Reverse SEO can help a restaurant or small retail shop overcome a bad review or two on different review sites. The problem that many restaurant and retail owners face is when a disgruntled customer or troll — someone who gets their jollies by overstating problems or even making up outrageous complaints — leaves a bad comment on a review site, sometimes even making it up. In fact, some trolls even try to parlay their fictionalized complaint into free food, merchandise, or in some cases, cash.

But there is no need for restaurant owners to fall prey to these negative reviews. Rather than buckling or running in fear from bad reviews, it is possible to use reverse SEO tactics to push them right off the page.

Here are four reverse SEO tactics business owners can use to push down negative reviews.

Reverse SEO Tactic #1: Ask customers to write positive reviews. Enough positive reviews will outweigh the negative reviews. Plus, people who read the site will also see that while one person may have complained, there are plenty of other people who enjoyed it. They will attribute the bad review to an uncommon experience. That does not mean owners should bribe customers to leave reviews or even fake customer reviews.

Reverse SEO Tactic #2: Create and publish videos on video sharing sites. This is an ideal reverse SEO strategy, because search engines love videos. Make them customer interviews, behind the scenes looks at the restaurant, or previews of upcoming menu changes. In many cases, search engines will place video results at or near the top of the search engine results page, which will help push down any normal, non-video results that might have appeared. Plus, because videos are often evergreen — that is, they last for a long time, because it will take more videos to push them off the page — they are a reverse SEO mainstay.

Reverse SEO Tactic #3: Use social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, and Google+; follow customers who follow the restaurant Twitter account. Social media is beginning to have an impact on search results. Now, when someone does a Google search, Google looks at their social media footprint to see if they are connected to anyone who has talked about that particular search topic before. If a potential customer does a search for a restaurant name, they will see that one of their social media friends has either tweeted about, written a status update about, or even written a blog post about that restaurant. The friend's content will show up in the search engine results page, which may help push the negative comments off the front page.

Reverse SEO Tactic #4: Start a blog. Blogging about positive aspects about the restaurant, the community, and the staff can all help the restaurant website rise above the negative comments, and help push it off the site. The more content with the restaurant's name and brand that gets placed on the Internet, the more it can push down the negative content. This works because search engines love websites that update frequently. The best way to update a website is with a blog post.

A blog can contain customer testimonials and special reviews and letters, making it a powerful reverse SEO tool. They are a place to embed videos, rather than just leaving them on YouTube. And a blog can be promoted on social tools like Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. All of these can occupy a place on a blog, making it not only a place for fans and customers to interact with the restaurant, but a way to keep negative comments from rising to the top of the search engines.

Reverse SEO, when done properly, can undo damage that has been done by trolls, disgruntled customers, and even legitimate complaints. But remember that reverse SEO cannot replace good customer service, no matter how hard one tries.

Translation SEO may be the next big thing as more multinational companies localize their services, products, and even websites in different countries. Translation SEO is the idea that a website — say, one built in the U.S. — is translated into another language like German or Japanese, in the hopes that the SEO juice (that's a technical term) will be the same on the overseas search engine.

Many companies think running their website through a machine translator will perform just as well on the localized Google as it did in the U.S. Of course, translation SEO is not that easy.

For one thing, those translations are often word for word translations, and don't follow sentence structure rules or use idioms. Nothing is more embarrassing, for example, than finding a phrase like "Man, I'm hot!" doesn't mean you're overheated in German, but that you're. . . feeling very amorous. There are similar pitfalls when using machine translations, and you may find that people in other countries are finding your site for. . . "other" reasons.

Here are three other best practices for translation SEO.

Translation SEO Practice #1: Research country specific keywords.

People not only call things by different words in different countries (an "elevator" in the U.S. is a "lift" in England) but they may use entirely different search terms when they do perform a search. Do country-specific keyword research, rather than relying on your knowledge of the culture and language.

Also, don't rely on the staff in your overseas office. Many companies call a product one thing, while searchers and potential customers call it something else, both in the U.S. and other countries.

Translation SEO Practice #2: Optimize your site to rank within high search market targets.

This means following the best practices of the popular search engines in that country, which may not always be Google. In Russian it's Yandex, in China it's Baidu.  And their best practices are not necessarily Google's, which means your translation SEO is more than just following Google's best practices. It means you need to work with SEO professionals who have extensive experience in those countries.

Translation SEO Practice #3: Don't duplicate pages from other websites.

