Search Engine Optimization Tips

"Organic" listings (the type you normally get in a search engine because they found you somehow and list you as relevant because others link to you, or because your wording is good, etc.) are very important.

They are relatively cheap (they should really "just happen" without paying anything extra) and can lead to great traffic to a web site.

Unfortunately, it can take months for a web page or site to reach its prime with its organic listings.

It often takes weeks after changes for the search engines to note the changes, it may then take months for others to find your page, link to it, and then have that link used by the search engine relevance algorithms to raise your rank.

Therefore, using paid listings (and paid inclusion) is important if you have time sensitive issues (e.g., a special sale, or something tied to current events) or are new.

In a crowded topic, sometimes the best business model may be to pay to be considered relevant with special placement.

For unusual search terms, organic listings may be just as (or more) effective, though.

Understanding and choosing keywords and phrases are very important, both for getting organic listings and for making effective use of paid listings.

Normal, good business thinking is back. Much of the talk was about ROI (return on investment), and measurement of profits resulting from various techniques.

Paying per click and other Internet-enabled techniques make doing such "Marketing 101" analysis possible and desirable.

"Channel conflict" such as when a reseller buys the limited paid placement for trademarked terms, or uses what looks like the URL of the producer company, is happening. Here is yet more stuff for the lawyers to deal with in writing reseller agreements.

Weblogs are not well understood by most of the SEM community, just as SEO is often ignored by bloggers.

Some couldn't get over the idea that a weblog would have a <title> tag like "Starting March 3, 2003" that would hurt your archive pages in a search engine listing. Listing some of the subjects mentioned would do wonders for rank.)

However, PR professionals like Greg Jarboe who was head of PR for Ziff-Davis for many years) are in the SEO business, and from my readings of his it was clear that people like him do understand the value of weblogs, so we'll see interesting combinations.