SEO and eBusiness by Jon Roberts In this first article we are going to look at the nature of internet based business or eBusiness, and internet functionality. “Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other.” Bill Gates. Needs no Introduction.    When the World Wide Web was created in 1989 and shortly afterwards made available for the public, it had an extremely rapid impact on businesses. People just ‘got it.’ The internet exploded, hundreds of sites promptly became thousands, to hundreds of thousands, to today over 130 million serving nearly 2 billion users.  You can bet that the majority of the 17 million divers PADI has acquired are very much a part of the internet generation.    As a user, the internet provides instant gratification for information on dive destinations, tourist information and more important to IRRA members, dive center information.  eBusiness is probably the most important part of a 21st Century dive center, but is often the most neglected part of that business. The argument “I don’t need a good website, all my customers just walk-in” is you should agree, a self-fulfilling prophecy. eBusinessmen and ePirates. The most common phrases I hear from dive center managers about their eBusiness are basically as follows: •    “I do not have time to update my website.” •    “It’s too expensive to run my web presence." •    “I receive most of my bookings through agents, or walk-ins.” •    “We do not even show up on the internet.” •    “We spend a lot of money on our shop, but hardly anything on our website.” •    “I cannot use a computer, but I have a Facebook account.”    If you can empathize with any of those quotes, this should tell you that your eBusiness needs to start becoming part of your future business strategy.  It is not that you have been neglecting that part of the business but you probably are unaware of how to start to fix it? Good advice can be expensive, complicated and sometimes incorrect. The motive seems to be to up-sale the solution make you purchase more than is required, linked with expensive after care for the most basic of updates such as even just changing the price.  Don’t get me wrong, there are some great world class people and companies who can offer you real value-for-money solutions, with excellent results. But, it has to be asked that what do you expect from them?   You are a manager, right? Not a computer geek, if you were you wouldn’t be so bewildered with it all. It’s time for you to start gaining a little knowledge, in the 2nd article we will look at SEO, or Search Engine Optimization.