If your IT guru has told you that something called search engine optimization is
the way to go, but you’re still foggy about
what it is or why you should care, consider
this: When done right, SEO could double
your return on investment and help you
acquire scores of new customers.
Search engine optimization in its most
basic form is simply about making your
Web site appear higher up in search results
from sites like Google and Yahoo.
Search engines are the starting point of
almost all online activity, second only to e-mail, yet 83 percent of readers surveyed by
Smart Business say they plan to invest less
into their 2009 marketing budget. Search
engine optimization has a rightful place in
every company’s budget, yet few companies ‘get it,’ and they don’t allocate serious
funds into the development of a program.
It all starts when a potential customer
enters a search term into Google. Two
types of search results are displayed: natural and pay-per-click.
Natural search, which are the results
shown on the left side of any search page,
are based on merit and validity to the keywords used. The results in the narrow column on the right are pay-per-click results.
When you optimize your site for natural
search, it can take three months to see
progress in your rankings. The better the
optimization, the higher up your site will
appear in relevant searches, increasing
your chances for a sale.
Pay-per-click gets immediate results by
displaying your ad when someone searches for a particular keyword that you
choose, but you are charged every time
someone clicks on your site. This is an
advertisement and a temporary fix.
