Reasons to NOT do SEO

By Beacon News | Published December 27, 2010 | Categories: Web Development

SEO is a term that is finally moving outside of tech circles.  Even most laypeople are starting to understand that it stands for Search Engine Optimization and the many advantages associated with having good SEO on a site.  Which begs the question, why are so many professional websites so bad at it?

Well, I thought long on this, and came up with the following possible explanations:

1)  You want to hide your site.  There are situations where I can understand this.  If you a Mexican drug cartel and want to start selling your wares online (this is the 21^st century afterall), it would make all the sense in the world to nofollow all the links in your site and use misleading and unpopular title tags (i.e. “Cloris Leachman Nude”) to prevent search engines from putting you in their cross-hairs.  It would be best to limit your site to referral traffic only.  With bad SEO - that's all you'll get.

2) It’s too much time and effort.  The hours that you use every month to optimize your site and bring in hordes of potential clients take away from the days and weeks that are used to pick up leads through traditional methods.  Why waste time developing keyword rich content that will attract people who are interested in your product when you can cold call through the phone book and get less results in twice the time?

3) You’re an internet communist.  This is nothing to be ashamed of, you represent the pinnacle of netiquette.  Why does your site deserve to be at the top of high traffic search results?  Don’t your competitors deserve just as much exposure?  It is only fair that they be given every chance to sell their products to your customers as well.

4) You’ve sold numerous old ladies 50% of your sites future profits.  So long as the site loses money, you make money on the initial sales.  Otherwise, you’re a programming version of Bernie Madoff.

5) Customers suck.  Let’s face it, they are just a pain in the rear.  They have all these annoying questions about which of your products they should buy and how your products can improve their business/lives.  Most jobs would be great if it weren't for all the customers.

Beyond this, I can come up with no good reason that a professional site shouldn’t engage in SEO.  If you currently do not make this a priority, rest assured that your competition does.