Online business, specifically the business-to-consumer market, has skyrocketed over the past decade. JupiterResearch, an Internet marketing research group, predicts online retail sales will grow from $81 billion in 2005 to $144 billion in 2010. Business owners are finding the Internet can be an inexpensive marketing avenue to expose their products or services to potential and ongoing customers.
Most people are familiar with search engines such as Google and Yahoo, which help them find information about companies, products and services. Although pay-per-click advertising on search engines can be a great way to encourage people to visit a company’s Web site, it can be expensive, especially for small companies with limited advertising budgets.
However, companies can also use a technique known as SEO (search engine optimization) to bring their Web site closer to the top on the “results page” of search engines, without having to pay for advertising. Since viewers naturally read from the top down, research shows that the closer a Web site is to the top of the results page, the more often it will get hits. If done correctly, SEO can improve the amount of traffic driven to a company’s Web site, which should result in more sales and a healthier bottom line.
What is SEO?
SEO is a technique that arranges a Web site’s content to obtain high rankings by search engines. It involves designing Web site headlines and subtitles so they will be readily picked up by “crawling” programs, which regularly scan the content of all Web sites and send information to the search engine to be used in rankings. It is also important to choose the correct keywords for a Web page’s meta tags, words in the underlying html code that indicate to “crawlers” what the site contains. Each search engine uses different algorithms to rank the sites it crawls, so ranking high on one search engine does not guarantee a company will rank equally high on another. However, all search engines prefer content rich in key words.
SEO Techniques
The SEO techniques listed below may be used to improve a user’s Web site ranking. More suggestions may be found on Google’s Web site (google.com/webmasters).
• Create keywords that people would be most likely to use in searching for your product or service.
• The most important places to put keywords are in the title tag and in the visible text, preferably near the top of the page.
• Place the backlink of your organization’s domains in those keywords. Make sure to make them look natural. You can read more about backlinks here from the industry professionals who have helped many businesses get on first-page of various search engines.
• Make sure the site is organized logically and does not contain duplicate information.
• Use text instead of images to display important names, content or links.
• Avoid drop-down menus, they are not SEO-friendly.
• Limit Web pages to a maximum of 200 to 500 words.
With the help of an SEO expert, a Las Vegas optometry clinic was able to increase its Web site rankings within various search engines by targeting keywords such as Las Vegas optometry, Las Vegas optometrist and Las Vegas eye care. By including these key words in titles, subtitles and meta tags, the clinic was able to raise itself to number five and number seven on Google.com’s natural (unpaid) search results.
Large companies may hire an SEO expert to optimize their Web site’s SEO content, but these professionals are usually very highly paid. A satisfactory job of SEO optimization can be done by any knowledgeable Web designer or developer. By using the techniques listed above, a company can often dramatically improve its rankings in search engine results. Once a site has been optimized, it will need constant updating and maintenance to make sure it remains effective in attracting traffic.