online is all the more important just like oxygen is to life.

Now, if having a presence on the search engines is important then optimizing your site for the search engines will surely be a priority. SEO we all know is search Engine Optimization , hence as the term suggests your website should be according to the search engine norms and algorithms so that it gets ranked to derive the targeted traffic to the site. Firstly though the core services of WebPro Technologies is SEO that is to get organic traffic to your site , I would like to state the fact that SEO is nothing complicated or something which requires the skills of a nuclear scientist. It is neither magic or some kind of guessing game it is purely based on some logical factors on which search engines rank websites for targeted keywords.

But, largely SEO is based on content and links. The success of the rankings for targeted keywords is based on intent (Both intent of the searcher with which he frames the queries and the intent of the website content to rank for the queries selected for the website). Then it depends how artistically your SEO has applied the SEO science on your website.

I am not going to go into the details of what is good SEO here as I want to specify that the online presence of your company is nothing but a reflection of your offline presence. If content is important to rankings and for more visibility then by just getting flowery content which is in hyperbole written by content developers lack the soul in it and does not apply to the image of your business in the real world will not take your business any where as what ever is written or displayed on the website should be a true reflection a mirror image of your business and thus you can put forward the right image and win the faith of the online buyer. The webpage is not a platform to become boisterous of your business image or brag about it .

As I believe the content and links should be natural to get a long term presence on the search engines. Keep adding content according to the progress and development about your company on the website in the form of testimonials, or upgrade the content about the achievements , products, services, client list , etc. I am sure if you work hard to achieve the business targets you surely will have fresh content related to this on a periodic basis available to update the site . Share the effort , experience and the ups and downs your company went through to achieve this on your blog which will help you to connect and interact to like minded people on social media and add valuable content to your site.

If the content is genuine , informative and related to topical, trendy topics it will again add natural inbound links to the site. But, this is not a one time exercise this has to be a regular regime and on a continuous basis to attract more and more links and to rank for more and more keywords. The website is a platform which displays the company’s image, its products, services, mission and the future plans to its customers and potential customers and the voice of your existing customers can become your passport to increased sales.

Hence , content written for a webpage is not an entry for the best essay or the best article writing competition but just the sharing of details and the summary of what your offline business is planning, contemplating , executing and the results achieved due to all this and the intent is to attract maximum targeted visitors and convert these potential customers to regular customers.

Just as in the real world the word of mouth generates maximum business on the web it’s the social word of mouth which will get your more targeted visitors because the maximum positive social word of mouth will come from your existing satisfied customers only.

Work hard in the real world to have more satisfied customers and more acheivements in business which helps your business grow and then update and upgrade your virtual business with the real world facts, figures and experiences thereby being in a win-win situation in the virtual world as well as the real world. As someone has truly said " There Is No substitute For Hard Work"

We are on the threshold of welcoming 2011 and 2010 has seen some remarkable developments in the search marketing industry with the integration of social media and search reflected in terms of Real Time Search. Anyone who is interested in having a long term search engine presence and valuable online visibility cannot rule out the importance of SEO from their online campaigns.

We offer SEO Packages according to the need and requirement of the client but usually it is the annual plan that we offer, is majority of the time applicable for giving a valuable and qualitative SEO uplift to the SEO inquiries we get . By the end of 6-8 months usually the sites get a good presence on the search engines and by the end of the year the sites start ranking for many of the highly competitive, generic, specific and long term keywords too. When the last annual report is sent to the clients and a final meeting is arranged to explain and demonstrate the stages and achievements of the SEO project , they without fail ask me –

• DO WE NEED TO RENEW THE CONTRACT ?

• IS SEO AN ONGOING PROCESS?

As we all know that the SEO results are achieved gradually and if the norms of the search engines are kept in mind while optimizing the site the rankings do last for a long time in the long run (Well, this is what my experience has taught me) but as we all know that the search engines keep on updating the algorithms and also keep on enhancing the search experience by introducing new technologies , updates and search options as per the changing industry standards and scenario, it is highly essential to keep monitoring , reviewing and tweaking the site to assure or should I say insure the visibility and presence already achieved .

If by the end of the year if your SEO company has been open about the SEO strategies applied by them and has been explaining to you the SEO process stage wise and provided you have been taking a keen interest in it then by the end of the SEO contract I am sure you or your in-house web development staff should be in a position to monitor, tweak and review the site by following the DIY (DO IT YOURSELF) policy .

But, if this is not the case and you don’t want to lose out on the SEO benefits that you have already achieved then it is 100% advisable to renew the SEO contract for monitoring the site from the SEO perspective as SEO is surely an ongoing process as the site needs to be kept in par with the norms and algorithms of the search engines .

Monitoring. Reviewing, Tweaking and constantly working on getting quality inbound links has to be an ongoing activity and only thus you can keep the visibility and presence alive on the search engines in the long run.

The pricing of the renewal for the SEO contract again may vary from company to company and of course from continent to continent . At WebPro we do not believe in the per month pricing model for the first year of the SEO Contract but for the renewal that is from the second year onwards the per month basis of pricing is ideal as this is again fair for the client and the SEO company . But, of course these kind of agreements are project specific and mutually decided upon keeping in mind the mutual benefit and returns.