Interview with G Rajesh, Blog Editor (Silicon India)

In an exclusive interview with G. Rajesh, Blog Editor of http://www.siliconindia.com/ who talks about the state of SEO in India, and the impact of recession on online businesses.

What is the state of SEO / SEM in India?

In India, a very few people know about SEO/SEM in comparison to other countries. The reason being is that SEO is still perceived as a technological devise of tweaking some keywords and meta tags, and not like a marketing devise that needs a long term strategy. A seo expert needs to be skilled in online marketing techniques, seo techniques, project management, content management, strategy management, as well as understand the search engines changing algorithms. The emergence of various local e-commerce, social and professional networking sites has helped in the evolution of online business in India. I feel that SEO still has a long way to go in India because its potential is yet to be tapped by people and organizations here.

2. How is SEO / SEM helping organizations tide over recession?

Recession has lead to intense competition amongst companies. Only the fittest will be able to emerge out as winners. With the decreasing marketing budgets on traditional media channels (like television, outdoor, radio and print), companies are looking for better and cheaper alternatives like online marketing. In these difficult times, a SEO expert can assist these companies in getting their keywords on the top in search listings, thus driving additional traffic and business.

3. What is the future of SEO / SEM (in India / globally)?

SEO’s future is very bright provided it is used appropriately. I personally feel lack of awareness amongst companies about SEO is basic reason as to why it's limited to few. For the better future of SEO in companies worldwide, employers needs to realise it's benefit in the long term. Refinement in search to get desired result is one thing which will definitely have an impact on the future of SEO.

4. What do you look for in an SEO expert / SEO consultancy before hiring?

Given an opportunity to hire an SEO expert I will look at how well they have done in ranking for their keywords (e.g. if I want to hire a seo expert from mumbai, and I type 'seo expert mumbai' in the search box, the seo expert or seo company I plan to hire should rank in the top 5 in major engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN), and for their clients websites as well. Other things like good knowledge of social bookmarking, article writing, and link building will be an added plus.

5. What is the core expertise of Silicon India?

Core expertise of http://www.siliconindia.com/ lies in providing its users what they look forward to in a professional networking site. We update professionals with recent happening in technological and professional both in terms of quality and quantity.

7. What features are available and what new features do you plan to add to the site to improve its USP and provide better values to your userbase ?

We are India’s largest professional networking website, we aim at giving right direction to power of networking. Popular feature include:

News ( Latest update of both technological and professional front)
Blogs ( Enabling professionals to share their expertise for the benefit of the readers)
Communities ( Linking like minded professionals under one head)
Q& A ( A platform to get all your queries answered by professionals)
Training Videos ( Get accessed to collection of video by Industry Experts)
Education (Giving MBA aspirants a platform to find all relevant information pertaining to MBA)
Job & Careers (Get the information of Jobs not listed any where else)

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Giving Direction to the Power of Networking

There are hundreds of social & professional networking websites. The most popular ones also happen to be the ones that are most effective in terms of building a real network on a local and global level. Professional networking sites appeal not only to the budding professional but also to those having years of experience in their respective field of expertise.

Good professional networks provide many features which help professionals fine-tune or update their skills and stay in synchrony with the current market demands. India’s Bangalore-based www.silionindia.com is one such website I frequently visit. Now there are many reason for this and I would like to share them with the readers.

Career growth means different things to different people. For some professionals, it means reading about the latest developments in their industry or sector in the form of news. For some, it means finding out the current expertise or skill sets in demand and developing them for better prospects. This information can be obtained through job and career as well as educational content.

For yet another group of people, career growth means connecting with peers as well as industry experts. This is made possible by communities, blogs or Q & As on specific or niche topics.
SiliconIndia not only allows budding professionals to get tips about how to get manage their career better but also helps them assess their knowledge in different areas from programming to communication skills by taking well tailored online tests.

Another feature of SiliconIndia is the mentorship programme. Here a fresh graduate from any field or new employees of an organization can enroll themselves as apprentice. CXOs of various fields working in reputed organizations register as mentors to help out the apprentice online and shape their career. This method allows for querying and resolutions of very specific issues. SiliconIndia communities too are of a wide range from computers and internet to business and finance as well as entrepreneurship . The featured communities in each section too cater to niche or specialized sectors.

The overall model of siliconIndia looks sound. It caters to the mass in the form of online magazines, blogs and newsfeeds. It caters to individual and specialized needs through communities and Q & As. Professional education and skill sets are imparted with well designed educational articles and training videos. All this as they have earned the trust of hundreds of CXOs who have registered themselves on the site.

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