[Sigia-l] Search engine marketing

[Noreen Whysel]

I used to do search engine position consulting, but stopped because I found 
that focussing on good content organization/IA and promotion within relevant 
communities, like link exchanges, email marketing lists, or joining a 
networking group or discussion list and having your URL in your email sig 
was more effective site promotion for my small clients.  And yes, pay for a 
listing in Yellow pages and other relevant directories.

Search engines only have a certain amount of relevance for particular 
businesses, especially local ones.  If you are delivering home-prepared Thai 
meals in Westchester County, NY, a top listing on Google for "Thai food" 
isn't incredibly relevant.  But if you are listed in a local, online guide, 
much the better.

I reveiwed WebPosition (again this was a few years back) and it looked like 
a good product for companies with larger sites, and larger target markets.  
I'm sure it offers a lot more now than it did then.  I also was a fan of the 
Search Engine Watch site.  I once interviewed at a company that had 
consultants focus on a single client and list of terms, but their business 
model died (it was similar to a CPM model in advertising), as I had 
predicted.  There was too much to keep track of, too much change in various 
search algorithms and the engines were penalizing some of the tricks 
consultants were using anyway (not that this groups was all that big on 
sharing among the consultants).  Needless to say, I declined the offer.

I haven't gotten a lot of requests for search engine optimization services 
lately, except for how to make searches more relevant within a website (the 
search this site function).

Noreen



>From: Bernie Goldbach <stripes at iol.ie>
>Reply-To: Bernie Goldbach <stripes at iol.ie>
>To: "Stephanie Heacox" <s.heacox at verizon.net>
>CC: sigia-l at asis.org
>Subject: RE: [Sigia-l] Search engine marketing
>Date: Thu,  5 Dec 2002 09:30:56 +0000
>
>Hi,
>
>We train search engine optimisers but have found most of our students are 
>actually bolting the search engine skillset onto their existing web 
>development practises.
>
>We also provide search engine placement services but our books are full at 
>the moment. The most recent applicants are in the same market space as 
>existing clients. We must honour noncompete clauses.
>
>The core skill we use is thematic content creation focused on themes, brand 
>names, taglines, catch phrases, morphemes and memes. We teach specific page 
>syntax that delivers consistent results in Google, Excite, Inktomi, MSN and 
>AOL. We show trainees how to set up and use Web Position Gold to monitor 
>their work on a live site.
>
>I like Danny Sullivan's Search Engine conferences but have discovered 
>places to read the material on searchenginewatch.com several weeks before 
>it surfaces there or in WatchFire.
>
>Like others, I believe the field of search engines is full of moving 
>targets. Knowing the discipline of IA keeps on off the slippery slopes so 
>common in this field.
>
>regards
>
>Bernard Goldbach in Dublin +35318579227
>work: www.xiblue.com [Search Engine Strategies]
>write: www.topgold.com/blog [searchable for engines]
>
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