VIS® – 15 Years of Servicing With Passion

This July, VIS celebrates 15 years of servicing with passion. Although it feels like those early days in 2007 were just yesterday, we need only examine our achievements to see how far we’ve come. In this 15th-anniversary edition blog post, we’ll take a walk down memory lane as we acknowledge VIS’s roots and appreciate our growth over the past decade-and-a-half. Let’s start in 2005 when VIS was yet to become the digital marketing agency in Australia we know it as today

Before we were a full-service agency…

VIS wasn’t always an SEO agency in Australia. Believe it or not, in 2005, we were hosting a remote-access TV show on Nepalese International TV (NITV) that discussed marketing and branding—insofar as was possible in a mid-2000s lens. This TV show, which broadcasted all of Southeast Asia’s channels to Australian TV, ran for a year before we discontinued it. The business model was unsustainable.

Whilst some organisations would have thrown in the towel, this was not within VIS’s nature. We needed a different angle and a different approach. Because our founder, Prabin Gautam, was a computer engineer, computing and coding became the next natural choice for VIS. And that brings us to July 2007, when we officially founded VIS.

2007 and the digital landscape

VIS was ahead of the curve. Back in 2007, technology played nowhere near as significant a role in society. Flip phones were the standard form of cellular communication, Facebook was just starting to eclipse MySpace as the major social media platform, and Google had few additional features outside of its original search engine mechanic.

Search rankings were nowhere near as relevant as they are today. Whereas today, a website is a fundamental touchpoint for an organisation, in 2007, a website functioned more as additional collateral for an already-established brand. Business websites were a novel concept and only business owners with the foresight of digital innovation would invest in them. These business owners formed VIS’s original client base.

Why were business websites such a novel concept?

2007 was only 15 years ago, but it can be difficult to look back on it without our 2022 lenses. It is difficult to think back to a pre-smartphone era where Instagram wouldn’t exist for another three years. Why were business websites such a novel concept back then? For one thing, we could not reach into our pockets for immediate Internet access. It may not have seemed worthwhile to spend money on a platform that would likely gain sporadic traffic at best.

Moreover, websites were more expensive back then. If you wanted a website, you had to work for it! 

VIS stepped in as something of a tech support service, pouring its efforts into processes that easy plugins and drag-and-drag website systems largely automate today.

Was SEO relevant in 2007?

Although SEO has technically existed since the mid-to-late ’90s, it was still in its infancy even in 2007. Websites existed more for aesthetic purposes, and if you implemented SEO strategies into your website—such as keyword optimisation—it would definitely appear on the top Google results page. You could even stuff keywords to the point of the content sounding artificial and Google wouldn’t penalise you the way it does today.

SEO was not as relevant in 2007 because the competition was not stiff. Remember, this was the era where business websites were optional extras rather than base necessities. Any online trace of your business was an achievement. Even a single-page website containing an unprinted brochure was a decent effort.

When websites started to take off…

As time went by, businesses became aware that websites were necessary rather than just optional. As this realisation rippled throughout society, the demand for business websites grew. And because websites were VIS’s bread and butter, we already had an upper hand of sorts in the SEO agency market in Australia. However, as you likely know by now, VIS is never an organisation that rests on its laurels. To further stand out, we used advanced coding to develop software for real estate agencies, RTOs, and universities.

Software for mobile apps, CRMs, and student management systems was such a large leap toward digital transformation. This latest addition to our repertoire, software development, inspired our newest slogan: global knowledge, local impact.

When Google caught onto SEO malpractices…

It wasn’t until 2009 or 2010 that Google (and other search engines) caught onto SEO malpractices—most notably, keyword stuffing. In response, they tightened their algorithm to penalise websites that laid on the strategy too thick. The reasoning was that if they did not place limits around keyword usage, content alone would dictate which websites came out on top, as opposed to reputation or trustworthiness. This algorithm change is the reason why SEO has become such a technical and complex endeavour. 

Of course, VIS saw the change as an opportunity to add SEO to its repertoire of services. In 2010, we started offering SEO and social media services on a complimentary basis. Generous as this sounds, bear in mind that social media was not the superpower it is now even in 2010. Our social media marketing barely extended beyond Facebook and YouTube.

The here and now

At some point in the early 2010s, social media took off big time and we’ve been riding the wave ever since. As a business that helps other businesses grow, we have stayed on top of all technological and digital trends, and that’s how VIS has evolved. Our range of services includes digital strategy for Google Ads, SEO, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, as well as professional imagery and videography to deliver your business message in an impactful way.

Looking ahead
Although we have achieved so much, we are also excited to see what’s next and how we can optimise processes even more as we push on into the future. Our team continues to ride the marketing trends to ensure your business reaches its next milestone. This is what drives us to do what we do—and if we’ve achieved all this in 15 years, imagine what we can do with another 15 more.

Place your trust in a full-service digital marketing agency in Australia that has 15 years of experience under its belt. If there’s one thing we’ve learnt in the past decade-and-a-half, it’s how to make your online presence the best it can be. If you would like to be part of VIS’s next chapter, contact us today and let’s make it happen.