Even if you translate to another language, it's never a good idea to duplicate pages, unless there's a reason to do it. (And in that case, make sure you designate the original pages as the "canonical" pages.) Rather, make sure your translator is also a decent writer who can rewrite the copy enough so it's completely different. Otherwise, you could still suffer the same duplicate content "penalties" that other web designers see when they repost the same content on different websites.

Translation SEO, if done properly, can help a company achieve the same online success they have seen in their home country. It's a matter of finding the best keywords, and working with experienced SEO professionals who know how the other country's search engines work.

Social media SEO has increased in importance, thanks to some changes in Google's algorithms, most recently the Google Panda update. What Google Panda has done is made social media connections a bigger part of their SEO algorithm — in other words, the more connections a person has, the more likely some of their material they have read or recommended will show up in the person's search engine results page.

And social media SEO looks like it is going to become more important with the introduction of new tools like Google+.

For example, Craig is looking for information on vacuum cleaner repairs, they do a Google search for the term "vacuum cleaner repairs." If Craig is not logged in to Google, or does not have many connections, Google will present him with the most objective posts that rely on the typical search engine optimization techniques. He will most likely be presented with the best optimized site about vacuum cleaner repairs.

But, if Craig is active on social networks like Twitter, is connected to a lot of people on Google+, and even has someone in his Google Contacts list, Stacy, who has a keen interest in vacuum cleaner repair shops, then anything Stacy has said about vacuum repair is going to appear on Craig's search engine results. If Stacy has left a comment on a vacuum repair page, or shared a vacuum repair blog post, or even written a vacuum repair blog post herself, then her results will show up on Craig's page.

This will have two positive effects on social media SEO. One, the more connections a business has with potential customers, the more likely they are to show up on the search engine results page. And two, people who write blog posts about vacuum repair can finally show their faces in public without being embarrassed.

Social media SEO takes advantage of the connections between a searcher and their networks, because people tend to believe and trust testimonials and opinions of their friends more than they do of complete strangers. But they believe and trust testimonials of complete strangers over the information provided by traditional marketers.

The implications of this for traditional marketers is that they may no longer bark at their customers with new special offers and promises of big savings and crazy prices. Customers are no longer looking, at least on social media, for typical marketing behavior. They are skipping TV advertisements, leaving commercial radio for satellite radio and Internet radio, and blocking ads on websites with software, all to avoid being slimed with traditional advertising methods.

These days, customers want relationships with their companies. They want to hear from companies they trust, and that have provided value to them in the past. They want to connect with companies that will not send them constant advertisements or pester them with needless communication. They would rather work with companies who help them answer questions, solve problems, and help them fix issues.

This means that for social media SEO to truly work, businesses need to connect with potential customers via social networks like Google+, Twitter, and Facebook (if appropriate), and communicate with them in the manner they want, not the way the marketing department thinks it should be. The businesses need to create a valuable newsletter, add people to their email list, and ask them to add the business email address to their white list. They also need to frequently write blog posts that address different questions and problems these potential customers are facing.

As these businesses connect with these customers via social media, it also means the business will show up with a high search rank whenever these customers do a search for a topic the business can handle.

SEO SEM (search engine optimization and search engine marketing) can mean the difference between success and failure for a lot of online businesses, or businesses that rely on online traffic for a major part of their revenue. SEO SEM can mean the difference between a lot of traffic and no traffic. Between qualified leads and browsers. Between running in the black or sinking into the red.

SEO SEM is the idea that websites are not only optimized for search engines (SEO), but that online marketing professionals make a concerted effort to market via those same search engines (SEM). In other words, knowing how to position a website so it is easily found by the largest number of buyers.

But SEO SEM is not necessarily something companies want to take on by themselves, since it can involve a steep learning curve. While it makes some sense to have an internal employee handling the SEO SEM, keep in mind that this person will most likely have other responsibilities that distracts them from their original tasks. Also, hiring and training a new staffer can take months, which most companies do not have, especially if their search engine results are flagging. Lost positions means lost profits, and the longer a company waits, the lower they drop on the search engine results pages.

So companies should consider hiring an SEO SEM consultant to carry them forward. But what should they look for in that new consultant?

Ignore university degrees and accreditation. Look for experience instead. SEO SEM is fairly new as an academic study, and only now are some universities are offering classes on it. However, they are using old methods and old texts — techniques that became obsolete even six months ago. A real SEO SEM expert gains their knowledge from working in the industry and reading the latest blog posts and white papers, not sitting in a classroom.

