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you are so wrong. sorry.
it's easy to say you don't need seo for a company name or a blog title, but if you're trying to sell sunglasses or shoes there's so much competition that all the tweaking and linking makes a big difference
Well, sure, but what I'm saying is that a well-built site shouldn't need much tweaking, and links should come from real sources, not link exchanges.
Put another way: I'd bet you could do better than paying some SEO firm by instead building a well-structured site, and then regularly posting useful articles about sunglasses and shoes. How do I find sunglasses or shoes that fit? What are the current trends in style? What if I have wide feet, or glasses keep falling down my nose? And how about super-detailed product specifications, with honest field-tested evaluations ("these 'hiking shoes' are fine for looking rugged in the city, but the soles are too slippery for real rock faces; try these other ones")?
The thing is, attracting people to your site is less than half the battle. You need to keep them around and get them to do stuff (buy things, for example)—and if you've used subterfuge to bring them in, they'll figure it out and leave, or at least realize that there are 300 other, essentially interchangeable sites that also sell sunglasses or shoes and have done basic link-exchange SEO.
On the other hand, if your site is unique because it actually helps people with useful information that only an expert can provide (as I wrote about before), I think they'd be more likely to buy from you. Even if you charge more than your less-useful competitors.
Also check out Digital Web magazine's "SEO and Your Web Site," which is a good read emphasizing some of the same points.
Commenting by HaloScan
