SEO, What Is It?

I am sure the acronym such as CEO and CFO would be familiar to most business people. However, lately, I have been reading about SEO being discussed, particularly in business magazines. What does a SEO do?

From my understanding, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimiser, a person who is responsible to ensure the website of a business is visited by its intended customers or users by tailoring the website to the ways search engines operate.

Among other roles of the SEO are:

• Reviewing and providing recommendations on your site content or structure


• Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScript


• Content development


• Managing online business development campaigns


• Keyword research

As businesses integrate their business processes further with the world wide web, their websites are becoming more and more important in securing business.

AirAsia and Malaysian Airlines are two Malaysian companies which use the web to sell their tickets and do business with their customers. Not only such platform enables them to extend their reach, it also reduces cost as well as making it more convenient for their customers to transact with them. Opportunity to cross-sell products and services would be enhanced to the features of the Net.

Websites are no longer function just as billboards, to inform the world about a business but have became the shopfront for a lot of businesses. How far has your business leverages of the web to expend your horizon?

This is where a SEO would be helpful. I suppose a SEO may not necessarily be a technician, but the person should be able to appreciate how technology works and how to use them in making your web presence the key source of your business wealth. Whether or not this position is created officially, my view is that all business should have a SEO, somebody who as a matter of cause explores the potential of expending your web based business.

As the world becomes more connected and when 3 billion people are expected to be on the Net by 2012 or around that period, I am sure ignoring business on the web would deprive your business of a channel that has great potential.

Would you create a SEO position in the next 12 months if you have not done so?