Ask for examples of past work. This may be difficult, because many SEO SEM consultants have non-disclosures with their clients, but it is still worth asking for. But, they may be able to show analytics reports without disclosing client names or identities.

Check out their search engine rankings. Not only should a good SEO SEM consultant rank near the top of their chosen keywords and niches, they should be ranking well on local search results. The best consultants will not only understand general SEO techniques, but they will also know how to do local search as well. Also, do not just limit the check to Google; look at Yahoo and Bing too. A good consultant will focus on all the major search engines, not just the biggest. One day, the others may explode with growth, and companies that ignored them will be left behind.

Finding an SEO SEM consultant may be rather difficult for companies that do not know what to look for. But as long as they are armed with a few basic benchmarks and questions — like looking for years of experience, size of past campaigns, examples of work, trial performance, and search engine rankings — they can make a well-informed, educated decision.

Reverse SEO is an ongoing battle for a lot of people. One little mistake and a photo gets posted to dozens of websites. One lapse of judgment and the mistake is blasted all over the Internet. Or one person who shares a job seeker's name but doesn't share their sense of morality and good judgment can confuse people searching for that candidate.

Reverse SEO (search engine optimization) can help push negative search results down the search engine results pages (SERPs), and make the positive content appear at the top. Here are four reverse search engine tips that can start working almost immediately.

Reverse SEO Tip #1: Use Quora, Yahoo Answers, and Other Q&A Sites

Q&A sites like Quora, Yahoo Answers, and LinkedIn are all great places to not only establish expertise and credibility in a subject, they are also a good place to drop in URLs that point back to one's main website or blog. Visit the Q&A sites on a semi-frequent basis — at least every three days — and answer questions in a few niche areas. If there are useful blog posts or websites, include those as well. But this is not a place to spam articles or websites, because users will often report users as spammers. Rather, give high-quality useful answers, and only include URLs when they are important and valuable.

Reverse SEO Tip #2: Buy Personal Name as a URL

Using one's own name as a URL is the most effective reverse SEO technique, because search engines put a lot of stock into domain names. Any name or keyword in a .com URL gets extra attention from the search engines, and in many cases, they are likely to place that website at the top of the SERPs. As a result, it does not matter what content is at the top of the page, a named URL will trump even that, as long as there is some useful content. Create a basic website with a WordPress site or free Google page, and point different backlinks to it.

Reverse SEO Tip #3: Start a Blog

A blog is an excellent way to reverse SEO negative content off the top SERPs. It is regular content about a specific topic and by a specific person. If it is one person who is trying to remove negative content, then a blog is an ideal way to do this, because they can write and post everything under their own name. Every post has the potential to not only help reach its own high positions, but as each post is promoted on different social media networks, it can also push the positive content to the top of the SERPs, and push the negative content off.

Reverse SEO Tip #4: Use Videos

Videos aid greatly with reverse SEO, because they get a lot of search engine "juice." (It also does not hurt that sites like YouTube are owned by Google.) Just by posting a video to YouTube, adding a link that points back to the hosting website, and then embedding that video on the site, and it can boost the website's search engine rankings. This can be especially useful for a blog that requires regular content and needs a boost from the search engines to improve its performance.

While reverse SEO is not an easy fix — plan on taking at least three months and as long as a year to remove negative content — it can be an effective tool to overcoming negative search results. Whether the project is for a job candidate, a corporate brand, or even a politician who has made some drastically unfortunate life choices, reverse SEO can ultimately help restore the positive aspects of the person's or company's brand and image.

SEO SEM would not be what it is today, if not for spammers.

No, seriously.

In fact, most Internet advancements have even happened because of spam. And to understand how far SEO SEM (search engine optimization and search engine marketing) has come, it is important to look back at where it came from.

Spam is the word used to describe unwanted email, taking the name from the Spam sketch in Monty Python's Flying Circus. But it has since expanded its meaning to unwanted SEO SEM tactics and results too, flooding the search engines with pages that no one really wants, all in the hope that some poor sucker will buy something, thus justifying their efforts.

Back in the mid- to late-1990s, Yahoo was really the only major search engine being used, and they relied on web masters to use certain tactics to tell them what a website was about. Most of these SEO SEM techniques basically involved having proper keywords on a website. As long as a search engine found a few keywords on a page, it assumed that was what the page was about. But as the competition grew stiffer, someone realized if they had more keywords on a site, they could win the search. Eventually it became a battle to see who could have the most keywords on a page.

