I’ve been in this business a long time. Twelve years, to be exact. I’ve seen many things happen over the years but one trend, in particular, always seemed to bother me – the outsourcing of Search Engine Optimization work to India. It’s not that I am against India or against free markets or free enterprise. Nor am I against business owners doing what they can to “make a profit.” But something about the outsourcing of this particular work was always jarring to me. You see, Search Engine Optimization has always seemed like a marketing task to me since at it’s very root is the understanding of “how people search” online. What this massive outsourcing to India was telling us, however, what that Search Engine Optimization had actually become a mechanical task.

If this was the case, I definitely missed the bus and thought perhaps it was time to look into what options were available. As apprehensive as I was, I decided to finally contact a referral I was given in India to have the talk – and boy am I glad I did. My contact not only informed me that I missed the bus (because I did) but that Search Engine Optimization (the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site via natural search engine listings) was “best left to the Americans.” My contact told me that many of the tactics and strategies that his firm used-to-do are no longer effective and, as such, his firm no longer provides those services. So, even if I wanted to, I couldn’t outsource any optimization work to his team.

Optimization, you see, is more effective when performed by people who “get” how people search including understanding the different phases of a buying cycle and how someone might search differently when browsing versus when buying. The pendulum indeed has swung back in favor of marketing. Search engine optimization does require skills that extend beyond marketing and get into design & development issues. Still, at the crux of any good program is a solid keyword strategy that comes from the marketing team.

For the record, the Indian company I spoke with has moved all of their services completely into Social Media Marketing.