While chatting with a fellow web geek today, I was told that “Search Engine Optimization is overrated “. Given that this individual is directly related to the success of a very large web site, this surprised the hell out of me.

After a quick chat with my online director, I came to realize that there is a strong level of ignorance in the web development community. You would think this wouldn’t have come as such a shock to me but there are so many web sites out there that are validating to xhtml transitional and are very successful in the general areas of SEO best practices. I think the dis-connect has a lot to do with the fact that Google has switched their Search Engine Algorithm so many times that they think they are following current best practices, but are actually way off.

The question is, how do you deal with these people? Obviously, I could throw a tantrum, kick him where I shouldn’t, and run away. I have decided to take a more in-direct approach and try to influence the developer and bring him up to speed on the many advantages that SEO brings to the table.