SEO/SEM is more Marketing less Technology by Vijay Dalwani

SEO / SEM is not really about technology. Of course there is a bit of programming and technology involved because you are creating a website which needs computers, but this is a very small part of the actual SEO / SEM exercise.

If you look at it from the technology perspective, the person is just selecting a few keywords and putting them in the title, description, meta-tags, starting of the paragraph and in the content. This is because somebody has taught you that this is where the keywords must be present.

SEO / SEM activity however is a fine art which covers marketing and in-depth understanding of the business, product, services and the target customer. First of all, know the product you are marketing. The next step is to ask yourself why you have created the product and for whom. Set the vision for your business or organization. Now you are ready to look for the right market and the right customer.

You can now ask your SEO expert whether you have the right keywords. Will it get more people on your website? Can you effectively combine a few keywords to create a more powerful keyword? Keep asking yourself and your SEO / SEM expert team how can you make people come to your website while searching for a keyword? Linking the interest of the customer with the interest of the business and making it a common interest is the heart of any SEO / SEM activity.

Whether you have in-house SEO / SEM experts or you hire a seo consultant, see if the person is able to understand your business and your customer properly. A proper SEO / SEM expert can tell you accurately what your business is all about, and who your target customer really is. They may even suggest new customer segments that you have missed or never thought of. All that remains is to use the right technology to increase the traffic and reach. This is inevitable if you have already pinpointed what your business product and target customer is all about.

About the Author:

Vijay Dalwani is the Director (Operations) of a UK based healthcare and wellness organization.

In his previous assignments he has been working as:

- VP Operations with TVC Sky Shop Ltd

- Head of Operations with Wonderfulbuys.com (US Based
Internet company)

- Director Operations with Cyberdyne Solutions India
Limited (A software company with a US tie up).

Vijay has been working on SEO / SEM for the last 7 years. He is a people's person who likes to develop people as they are the assets of today and tomorrow. Vijay conducts training programs in SEO / SEM and other topics for budding profesionals. Vijay has a passion for learning new things and can go to any extent to get even 5 minutes of new learning.

[get this widget]

Paradox of SEO / SEM in India by Deepak Chauhan (CIO)

The Indian SEO /SEM story can be divided into 2 streams. On one end, we have a very mature and talented pool of SEO /SEM experts who have cutting edge expertise but it benefits MNCs and other foreign websites rather than Indian websites. Thanks to the outsourcing boom and then due to recession, Indian SEO / SEM experts are often called upon to device better ways to make foreign websites and business models more efficient and cost effective.

On the other hand, we have the nascent Indian online industry .We have few E-commerce sites which can be counted on the fingertips. This is mainly because of low internet penetration in India. This is due to lack of proper infrastructure, bandwidth constraints, as well as immature legal system. The people do not have faith in the legal system because there is no way to address issues that can happen if something goes wrong with online purchase or transactions.

The behavior of Indian customer too is not suited to online business. Even today, a majority of Indian customers buy a product, not a brand. This leads to credibility and quality issue and it is difficult for the customer to know whether the product is genuine and available in correct measured quantity. India needs to transit from product purchase to a brand purchase mentality before its online business and E-commerce matures.

However, the future of SEO /SEM is bright in India because thanks to maturing retail industry, Indian e-commerce websites, too, are slowly making their presence felt on the global internet scene and thanks to a large pool of IT as well as SEO / SEM experts, people are slowly realizing the benefits of online business and online transactions.

Thanks to recession, SEO / SEM is becoming a necessity rather than a luxury. Indian businesses are realizing that there is no way to skip or ignore it. SEO / SEM can even help new upcoming sites or players to feature prominently in search engines and establish global presence and generate more business.

---

About the Author

Deepak Chauhan is the CIO of DMCL, an Essel Group of Company which focuses on Internet and Mobile Entertainment solutions. He has more than 14 years experience in Internet domain, especially related to Entertainment. eCommerce and Online Brand consulting.

He has worked with B4U Television before joining Essel Group. He is better known for motivating his peers and his team and taking them to productive heights. Deepak is instrumental in the successful implementation of DMCL's flagship entertainment portal http://www.mypopkorn.com/ and prestigious http://www.veria.com/.

[get this widget]