

Ask HN: How important is SEO to your business and what tools do you use? - inaka

And what is your most important tool? Website or desktop tool? Consultant? And do you pay for these tools/services or do it yourself?
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solost
It really depends on the type of business you are opperating and the
background you bring. Companies that operate content businesses or busineses
that rely on advertising as their primary revenue model rely on SEO more than
most others.

Regardless of the value you see in SEO, it drives a number of critical skills.
SEO relys on data, keyword data, traffic data, bailout data, conversion data
etc. and so learning about what makes SEO successful means you must have
quality analytics in place and learn how to use them and that will make all of
the operating parts of your business better and or more efficient.

Again depending on your needs and the size of your business SEO is best
managed internally, rely on an experienced and reputable consultant if you
need help.

Sites like SEOmoz and SEObook offer excellent information and tool sets to get
you started for a minimal monthly fee.

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onreact-com
I'm doing SEO myself as a consultant so it's very important for my business
;-) and I have to disappoint you:

1\. SEO is not about "a tool", it relies on a plethora of factors and tasks
many of which user solost has already outlined in his comment

2\. There is no single tool that will allow you to do SEO work, you need a few
tools, I'd say more or less 10 depending on what you actually do. Three weeks
ago I compiled a list of the most important ones:
[http://www.seoptimise.com/blog/2009/07/the-30-free-seo-
tools...](http://www.seoptimise.com/blog/2009/07/the-30-free-seo-tools-you-
must-know.html)

Nowadays SEO is more about "killer" content creation, social media and viral
marketing than anything else. The basic on site SEO work and link building is
trivial and not enough.

~~~
inaka
thanks for the comments and that link.

definitely not disappointed - i wasn't implying it was a tool as much as
wanting to know whether or not people would say 'you must have the seobook
toolbar' or 'mozrank changed my perspective on valuing links', etc...

