"Does Page Ranking Matter?" That's the question Nick Stamoulis asked November in his SEO blog. I think his point is very well made here:

Building an online business is simply that, a business. Finding loopholes in the search algorithm and pouncing on them does not help a website grow and prosper. All the major search engines are slowly closing those loop holes and leaving the flood gates wide open for websites and business owners that are looking to proactively brand themselves online the right way.

That is exactly correct. Today's challenge is that second point, that building a business is a lot of work and the successful are those who build it in many different ways all at the same time while constantly re-learning to balance their time and money.

Folks offering SEO services are plentiful right now. The current atmosphere reminds me of the late 1990s when every business had to have a website, and overpaid extreme amounts of money to anyone that knew how to use the HTML publish button on their word processor. Not surprisingly a lot of money was wasted, time and opportunity was lost, and inevitably business people increasingly growing suspicious of technology providers.

When looking for a technology partner to get your brand out effectively... you need to look at how the company describes itself. The odds are good if all a company offers is "packaged" SEO services, if they do not also have services for the entire life cycle of internet branding and competitive research, they will not be the best use of your money.

SEO is just a tool, one of many tools that make up building an online presence to boost your business within a cost effective advertising budget. Just like in the 1990s it is not enough to build it and hope they come.

You need a technology partner that understands the entire continuum of advertising. That understands SEO is really a labor intensive and never ending process of watching your competitors, understanding where they are edging past you, and constantly refining your services and your business model to stay ahead.

This is true regardless of the size of the company. The smaller the business the more important they watch their market. (small businesses in small markets have the most to lose!)

Internet advertising, online communities and business, have been my passion for over fifteen years. Technology has been my passion for years. I bring passion and artisan pride to my job.

Software Development Concepts is exactly the kind of company I always wanted to build, devoted to watching people and their businesses grow. We are definitely the kind of technology partner who makes a difference for folks like yourself.