Some people are obsessive about their rank on the search engines. They act as if search engine positioning is the only important type of Web marketing. Not true.
You need to balance your marketing efforts to include reciprocal links, traditional media advertising, press releases, newsletters, e-mail correspondence, news groups, directories, affiliate programs, perhaps banner advertising, and all the other elements we discuss in Web Marketing Today month after month. Search engines are only one source -- though an important source -- of new customers.
Marketing gurus agree. Danny Sullivan of SearchEngineWatch.com says, "Know when it's time to call it quits. A few changes may be enough to make you tops in one or two search engines. But that's not enough for some people, and they will invest days creating special pages and changing their sites to try and do better. This time could usually be put to better use pursuing non-search engine publicity methods." (http://www.searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/tips.html)
Jim Daniels, author of Insider Internet Marketing, cautions in his article "Confessions of a Once-Hooked Search Engine Jockey" (http://bizweb2000.com/confess.htm) against spending the large amounts of time required to battle for the top spots. Says Jim, "If the search engines all closed up shop tomorrow (or started to rank pages by who pays them the most -- which is more likely) my cyberbusiness wouldn't miss a beat. Why? I chose not to rely on search engines for website traffic. That's not to say I don't get traffic from search engines. I just don't rely on search engines for ALL my traffic. Like any wise Internet marketer, I take what I can get -- especially when it's free."
My advice? By all means include search engine positioning as one of your Internet marketing strategies. But make it one of several that you pursue, not the only one.
