: To SEO Or Not To SEO?

Understanding SEO of necessity requires a solid understanding of its purposes. SEO can be very difficult to do properly so it is a good idea to learn about what it is in an effort to make an informed decision about implementing it.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. The goal of the practice is to place your website at the top of Google's or Yahoo's search results for search terms that relate to your website. SEO is part of a larger idea of bringing visitors to your website, or generating traffic.
The reason SEO is such a hot topic is because it has the potential to bring new visitors to your website for free, where other methods require money or a continuous effort. SEO is not the only way to bring in visitors.
Other Common Ways of Generating Traffic
1. Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and MSN AdCenter - These are the text ads on most websites. You pay per click made on your ad.
2. Write an article - Many sites try to get traffic to their sites by writing articles for other sites and submitting them to other sites. This article is actually an experiment to test how well article submission works.
3. Trade Links - Write some webmasters from other websites and ask if you can trade website links. This works best if you are in the same niche as the site you are contacting. Incidentally, this also helps your ranking on the search engines.
4. Advertise Offline - If you are a brick and mortar type business, put your web address on all your documents. Business cards, invoices, stationary, sign, etc.
5. Etc., etc., etc.
Is SEO for You?
Is SEO for you? You'll have to answer that yourself. There are several other ways of generating traffic if you wish. Most of the other ways listed above are easier to implement than many SEO techniques simply because they have a much lower learning curve. The website you manage may not even be relevant to the public, but used for internal use at your company. If this is the case, just make sure your website is user friendly and continue on your way.
Final Thoughts
SEO is a great tool if done correctly. Coming up on the first page of search results will give a definite boost to your site's traffic level, and your visitors will come in continuously for a long time so long as your website is relevant. Most other options require a continuous effort to maintain.
I should also note that SEO, or any of these methods listed above, will guarantee that you sell more product or whatever the goal of your website may be. This is the other side of the on-line marketing scene called "funneling". A whole school of thought goes into the idea of content and navigability and promotion internal to your website. Combine all of the ideas outlined in this article, including the user funneling idea along with a pertinent website topic, and you have yourself a money making machine. If you are looking for additional articles like this, my website Glowspin.com is dedicated to generating web traffic and posting the results of my efforts for all to see.