I have been involved in web site promotions since 1997, working with ISP's and web design firms in South Africa and the UK. During these 5 years I have provided web site optimisation, link building and search engine promotion for over 700 sites. The sites I have been responsible for promoting have covered just about every industry and included every type of design style, from static company brochures to online stores selling thousands of products.

As you'll probably notice from the SEM Guide, I tend to approach search engine optimisation from a marketing, rather than techie, perspective. Although I agree that one must be able to at least understand, if not perform, the technical aspects necessary to designing and optimising sites for search engine positioning, it sometimes seems that many beginners wrongly assume that this is all there is to it. That is why I try to make the point that search engine optimisation is just one aspect of online marketing. Whether it is used in conjunction with other online marketing tactics or on its own it needs to be treated as a marketing exercise rather than techie tricks.

I have been involved with search engine optimisation almost since its inception as a method of online advertising. As I have continued in the industry during the entire 5 years, I have had the opportunity to keep abreast of changes as they have occurred. A significant proportion of my working time is devoted to keeping up to date with current trends and researching possible future options.

I have been a volunteer editor for the Open Directory (otherwise known as Dmoz or Google's directory) since it became open to volunteers, originally building up the South African section and moving to editing the UK business and tourism categories in May 1999.

I do not currently take on freelance work but if you have tried looking for an SEO consultant and can't find anyone let me know and I will try to point you in the right direction. I am quite happy to answer emails regarding general issues but may end up pointing you to material already written or forums so you can learn where to find the information in future. For those of you who don't agree with anything that's written here, you are also welcome to email me if it is constructive critisism, but if you just want to rant I most likely won't reply.

If you know of any important links or subjects that I have missed please do let me know. This site started out as a way to organise my bookmarks and will most likely be a continual work in progress so all suggestions are welcome.