Search
Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search
engine optimization (or SEO) involves tweaking your web site's keywords,
content and it's design for maximum search engine exposure. Your search
engine ranking's and the amount of traffic and visitors that your web
site receives from all the different search engines can improve dramatically
if you take this critical and important step and handle it wisely.
Major search
engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN use special software agents called
robots, crawlers or spiders to examine the code and content of a web site
once it has been submitted for review. These crawlers read your web site's
keywords, keyword phrases, meta tags and web page content among other
things to determine it's relevancy and ranking in their search engine.
All of these "on page" factors help to contribute to your listing
and ranking positon within the search engines. Optimizing your web site
and then resubmitting your web site to the search engines can improve
your position and ranking and result in greatly increased search engine
traffic to your online business.
Benefits
of SEO. The benefits of SEO are almost unlimited. If done correctly,
you can greatly improve your chances of being listed on or near the front
page of the search results for those important keywords and/or keyword
phrases related to your business.
Example:
Your site offers Italian recipes and cooking tips, and also provides related
products for sale. A popular keyword used in search engines is "Italian
recipes". If you optimize your web pages to target this keyword,
you could get listed near the top of the search results for "Italian
recipes." This will bring your target audience directly to your web
site - for free!
Cost
Efficient Advertising. Search engine optimization can be costly
and a bit time consuming. However, SEO can be a cost efficient proposition
if you have the right information. It doesn't take a lot of money to get
your site ready for search engine traffic but it does take a lot of the
right knowledge. Also, you'll receive a good return on investment, whether
you invest your own time to optimize your site or hire someone else with
the right knowledge to do it for you. You will see results if your website
presentation is effective because the people coming to your site will
be the targeted audience that you want to reach. These visitors are more
likely to make a purchase of your goods and service.
The potential
for long-term positioning is another reason to optimize your site. Getting
a high rank in major search engines can result in targeted traffic for
many years to come. Remember, all the targeted traffic you receive direct
from the search engines is website traffic that you won't have to pay
for and acquire through some other means. SEO can be well worth your attention.
Great
Tip! #1 There is a lot to learn in the
art of SEO. You can spend years at it and still not know everything.
Additionally, search engine algorithims are changing and evolving
all the time. SEO is an ongoing process. However, there are some
very important and key elements and strategies to SEO that have
withstood the test of time. Those tips and secrets are not easily
discovered amongst all the inaccurate, outdated and volumes of information
published on the internet. For a concise, clear and direct presentation
of exactly how to optimize your website - stay tuned here!
SEO
and Google Page Rank (TM). Optimizing your site is not only based
on keywords in all your meta tags and content. It is also based on getting
others to link to your web site. Your links and it's link text are considered
"off page" optimization. This is an important factor to keep
in mind. Google uses a system called Page Rank ™, which consists
of several off-page ranking and linking factors. The end result is that
Google Page Ranking ™ is similar to a voting or rating system. Generally
speaking every outside link that points to your site is considered a vote
for your site, thus improving your search engine listings and rankings
even more.
If a link
to your site appears on what's considered a valuable page ie. has a high
Page Ranking ™, is content-packed or is a content related page,
then your site gets even more votes and value. With the Google Page Rank™
system, web sites that are considered helpful, interesting or popular
by many other people are also favored by Google. Optimizing
your site for the search engines can bring targeted visitors to your site
for many years. It's worth the extra effort!
Great
Tip! #2 It is always a good idea to
ask people to place a link to your web site. You can ask them right
from your web page or thru other methods. Sometimes people will
agree to link to your web site if you link to theirs - that is called
reciprocal linking. While reciprocal (two way) links are better
than nothing they are not as valuable as one way links from the
search engine's point of view. One great place that has proven successful
to provide high quality, relevant, high page ranking, one way
links is Majon's web
linking service.
Search engine
optimization is also referred to by similar terms known as: Search engine
marketing, SEO, search engine promotion, SE marketing, SE optimization,
search markeitng, search optimization, search engine optimization, search
engine optimization services, website optimization, search engine clicks,
improved ranking, search engine traffic, marketing on the search engines,
keyword listings, SE promotion, website promtion.
