SEO actually always bothered me. And from what I have seen so far, the chances are that it bothers you too! The reason? Its nice looking, clean-cut, always on time, reliable sister: Pay Per Click.

A few years ago I was selling electronic media advertising. Back then, GDS advertising was by far the largest contributor of revenue to the company (and my sales figures) but internet advertising was also just starting to take off. Even in those days, for those clients that ventured off to what was then uncharted fields of internet campaigning, there was a very clear gravitational pull between a Director of Sales and PPC.

You see, once the PPC campaign was turned on, the customer was practically hooked in this neat little machine where we would put a pound coin in one side and anything between a 10 and a 20 pound note would come out on the other. This meant that sales would grow for everyone, and that kept everyone happy. So happy in fact that it was very, very hard to convince a hotelier to consider investing their money on anything else on the web. In a very obvious way, SEO was the victim of PPC. Of course this was not the case because it was ever given a fair chance, but because it never had a chance.

And in a way, back then that was OK. These were the days that PPC was the newest buzz-word and the most complex presentation you could do was to explain what PPC was, talk about click-throughs and tracking..! Customers buying into PPC were practically on the cutting edge and their ROI was almost guaranteed to beat 15 to 1. Who could ever argue with the figures? Not that I wanted to argue anyway as (as I have already mentioned) I wasn’t that comfortable with SEO.

Although I had a fairly good idea of what it could do, there were a few things about it that didn’t like. Without going in to detail on this, I thought SEO was always too vague, lacking saleability in the specifics department.

The inescapable fact - and what makes search engine portals such profitable business for their owners - is that Pay Per Click, when done in a half-decent way, works. When it is done properly, it is sensational.

For the untrained eye, a comparison between the two was almost unfair! PPC is tangible, responsive and an accountable investment. SEO was (and still is) largely seen as non-accountable, intangible and (by comparison to PPC) takes a long time to kick in. Additionally, SEO was more difficult to grasp all round. Apart from providing me with difficulties when I was asked “what will you do for me exactly?” (try to explain why Alt Text or Headings are important to a non enthusiast and you will see what I mean), it was also difficult after all the work was done since results take time. With hoteliers only knowing about PPC, the delay was frustrating for them.

Pay Per Click was always clean cut and (very much in line with Caesar's famous request to his wife) isn't just truly honest; it also appears to be honest. When it came to first impressions, PPC always had a firm hand-shake and came to the job interview with impressive, tangible and provable success stories. SEO was the person that turns up late, looks shifty, you don't know what she has been up to, and you know that most of your competitors wouldn't employ her. It all practically makes you want to shake a finger in front of her face and ask in a fed-up voice why she can't be a little more like PPC.

For better or for worse, and as it is always the case with emerging technologies, things have now changes a lot.

One thing that has changed for sure, is the hoteliers themselves. I can tell you with a great level of certainty that one in every two clients I meet, would give any uncertain e-marketing salesperson a life-changing scare. Today it is easier to talk about concurrent website monitoring than it was to even mention organic vs. paid-for listings some ten years ago. More savvy hoteliers means that the more difficult concepts can now be explained and sold where appropriate.

Another thing that is changing, is that the entire marketplace of on-line advertising. The battle for the right keywords is now a science. A good friend of mine is starting this month his PhD in UCL on applied mathematics and algorithmic trending - which will basically train him to write programmes that calculate the mood of the surfers, practically identifying not just the current SEO trends and customer wants, but also to predict future ones. And some heavy-weight player will employ him to do SEO work, whilst a lot of hoteliers out there aren’t even looking at SEO yet. Unlike PPC, SEO gives early entrants massive advantages - which means that those that go early will remain ahead of the pack for a long time.  In PPC, when a keyword becomes expensive for you, it is equally expensive for everyone (and richer players have more room to push you out). In SEO early entrants have the advantages and it will take the richer players a significant amount of disproportionate effort to push you out of the way.

Finally, I have definitely changed - especially since SEO and I were properly introduced. And this is one acquaintance that I can’t recommend enough.

Today, I find myself arguing that SEO is exactly where hoteliers needs to go. The varying degrees of understanding it, and its much weaker image behind PPC are indications that much fewer people in the industry are trying it out. And those that do? Given that there isn't a small number of companies that would charge peanuts to undertake it (and deliver work of equivalent value), one must assume that on average the work that is done, isn't done as well as one would hope.

All these challenges mean one thing. This is virgin territory - an arena that draws from tangible no-black-hat sciences like consumer psychology, mathematics, economics and principles of demand and supply - where if you are making any effort, you are already ahead of the game. This is the market to be in - every time.

Yannis Anastasakis

electronic Hotelworks

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