The 2nd last of this year's HIE e-tourism seminars took place in Horizon Scotland, Forres today. A bit of a 'home' game for myself and Stewart.

A diverse array of businesses attended from small b&b's to larger concerns such as Johnstons of Elgin and the Knockomie Hotel.

Hopefully everyone received some useful insights into how to improve their web presences and we wish everyone good luck in improving their online strategies.

It still seems that there are companies out there, promising the Earth to their clients when it comes to Search Engine Optimisation and website rankings.

Having worked in the building industry I can't help but see the parallels.

So many people but their faith in others who have knowledge and experience, to get a job done which they cannot do themselves.

I always advise my clients to avoid anyone who 'guarantees' a top listing in Google's organic results, but not everyone has the benefit of a friendly advisor to hand. So, just to re-iterate, nobody can guarantee the top ranking on page one of any given search result. Not even Google themselves. That's how they designed it.

Google's entire empire rests on the validity of their search results. A bond of trust has been developed between themselves and the user. And an unwritten pact to deliver where possible accurate and relevant search results. So it makes no sense that all companies can be top of the rankings.

Search engine optimisation isn't a silver bullet. But, like most worthwhile things, it requires effort.

Coding is only the start of the process and developing content and valuable reciprocal links is the main part of the battle.

But, ultimately, your site has to be useful to those who use the internet. So whilst SEO is important, it's what your site does and how well it does it that matters.