Do you need SEO?

“I know that disgusted look, sir. I have seen it before. Perhaps we should hash out whatever is bothering you before moving on to other topics,” I said, seeing The Effective Detective not looking happy at all, barely after entering the room.

“Ah Watson, observant – if not always understanding, as always. I am merely expressing my disgust at the continued selling of what was once a useful technique to draw traffic to a site. Said technique having been surpassed by more cost-effective techniques.” The Detective replied, allowing for a slight smile to cross his face.

“Another one sir?” I sighed.

“Yes, Watson, another one. Keep your sad sighs to yourself if you please. It disturbs me to see people being presented with the paradoxical statement that by paying a Search Engine Optimization expert, you can get free traffic. If indeed one could expect quality – meaning traffic that generates revenue – traffic that vastly exceeded the cost of using said expert to “get on page one” of Google, then perhaps I would be a tad less caustic.

“The fact of the matter Watson, is that not all sites are natural search engine destinations. Those that are, well if you are in a niche that is competitive, and there are standard keywords people can use to find members of that niche – chances are that someone has pretty well situated themselves on the front page of Google.

“On the other hand, what makes you unique, by its very nature will probably not be found via standard keywords. If only a miniscule portion of the Internet community is actually searching on those keywords, your chances of gaining tons of business from being searched for just aren’t going to be that high,” The Detective paused for a second, giving me an opportunity to throw in my two cents.

“Are you suggesting that some industries shouldn’t bother having a website?” I asked with as much incredulity in my voice as I could muster without sounding too over the top.

“Now you are just being silly, Watson. Of course you should have a website. Just don’t confuse being on the first page of Google for some obscure search terms with having  a successful website,” The Detective shot back.

“Since really the only metric of a successful website is ‘does it make you money?'”

“Precisely Watson! And there are plenty of ways you can actively drive traffic instead of hoping that people will happen to look for you using some string of words, and of course what is on your site is equally important as people coming to it… but that is a discussion for another day. Shall we move on Watson?” The Detective finished.

“Indeed sir.”