@Barbara, I agree that when it comes to search engine optimization (coming up in natural search results) a great strategy is to create valuable content that people will link to.

However, this often takes an engaged client – and many are not. We can create content for businesses but it’s always better if they are involved. They, of course, know their businesses better than we do.

Thanks for the comments!

Janet

When I saw your article, I thought you were going to talk about the fact that companies can place high in organic search without a conscious keyword strategy.

One “secret” to success is developing winning content. If your company specializes in a particular area, and you provide valuable information about that area, you may rise to the top just because a lot of other companies link to you.

In my own case, that’s how a Wall Street Journal reporter came to contact me as a source for an article she was writing on a pharmaceutical company’s Internet marketing campaign. Although I didn’t have a PPC campaign–or even a keyword rich site, I had published several articles on email marketing in health care that others had referenced on their websites. To my surprise, she said my site popped up in the top 10 when she set out to research her article!

I am an analyst at Blitzlocal and I work with Harrison on doing PPC and SEO for local service businesses. There are a lot of firms out here trying to help local businesses– Orange Soda included– and we should work together to educate clients. Even though agencies like ourselves are doing the technical implementation, the client still has to have a business grasp on why we need good content, a unique selling proposition, offline conversion tracking, and so forth.

Educating clients– like what you’re doing here in this blog post– help the real agencies stand out and prevents the charlatans from selling snake oil, which is easy enough to do in the early days.