Search Engine Optimization- A Tandem Approach explores a technique and rationale for creating two websites with one location on the internet, one which is dynamic with moving images and one which is static.

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary has five definitions for the word tandem. Used as an adjective, tandem means:

“1: consisting of things or having parts arranged one behind the other

2: working or occurring in conjunction with each other”

If you are marketing your business on the internet you may be presented with this challenge and dilemma: internet popularity with the major search engines and popularity with your potential customers do not necessarily coincide. In other words, the search engines, and Google in particular, rank sites in terms of quality content and popularity of links to other relevant sites. People rank sites based on their immediate needs or preferences.

Consider this: is the site listed on page one number one position on Google always the best choice for what you are seeking? Of course not. Might there be another site among the ten million sites listed that would lead you to a better product or service? Absolutely. Are you going to look through ten million sites to find out? No way. It is like the old philosophy question: if a tree falls in the forest and there is no one to hear it fall, did a sound occur when the tree fell? If you cannot find the best site it might as well not exist.

In three previous articles: 1) Search Engine Optimization for Beginners; 2) Search Engine Optimization- The Long Road to Internet Success; and 3) Website Redesign- A Perilous Road this author described the steep learning curve required to attempt to understand the ever changing goal called search engine optimization for your website. The purpose of this article is to describe a tandem approach to search engine optimization and why this technique may be useful to accomplish the dual goals of popularity for your site with the search engines and popularity with your potential customers.

Every day the internet becomes increasingly complex and sophisticated. Things we take for granted today, like internet radio, movie trailers, Google Earth, social networking, dating, multiplayer video games, You Tube- all could be hardly imagined five years ago. People like images that move and great sounds from the internet. It follows that if your site has some of these types of features, people may like your website more.

Today the search engines do not see dynamic content on the internet. It is like a movie that is visible to visitors and invisible to the search engines. It is this dichotomy that inspired a tandem approach to search engine optimization. One site can have a normal static section (or version) where nothing moves and a dynamic section where many things move to attract visitor’s attention to the product or service. The two approaches can be combined in one site but it may be extraordinarily annoying to have things moving if this bothers your prospective customer, and exceedingly dull if your customer prefers flashy images with content. It is a tough decision to settle on a combined static and dynamic site, or a tandem approach. You can give your visitors a choice with the tandem approach.

In 1892 Harry Dacre wrote a song called Daisy, Daisy; most people know of it as A Bicycle Built for Two. Here are the lyrics:

There is a flower within my heart,

Daisy, Daisy!

Planted one day by a glancing dart,

Planted by Daisy Bell!

Whether she loves me or loves me not,

Sometimes it's hard to tell;

Yet I am longing to share the lot

Of beautiful Daisy Bell!

Chorus:

Daisy Daisy,

Give me your answer do!

I'm half crazy,

All for the love of you!

It won't be a stylish marriage,

I can't afford a carriage,

But you'll look sweet on the seat

Of a bicycle built for two !

There is a flower within my heart,

Daisy, Daisy!

Planted one day by a glancing dart,

Planted by Daisy Bell!

Whether she loves me or loves me not,

Sometimes it's hard to tell;

Yet I am longing to share the lot

Of beautiful Daisy Bell!

Chorus:

Daisy Daisy,

Give me your answer do!

I'm half crazy,

All for the love of you!

It won't be a stylish marriage,

I can't afford a carriage,

But you'll look sweet on the seat

Of a bicycle built for two !

The bottom line: Harry Dacre could hardly have envisioned the internet or search engine optimization issues but he had the same idea: a tandem approach is a good way to go.