Link Idol

I was interviewed few days ago by a magazine writer who was doing an article about search engine optimization. I told her all what I know about SEO. We covered the topics from keyword analysis, competitor analysis, on-page and off-page optimization, link building, and eventually monetizing websites.

But in the end, I told her that SEO is not always about making money, it’s about achieving your objectives why in the first place you do SEO.

There are a lot of ways why people do SEO. It’s not just about getting traffic for websites, then convert that traffic into sales or advertising revenues. Some people are doing this to pursue a very different goal, something that money can’t even buy.

I’ve known a pastor who uses SEO to bring their Church at the top of the search engine results when someone searches for a church in their locality. In fact, an Internet user who landed on their site through this method eventually decided to be baptized in their Church.

As the Philippine 2010 elections is about a year away, other SEO enthusiasts, who also happened to support a particular personality who have signified their intention to run for a position in the government, started doing SEO for these personalities and the landing site contains valuable information about the would-be candidate and why do people should vote for him/her in the upcoming elections.

I also plan to do this by optimizing a keyword that when someone search for a practitioner of a certain profession (which I do have a license), he/she will be taken to my online portfolio. In this way, I will be able to gain more prospects, not just on consultancies but also expanding my network of contacts.

SEO is a powerful tool. Money. Advocacy. Religion. Politics. Job. Name it, just do it right.