To excel in a highly competitive space, you must be willing to embrace your detractors and do what you know works best. I don’t know of an online business with more competition than search engine optimization. To my mind, top search engine results should be about providing information and resources most relevant to the search query. Successful rankings are earned through quality content and well thought out page optimization, not the pump-and-dump tactics of search engine spammers. Jill Whalen is one of the SEO gurus who excel in using effective Web implementation and long term planning to keep listings at the top for the long term. At SES San Jose, we talked with Jill about her background in building successful sites for the last 10 years and how there’s more to SEO than quick fix tactics employed by spammers.

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