I just had to pass this one on. This is a real-life example of someone who was trying to find a hospital where a friend of his had been relocated, but couldn’t. All of his searching through Google wouldn’t let him find the right phone number.
In some cases, I can understand, but for a hospital? This is one case where I do agree with him for sure – something should have been done. It’s a great example of how not doing proper SEO will make it so that people trying to find you or your services will never be able to online. In cases like that, the only way to pass on your site (and get traffic) is through offline marketing, be it on business cards or television commercials. I think if you have a web site, it’s silly to have it sitting on the web without getting any natural traffic. But that’s where SEO comes into play.
At any rate, if you want the full details on this crazy hospital example, check out Alan Bleiweiss’s SEO story. It’s a doozy.