Is SEO a fad?

Some people would say yes - these are probably people who have been the victim of conversations with SEO fanatics who will tell you that your search engine rank is the ONLY thing that you need to worry about.

And a minority of these fanatics are not really interested in the health of your business, organisation, cause or whatever other reason you are online.  Beware of anyone who says:

• "We can garantee you a #1 spot on Google" - they may not be using ethical or sustainable methods to do it.
• "We'll submit your site to 100's or 1000's of search engines".  This is not necessary and unlikely to be of any benefit.  Directory listings are certainly part of the mix but you are better off concentrating on actions that will actually generate some traffic for you through quality links (not quantity).

The ability for your target audience to find you is important and a reality of doing business online.

Search engine optimisation requires a combination of technicques and actions that when done effectively should see your site perform well in the search engines.  But it depends on a number of things:

• How competitive your particular industry is (so how many other sites you are competing with)
• How unique your products and services are
• The extent to which people search and find your particular services online
• The extent to which you depend on people finding you via the search engines
• How much resource you have to devote to it