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Director of Business Development at Barracuda Digital
25 May 2006 12:48pm
I know this maybe controversial to say and I am an admirer of the business model of Cheapflights but isn't there any argument to suggest that a busines like cheapflights is way to dependent on Search engine positions and Google
especially.
I would suggest that their strategic imperative would be to focus their time on returning and keeping customers e.g email newsletters, discussion groups, newfeeds, mobile services, user generated content, (http://www.youtube.com/categories_portal?c=19&e=1) fantastic content
To me best practice SEO strategy includes all the elements of great usability and customer stickiness
Regards
David Reilly
content writer at xponse
26 May 2006 08:01am
Hi,
You are absolutely spot on when you say that the best SEO strategy should focus its time and energy on returning and keeping customers. And of course I agree to the idea that content is the king when it comes to customer stickiness. The prime objective of SEO/SEM should be to work towards returning customers.
http://www.xponsetech.com/seo.html
Freelance Web Consultant at architxt.net
26 May 2006 18:22pm
Not sure I understand or agree with what you say about focusing on returning or keeping customers. These people are obviously aware of the site and will probably not use a search engine to return to it. They will have bookmarked it or just remember the URL.
There may be little scope for a site like CheapFlights to engage with it's visitors the way sites with strong community elements do. The easyjet site, for example, is effectively a booking engine. There is no need for anything else.
Freelance Web Consultant at architxt.net
26 May 2006 18:28pm
How about when site stickiness and SEO are not compatible?
We're seeing many clever bits of technology on sites like Flickr, but how many of these applications help ranking?
There is nothing on http://www.xponsetech.com/seo.html suggesting any strategy for customer retention either.