Ok, confession time first, I find the whole Web 2.0 thing a bit of a joke. The cute Ajax gimmicks, the jumbo-sized ‘kids play model’ look that makes you wonder if your screen’s reverted to 800×600, the DTP-circa-1998 graphics. Some of the interactivity is useful but a lot of it reeks of bandwagon jumping.

Anyway, this isn’t really about that Web 2.0, it’s about the financial and marketing fraternity’s idea of Web 2. The massive adverting industry that’s grown up around social networking interaction and the ever expanding ecommerce sector which reportedly threatens to close the high street shops for good.

With the current banking crisis knocking economic and financial confidence we’ve started to see reports speculating about some big net companies – AOL seem to be a favourite target – going into decline and triggering another dot.com crash which will see IT and marketing budgets plummet.

If such a crash were to happen then what is your best response if you have an online business? Naturally it depends on whether your business is one that might suddenly vanish, but assuming you still have potential customers then the only sensible thing to do is not to cut your marketing spend but to ensure that it is going to get you through the long haul. Good SEO, in the true sense of the phrase, is vital to your survival. A site that is fundamentally strong and well structured will outlast the get rich quick merchants because it will give users a positive experience and attract good rankings because of it. If buyers are scarce it matters even more to convert as many visitors as possible because it’s a lot easier to increase conversion percentages than to attract a hundred times as many more visitors.

Get yourself a good experienced SEO who will look at all aspects of your website and advise you on the total experience that you’re presenting to users as well as search engines. Not the wildly-promising one-note players who will tell you that ranking is all about a single parameter – such as links. If there is a downturn then there are likely to be casualties and therefore more space for the quality sites to rise to the top. Investing in quality advice now will help you to survive and prosper in difficult times, if they do appear.