Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a term widely used on the Internet. Past, present and future, search engines are the most widely used tool used by everyone from layman to professionals to navigate the Internet. Search engines are an almost instant oracle to find the sites and information necessary to conduct business or even pleasure. They are an incredible, endless source of information on just about everything and anything.
Everyone can probably agree that usually only the top ten search results on the first page are used. That is why it is so important for a link to be on that first page; of course ‘ranking’ statistics are also very important in the world of competition. There is a higher ratio of probability in your link being clicked on when you rank high – again because of the position in the results. This of course will generate more traffic for your site, and hopefully the more business that is created from that traffic.
Herein lies the rub: You don’t just sit there at the top of the game enjoying your superior vantage point. You must almost constantly ‘fight’ to stay there. One way is to keep your content ‘fresh’. New content will get your site re-indexed so that when they shuffle the pack you will still come out on that coveted first page. If you don’t, some other site who does, will likely take your spot and you will be pushed down lower in the pages.
The closer you can come to using highly keyword focused content, all the better. With search engine optimization you get the benefit of generating a high traffic volume that is also ‘targeted’ to your product or service. Consider percentages because not all clicks will necessarily result in a sale. So if you get a decent number of clicks (traffic) there is more likelihood that you will generate more sales. Slow traffic, lower response rate.
Search engine optimization does require a bit of research and work to be used effectively. The research can be pretty simple thanks to the tools provided by the search engines like Google themselves. You can start with a list of words that are relevant to your business and then find out various statistics about them even including what your competition is doing. The purpose of this would be to find ways of using the same words in a way that is not as competitive. This would ramp up your chances of being ranked for that same word put in a different way or combined with other words.
There are also a number of sites that offer very good information to help you learn how to use search engine optimization the most effectively. One important consideration to remember is that the rules are always changing. So as with any industry you are working in, you need to stay current with what is happening.
The one thing that never changes however is ‘content is king’. As long as you are making a sincere effort to add value by the information that you post on your website or blog and not using any gimmicks to try to fool them, at least you won’t harm your chances of staying on their good side so they will work for you.
