SEO is experiencing an increase in popularity, as traditional marketing media decline. But as far more companies become target customers, is there a need for a change of approach?

Many sectors of the media are experiencing a decline in advertising revenue, as people fast-forward through TV ads, and wonder about the value they’re getting from magazine advertising. Online marketing is still on the increase, and as more people become aware of what can be achieved online, there’s a need to start providing different styles of offerings for the very different customer profiles out there.

SEO Search Engine Optimisation (Optimization in the US) is one area that has tremendous growth potential, but many people think it is super-technical and it needs re-positioning if it’s going to appeal to the masses.

Of course SEO is not very technical at all. The process is much more about marketing… understanding the keywords people are putting into the search engines, optimising the web site and submitting press releases, articles and link submissions. It really is a marketer’s job. If only more of the marketing industry understood that, they’d be on to a goldmine.

Then there’s the SEO offerings in the market. Many SEO ‘experts’ prefer to let people think that it is highly technical, or a black art.. something they’d never understand. What’s really needed is a response to the marketplace, which caters for all sizes of companies in all kinds of competitive markets.

Perhaps larger companies, with complex websites, and very competitive markets, require a consultancy approach where they can involve their marketing and IT people in the process and build their own in-house capability in the longer term?

Perhaps there’s also a place for the ‘Do It Yourself’ approach for some companies. Maybe they could use computer aided training to learn the fundamentals, and then have someone on hand on the phone to help when they’re stuck.

You see, the potential marketplace is huge, but there will always be a large part of that market that would be put off by large up-front fees, and on-going monthly maintenance costs. The SEO specialists are actually missing out on a large portion of the market by restricting the way they do business.

So this is a rallying call to the SEO market. It’s time for some evolution. This isn’t a time for the misguided notion that ‘knowledge is power’. Let people know what it’s about… You would ALL benefit.