However, this ruined the user interface, making pages unattractive. No one wanted to see the keywords plastered across the top of a page, screaming what the site was about.  So web masters began placing keywords at the bottom of the page, repeating them over and over several dozen times.

The search engines didn't want any of this, however, so web masters tried creating invisible text (white text on a white background), but the search engines began to penalize those sites. So they tried tiny text — using 6 or 8 point text — but that didn't make the search engines happy either.

The next SEO SEM trick was to stuff as many keywords as possible into a page title and meta description, like the Description tag and Keyword tag. It was not uncommon to see the same keywords repeated in a title and meta tags a couple dozen times. The search engines penalized those sites as well, and said they did not want any SEO SEM keyword stuffing at all.

So the SEO SEM pros had to learn how to use one or two keywords in a title and description, and to practice proper search engine optimization. This technique is now the current accepted SEO SEM practice.

In the meantime, they also tried keyword stuffing in the body copy, trying to intersperse keywords into the copy as frequently as possible, creating horrible sentences like "Download this free website marketing report that details different website marketing techniques to improve website marketing."

But, just as with the tiny text/invisible text tricks, the search engines caught on again, requiring SEO SEM pros to actually become good writers who created readable and interesting copy. While there are still plenty of bad writers out there, the push has been to improve the quality of online writing, and there has been some real progress over the last couple of years.

The battle still continues on, as SEO SEM marketers try to stay one step ahead of the search engines, while the search engines fight to keep their databases free of the SEO SEM trickery and chicanery that spammers are known for.

There probably will not be an end to SEO SEM spam any time soon, but as users get smarter about it and search engines find new ways to combat it, there could be a serious decrease in it, and an improvement to the user experience as time goes on.

Reverse SEO was all about getting negative information pushed down off of Google, keeping it out of the top search engine ranks, to make sure people did not associate a brand with being an awful place to do business. Reverse SEO was necessary for companies that had a run of bad luck, or a few cranky customers who wanted to harm it. But no one used negativity as a marketing tool.

Then one New York business owner found that the negative results actually increased his sales. The owner of an online eyeglasses company found that by providing bad customer service, which people would complain about online, his page ranked higher on Google. The angrier people got, the higher it went.

It was not until a New York Times article detailed the company's practices — including fraud and violent threats — that Google was "horrified" to find their search engine was being gamed in so evil and heinous a manner.

What was happening was as people posted their complaints online, they backlinked to the vendor's website, which is a popular reverse SEO tactic. Google assumed that a backlink to a website was an endorsement, which meant Google believed it was an important site that provided a good user experience. (This is why backlinks are crucial in a reverse SEO strategy.)

Google quickly released a statement that they had "developed an algorithmic solution which detects the merchant from the Times article along with hundreds of other merchants that, in our opinion, provide an extremely poor user experience."

In other words, Google was now looking at the sentiment surrounding a backlink to determine whether it was a real vote or not, and their solution served as a notice to companies who screwed their customers: do business right, treat people decently, or get banned from Google.

This also means that the best reverse SEO tactic is going to be great customer service.

A lot of businesses already worry about what will happen if they receive a negative complaint on a user review site. They might lose sales, the complaint might be seen on the search engines, etc., so they use any reverse SEO tactics they can. But now that Google has changed, a new strategy to eliminate these complaints is to reverse SEO them through kindness and decency.

The best way to do this? Use these three "customer service reverse SEO tips:"

Customer Service Reverse SEO Tip #1: Ask customers and visitors for positive reviews, if it is truly deserved.

This can done on a comment card, a copy of their receipt, a sign by the front door, or even a quick email to the company's contact list.

Customer Service Reverse SEO Tip #2: Make sure to earn those positive reviews by providing great service and a memorable experience.

Everyone loves being made to feel special and important. They love a great experience. And they certainly love being treated with respect and kindness. Nothing will engender a greater positive review than treating customers with sincere respect and kindness.

Customer Service Reverse SEO Tip #3: Visit the sites and social networks where most of the business' customers are.

Many businesses make the mistake of continuing to market and advertise in the places they "always have" — phone books, newspapers, billboards. But these are not always effective marketing channels. Instead, ask customers where they spend a lot of their time online. If it is a social networking site like Facebook, join Facebook, and friend them. Communicate to them like a person, not like a commercial.

