SEO – Search Engine Optimization. Nearly everyone has heard of it who is online, very few truly understand it. So what is it??? Lets begin the journey to discover the world of SEO.
By definition, SEO is the process of improving the “visibility” of an online presence in search engines by way of “natural” or unpaid search results (paid search results are called PPC or SEM – Pay Per Click or Search Engine Marketing). But that still doesn't really tell us anything, and so we go back to the beginning... why do we want to improve visibility of our site, and how do searches work anyway?
If you are online even a little bit, you have more than likely used a search engine to look for something or someone. If you are a business owner or a head of marketing/sales, you WANT TO BE FOUND. You can have the most beautiful web site in the world, but if no one knows it is there it doesn't do you a lot of good. So, let us take a look at a few statistics and get the math out of the way *grin *.
Top Search Engines: Google (72%), Yahoo (14%), Bing (10%), Ask (3%)
People that look in the top half of the page results (above the fold): 90%
People that mainly use the advertised area: 33%
People that mainly use the top section/unadvertised: 50%
All of that means that the top 4 search engines are used by over 99% of anyone doing a search, for anything. This also means that if you want to be seen, if you want your web site to be successful, you have to be on the first page AND you should be above the fold (in the area that first appears where you don't have to scroll down). So...how do you get there?
There are two ways; one – pay for it (PPC/SEM), two – SEO – organically/naturally get your site there. The first way is far more simple – you get exactly what you pay for, no more no less. SEO is far more difficult, far more mysterious, and ever changing. In fact, there is one thing that is guaranteed in SEO – there is no guarantee that you will be #1 in the organic searches. If you are, GREAT!, but that won't stay long if you have any competition what so ever. SEO is a tweaking of the keywords of your site, the links coming in to your site (backlinks), content in the site, and even how your site is presented to the “spiders” that gather information for the search engines. Heck, we haven't even touched on how to let search engines know you are there to begin with.
These topics and more in future SEO Journey exerts, so please join me in exploring the world of online searches the natural way! Please contact me if you have information that you believe should be included in future articles, or if there are questions you have that you would like answered within this forum.
As always, if you have any immediate questions or something needs done for your company, please contact media junction to reach your friendly neighborhood online gurus. Whether SEO or PPC, cutting edge web design or print, they can help you to grow your business and make your life easier!