Is this a rant, or just a more honest viewpoint that you won't hear very often?

Hmm, standard SEO (non-sponsered), it may be the ultimate debate? Well, what I do know is that there is an enormous amount of piffle being peddled out there, and passed off as expertise or advice. Don't be fooled. If I hear another word about how absolutely crucial the correct use of META Tags is for Google SEO - you know who you are! - I may do something questionable with a deer-rifle. First off, Google doesn't even read them; and certainly not in the way you may have been told.

Thing is, there are fundamentals you should do within your site.  The correct use of certain tags (specifically formatted lines of code), keywords and other content in your website IS kind of important, it's just not THAT important, you know! Of course we recommend - insist really - that these fundamentals are addressed as part of your site's core structure etc. but to think that will do anything remarkable is, shall we say, monumentally unrealistic. It can make a difference to your SEO performance, by perhaps placing your site 5,000 or so in the results of a search as apposed to 6,000!  But it certainly won't catapult you onto Google's first-page at any point in your lifetime or mine. Other things are way, and I do mean WAY more important; and badly coded sites - some with no tags or keywords at all - are still first-page performers because of everything else they do.

So, first set realistic expectations for your SEO and don't ever - ever - use automated submission systems. SEO is not something you can fake, and frankly Google is smarter than 99% of us. Do you really believe that some computer, left randomly submitting your site to 2000 search-engines (is there that many? I only know about five of any use), will do anything other than piss everyone off?  It will get you at best, badly penalised and at worst, blacklisted.

SEO is like anything, do it half-heartedly or circle around it, and you'll get almost nothing as a result. Do not try and do it yourselves unless youhave considerable time, expertise and an office punch-bag - 'cos I can already confirm it will not work otherwise (plus did you get into your business in order to become an SEO geek?). So if you are serious, get serious about it. Remember the real fundamentals are these...

• It takes TIME  - some Google updates take weeks to even be read, let alone start climbing the rankings
• An hour or so every now and then, will get you basically nowhere
• It's specialist - leave it to people who know the game and don't waste good productive work-time 'learning about SEO'
• They're constantly changing and updating the rules, so even if you do know stuff now, it could be out of date by the time you've finished reading this!
• Concentrate efforts on increasing your page rank, not endlessly-debating and guessing at 'key words' and the like
• Take action - longer you leave it, the more people you will be up against

It's perfectly OK not to know or understand SEO, or just to hate it altogether. But the opposite of hate is not love, it is indifference, so just don't ignore it and instead forever whinge about not being 'up there'. Decide how important good SEO is to your business - its not crucial for all - and allocate some time and a proper budget to getting it underway. Some of your competitors -the ones stealing all the orders and enquires from under your nose - are almost certainly and happily spending thousands a year on SEO. It may not take that, but shouldn't you know what you are up against?

Get good natural rankings and the rewards a significant. Other than the obvious, having a high page-rank and SEO performance can - all by itself - add many thousands of pounds to the value of your business. Buying (or selling) a business that has its SEO nailed is very appealing to most investors or would-be entrepreneurs.

OK, that's enough, I'm boring myself now. We know our stuff, and have dedicated Natural and Sponsored SEO services for those that want real-world advice and results. Want to chat more? you know where we are...