Google has made sure that companies that game their algorithm through customer anger will not benefit. But that does not mean they will eliminate all negative comments. For any companies who still need to remove those from the search engine rankings need to let a positive customer experience be the reverse SEO they need.

Is social media marketing the right approach for a company right now? Everyone has been hearing a lot about social media these days as restaurants start asking fans to "like" them on Facebook, news programs want viewers to follow them on Twitter, or nonprofits asks donors to read their blog.

Social media marketing is everywhere, and a lot of companies are starting to wonder if it is right for them. How can companies, organizations, and even solopreneurs decide whether or not to start using social media as a way to reach their customers?

The first step to take in determining one's social media marketing readiness is to see whether customers are using social media. Do customers and visitors frequently ask about whether the company is using social media? Do they ask about a Facebook page or Foursquare discounts for checking in? If these questions are coming up, then chances are there are more than a few customers and fans who want to see the company have a social media marketing. On the other hand, if the customers are not computer users, do not have social media accounts, or are Amish, then a social media marketing campaign will not do well.

The next step in a company's social media marketing is to see whether the company's staff and culture is ready for handling social media itself. Does management believe in social media marketing, or are they still debating the pros and cons of using a fax machine? Do the employees have the time to manage the social media marketing efforts, or are they all doing the work of more than one person? If it is the latter, then social media marketing is probably not going to be a good idea. Conversely, if the company is a young company whose executives are always willing to try something new, or if the employees have an entrepreneurial spirit who take the initiative to insure the company's success, then a social media marketing program can have a positive effect both on company morale, as well as the company's bottom line.

Third, establish some goals for the social media marketing. Know what it is the campaign should accomplish, whether it is is increased sales, increased web traffic, reduced customer service costs, or even improving public relations coverage.

Once these goals have been established, then it's important to measure whether they are being met. Use Google Analytics or a similar web traffic measurement program, as well as a social media monitoring service like Radian6 or Vocus to see if the social media campaign is working. Measure sales obtained from social media, whether marketing costs shrank, or even whether the number of customer service calls have been reduced.

After 6 - 12 months, it is necessary to make some decisions. If the goals are being met, the customers are responding favorably, and it has been easily incorporated into the marketing mix, then it should continue as a regular part of customer marketing and service. If the goals are not, then the company needs to reconsider whether to put more effort and energy into it, or whether they should drop it completely.

For the most part, companies ought to participate in social media, even if they are one of the first in their industry to do it. Social media has grown exponentially within the last few years, and it shows no signs of slowing down. That means that even if other companies have not embraced social media in that industry, the first company to do so can completely own it and dominate what will undoubtedly become an emerging market. Soon, most industries will have companies that are winning at social media marketing, and making a big impact on their bottom line.

Mobile search marketing is the latest buzzword to catch the attention of Internet marketers. As the usage of mobile phones grows, and geo-location networks like Foursquare, Gowalla, and Whrrl grow, marketers are working with SEO consulting firms to figure out how to take advantage of new mobile search marketing growth. For many companies, mobile marketing represents a major shift in online marketing not seen since companies first started developing websites in the mid-1990s. By working with an SEO consulting firm, companies can explore new ways to develop a mobile search marketing campaign that will help them grow their business using new mobile technologies.

Does Mobile Search Marketing Fit With The Company's Objectives?

The first thing an SEO consultant can help a company with is whether mobile search marketing makes any sense. Some companies are still relying on the web presence they created five years ago, but have given it any attention since. The do-it-yourself learning curve becomes steep for these newbies, so an SEO consulting firm can help their clients consider new technology and techniques that could become an integral part of their overall marketing campaign.

Does Mobile Search Marketing Fit The Target Market?

Companies need to look at their typical customer base. Are they Gen Yers and Gen Xers who love technology and keep up with the latest tech trends? Or are they older adults who do not have mobile phones? An SEO consultant can also help companies determine whether their customers would embrace their mobile marketing efforts, and then create a strategy to reach those customers.

Is It Better To Have a Mobile Website or a Standard Website?

The prevailing mobile search marketing strategy is "yes, every company should have a mobile website." But that is all beginning to change: smart phones are getting smarter, browsers are getting better at redrawing full websites on mobile displays, and some website platforms have plugins that make special mobile web design almost unnecessary. But while the mobile web is beginning to merge into and blur with the desktop web, the technology is still quite a ways away from an entirely seamless approach between the two. So in the meantime, it is important that marketers consider a standard mobile search marketing strategy with special mobile-optimized web pages (like contact us, address/map, menu/pricing, and a front page), and possibly a .mobi domain name to help win mobile search engine rankings. An SEO consulting agency can help marketers make this determination.

