Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of manually editing webpages within a given site in an effort to achieve higher rankings for specific searches on the major search engines
Although it is both tedious and time consuming, SEO was one of the driving forces behind the survival of companies like Amazon.com when the internet bubble burst in the late 90's. Many companies went under, but Amazon was able to stay afloat due to their overwhelming presence atop the search engines.
This is a major factor why SEO is so valuable to every website's marketing mix. Gaining the coveted #1 or even #3 spots in organic search can potentially drive thousands of visitors to your site each month free of charge, as well as boost the credibility and branding of your product.
Think of it as amazing PR. Except it actually has measurable ROI.
Consider this:
- 90% of new site visitors will come to your site via a search engine.
- There is a 600% increase in traffic when moving from page 2 in the rankings to page 1.
- 97% of Google searchers never click past the first three pages.
- Search engines deliver highly targeted visitors to your site.
- 98% of internet users have used a search engine in the last quarter.
Obviously, being on the first page in any search engine will greatly aid your website and its ability to convert visitors, which then begs the question: how do I get there?
To get to the top of the search engines, you need to learn the basics on how they operate. First, there are two types of listing on each major search engine. They are:
- Paid results
- Natural or Organic results
Paid results are the links floating above the natural ones that state in very small print “sponsored listing.” They also appear running down the side of the search engine's results page (SERP). As their name suggests, companies or individuals pay for their position (to a certain extent anyway, but I'll get into that in a different article).
Natural, or organic, results appear because a complex algorithm, the driving force behind the success of any search engine, decided that the 1st listing is more relevant than the next listing, which is more relevant than the next listing, which is more relevant than the 10,678,301st listing.
Understand that there are countless NASA grade scientists sitting in think tanks over at Google, MSN, and Yahoo! racking their enormous wonder-brains trying to make the SERPs as relevant as possible, and I, a proud graduate of the Pennsylvania State University school of Communications will break down those scientists thousands of hours of work into something a little simpler.
The natural (free) listings in the search engines are determined by two main factors that smack of a grammer school popularity contest.
- Does the page have a clear and defined theme?
- How many links from outside qualified sources are pointing at the site.
Think of it this way. In order to crowned the most popular kid in school what do you need? 1. A snazzy outfit, and some cool shoes. Possibly a pair of aviator sunglasses. 2. For all the other cool kids to come out and say that you are the absolute coolest!
It is the exact same way in search. In SEO, we dress up your website to make it more attractive and snazzy to search engines. We alter the meta tags, the page title, the H1 tags and so on. Then, we get you votes. We search for blogs, small websites, large websites, directories and many other resources in an effort to acquire links to your site. However, just like in the popularity contest the opinion of some computer geek matters very little, so is it for links from sites outside of your niche. Which is why we acquire links that are relevant to your site.
Of course it is far more complex than a popularity contest among children, but you get the idea.
Getting your site to the top of the search engines is a difficult process, but one that is well worth the investment. Contact us for a quote today, and let us help you be the most popular kid on the web.