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Greatly Increase On-Line
Success with Search Engine Optimization
It's the dawn of a new realization for companies with a
website design. Many companies with an
existing website, may now realize that they are not
getting business leads from their site, or possibly not
getting as many as they have in the past. The
following basic facts may help you gain an understanding
and basic information about website promotion and search
engine optimization.
Search
Engine Optimization Defined
Search
Engine Optimization is a very technically complex field,
which implements a number of website strategies to
increase the rankings and traffic of your site (when key
words are typed into internet search engines such as
Google, Yahoo, etc); thus often dramatically
increasing website traffic, rankings, business leads,
and potential customers that may contact you as a
result. It is also referred to as Web Site
Promotion, and Website Positioning or Placement. A
quality SEO company can assist in making a dramatic
difference in the business results potential of a
website.
Different Search Engines
Yield Different Rankings
Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and Netscape are considered to
be
the 5 most popular search engines, with Google
accounting for over 30% of all search results.
Google continues to be a popular search engine.
But each search engine uses different ranking algorithms
(or technical equations) to determine how highly to rank
a site for various key words phrases. As the
engines use different algorithms, the results will vary
from engine to engine. Google admits to applying
over 100 different algorithms in ranking websites, thus
you can see why SEO is such a technically complex
process (when it's done right!)
ALSO - the major search engines are constantly
changing their ranking algorithms,
and new sites
are constantly entering the marketplace - thus rankings
of a website will change over time. Search Engine
Optimization must be an on-going process to address the
on-going algorithm changes, as well as increasing
competition from other websites in the same business
segment as yours may be . . .
What is a "Natural
Search" Relative to Search Engine Results?
A natural
search result is the resulting list of websites that
come up when you type a key word phrase into a search
engine such as Google, Yahoo, etc. They DO NOT by
definition come up underneath the "Sponsored Results" or
"Sponsored Sites" listed by the search engines.
Natural results searches are websites that come up based
on search engine optimization as described above.
They come up based on their own value and validity as
determined by search engine algorithms. Another
term used to describe a "Natural Search" is an "Organic
Search" Result.
MOST IMPORTANTLY - internet surfers strongly tend to
view Natural Search Results as more credible and
trustable than Sponsored Results. The goal
of search engine optimization is to increase rankings
and traffic that are obtained by "Natural Search
Results" within the search engines.
How About Pay Per Click and "Sponsored Results"
Many Engines,
including Google, Yahoo, MSN offer pay per click
programs, and those companies which purchase a pay per
click program will appear in "Sponsored Results" for
different search phrases. How does this
work? You contract to pay a certain amount of
money to appear in the sponsored results. Let's
say you sell website designs, and offer to pay $1.15
every time someone types the keyword phrase "website
designs" into the search engine Google and clicks on
your site. First of all, whoever is bidding higher
than you will be shown higher in the Sponsored Results.
It's basically a bidding war, and whoever pays the
highest amount is shown first, and so on. Every
time someone "clicks through" to view your site under
the Sponsored Results for 'Website Designs", you pay
$1.15. If 1000 people did this during
an entire month, you will receive a bill for $1150 for
that month alone. It can be costly! Although
"Pay Per Click" results can produce business leads,
the price tag can be significant. In contrast
to Natural Search Results (as explained above), there is
no fee associated when someone clicks on your site, if
the site comes up under the "Natural Search."
Hiring a Company to Assist
you with Search Engine Optimization
Many companies offer this service, but it is extremely
important to select a credible company that will provide
you with an excellent return on your investment.
Get results and proof of performance before you hire a
website optimization company. Get several
references and don't be afraid to call them to ask
questions about how much business and potential
customers they have gotten from retaining the SEO firm.
What traffic and ranking increases have their
optimization customers gotten from their SEO program?
Search engine optimization is very technically complex, and if you
don't do a thorough job on the front end in selecting
you may waste thousands of dollars!
SEO can be very time consuming and technically complex
to implement for a website design. It requires an
investment, but the investment can pay off many times
over if an excellent job is done! Take your time and
research the alternatives.
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Website Design Search
Engine Optimization
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