Is It Important to Measure Mobile Web Traffic?

A traditional website or blog can easily measure all analytics, such as page visits, time spent on site, location of visitor, and pages visited. From there, it is possible to track the path a visitor takes to the goal pages, such as a contact page, a download page, or even an order page. This way, marketers can determine whether their web efforts are successful or not. Similar consideration needs to be paid to mobile search marketing, but it may not always be possible to track visitors completely. For example, it is possible to track the number of visits to a mobile website, what kind of mobile phone they used, and even if they visited the pricing/menu page or the directions page. But that does not mean it is possible to measure whether the person actually visited the business' physical location. That does not mean that companies should not measure mobile search marketing traffic. But it does mean it will be harder to track visits and conversions. One possible way is through the use of coupons, both on the mobile site and on geo-location networks, like Foursquare. It will not be a completely accurate analysis of customer traffic, but it will give marketers an idea of whether they have a positive ROI on their mobile search marketing efforts. As mobile phones grow in popularity, mobile search marketing is going to become more important for businesses in the B2C market. An SEO consulting firm can help determine whether there is a need for mobile search marketing, creating specially mobile-optimized websites, and measuring visitor traffic, marketers can take advantage of increased mobile usage by their target markets.

SEO, or search engine optimization, is a crucial component in brand marketing strategy. SEO enables companies to profit from a large market share of the first page of search engine results online and in mobile marketing.  SEO increases public brand awareness, increases website activity, generates leads, sales and profits for businesses.   The medium is the most targeted medium available to marketers, because it has the undivided attention of consumers who are actively searching for products and services.   

How big is SEO and search marketing? According to a February 2010 report on SearchEngineLand, people search on Google 34,000 times per second. That works out to 121 million searches per hour, 3 billion per day.

Chances are in that 3 billion searches per day, someone is looking for what a particular company does. There are tools to find out what keywords people are searching for, and other tools to find out if they are finding that company, how long they stayed on a site, and whether they made a purchase.

Web Traffic is Qualified. Many salespeople will spend hour after hour, making cold calls to unqualified potential customers, nearly all of whom are not interested or able to buy. But visitors to a site have already qualified themselves just by visiting the site in the first place. It means they are interested.

Leads can further qualify themselves by following a call to action that requires them to give their address and phone number, and even checking a box that says they want additional information. This means salespeople can increase their close rate, and save themselves from hours of wasted phone calls.

SEO and Search Marketing are Measurable. Traditional marketing is hard to measure, compared to measuring SEO. Packages like Google Analytics and Yahoo Analytics monitor web traffic, pages visited, and even whether visitors made a purchase. Imagine tracking people who came in because of an email newsletter or SEO keyword, all the way through the sales funnel, and into a final purchase.

It is nearly impossible to accurately measure the ROI of a billboard, TV commercial, or even conferences and trade shows. By measuring SEO, it is possible to see — within minutes or hours — which tactics are working, which are not, and make adjustments accordingly.

SEO is Cost Effective. Traditional marketing and advertising have higher costs than a regular SEO campaign. Not only are there higher startup and execution costs for things like billboards, TV and radio ads, or even print ads, but a lot of money is wasted because those ads are seen by people who are not within the target audience.

That is, if a company sells boat insurance, why would they put up a highway billboard? A large majority of people who drive past it do not own boats, will never own boats, and will never even ride in a boat. The billboard company's selling point is "twenty thousand people drive past this billboard every day," yet fewer than 500 people may own a boat. The advertiser has wasted money by advertising to 19,500 non-boat owners every day, rather than focusing a fraction of that money on their target audience.

This is the problem traditional marketing has — trying to reach large numbers in the hopes of reaching those special few who might need their service. SEO, on the other hand, makes it possible so only the target audience — boat owners — finds the company's website, and only when they need to. Rather than spending $10,000 per month in the hopes 500 boat owners will be ready to buy when they drive by, it is possible to create an SEO campaign to reach the boat owners at the exact time they are ready to buy: the minute they search for "boat insurance" on their favorite search engine.

SEO is a powerful tool, both for winning search engine ranking, and for improving a company's brand image. It is more cost effective than traditional marketing, and can reach a targeted audience. But companies who ignore it do so at their own financial peril.