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Internet Marketing: A
Brief Rhetoric About Search Engine Optimization and Improving Your Internet
Presence
There is a grand amount of information on search engine optimization
(SEO), improving one’s ranking, and Internet marketing. How would anyone get a
number one ranking? What can be done to improve poor rankings? There are more
questions that can be raised for the topic of search engine optimization or
Internet marketing, however, as a consumer, businessperson, or website designer,
the epiphany is that these questions all point to marketing, strategy, and a
thorough knowledge of search engines.
Website designers, graphic artists, Internet Service Providers (ISP), all
may have knowledge of the basic premise, however this is an area of expertise
practiced by thousands on the Internet. There are self-proclaimed experts, there
are those whom may belong to a professional organization, and those whom
research and author many articles about how search engines work such as renowned
expert Danny
Sullivan (Sullivan) of Search Engine Watch©. Search engine
optimization (SEO), is the refining of a website and the META tags to
satisfy the requirements of search engine algorithms and classification
methodologies. As a consultant in this field, I fall into all three categories.
This
new acronym and definition thereof, is still in the making, and may one day be
crawled and indexed. I
use this acronym because the Hebrew translation in the Christian Bible 1 COR 5:6
SEOR describes leaven and its secretly penetrating and diffuse power, and SEOR
is used to illustrate the growth of the kingdom of heaven both in the individual
heart and in the world (Matthew 13:33). As a Christian, I affirm to do
whatever I do for the glory of God. SEOR may also be cross referenced to
leaven, which is defined as an element, influence or agent that works subtly to
lighten, enliven, or modify a whole (Dictionary.COM).
Internet
marketing is plainly marketing using the Internet as the medium for a client’s
product or service. This entwined specialty must coexist within the definitions
of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Do not be confused by any other claim. It
is common sense that these two specialties must be very similar, if not the
same. However, a marketing professional will look at a project much different
from a SEO specialist. In my opinion, one must have both talents to successfully
perform optimization or marketing services for anyone. And that leaves one more
talent that cannot be left out of the equation: Markup Languages, HTML, XML, et
al.
As
a developer in Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Visual Basic, and most mark up
languages, I see the above as the Business Intelligence and strategy that
determines changes in any of the underlying code that defines the document
structure. A lot of emphasis was placed upon META tags in the past, and I will
not state that there should be less emphasis on those tags. However, I argue
that a good SEOR will research all the components of a website. Those components
include the markup language, the site content, keyword analysis, marketing,
target markets, the mission and core values of the website and it’s creator,
the vision, and what Internet standards may benefit the website through early
adoption of such standards. Does your Internet Service Provider (ISP), Certified
Internet Webmaster (CIW), website designer, graphic artist or Search Engine
Optimization (SEO) specialist consider these components and the new provisions
for a semantic web from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), possibly based on
XML as the preferred markup language? Do they have the time for all that
research? That leads to an Internet Presence.
An Internet Presence is just that: being present upon the Internet. It is
a quantifiable measurement. How many links point to the website in question, or
point out. How relevant the website is in specific categories, and how easily it
is found. Obviously, you are not reading this because you have a symbol like a
famous athletic shoe company who does not even need to show their name on
television commercials. It is just as hard and as ambitious an undertaking to
have a strong Internet presence. An Internet presence can be performed in a
shorter time than one may think; it all depends upon the project budget. This
brief rhetoric about search engine optimization and improving your Internet
presence should elucidate you to the fact that is a function best fulfilled by a
professing expert.
This
profession will most likely be standardized and certified in some point in time.
There are many up and coming organizations that desire to become the governing
body and elicit membership for professional affiliation. At this time, I elect
only to be recognized as a consultant and let the standard warriors fight
amongst themselves.
This consultant values hard work, integrity, and the constant need for
continuing education as a precursor to being a businessperson. It is absolutely
necessary in the Internet environment. Business rules change just as fast as
technology standards change on the Internet. What once was not a liability, may
well be one tomorrow. Marketing, marketing research, standards, search engine
rules, changes, and behaviors all have to be considered in full as well as the
components that make up the website to be optimized. The optimization should
reflect the client’s core values and mission if possible. The optimization
should be an educated mixture of marketing, research, and programming: markup or
programming languages.
Reference:
Danny Sullivan
Editor of Search Engine Watch
