Ok, I realize that this topic may seem a little outdated and that many of you are familiar with or have heard of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), but I thought it would be useful to cover it anyway. SEO is one of “those words”. It has been abused, misrepresented and misunderstood. So let’s discuss what it really is and why your website needs it.

What is SEO?
There are millions of websites trying to convey the same message to the same people; and it is for this reason that search engines like Google have to apply a rank to each one they index.  The overall rank of a site is what determines which page you show up on for certain keywords.  So in summary, SEO is a set of techniques used to help build and maintain the search engine rank of your website.

Why Do I Need It?
Search Engine ranking is the life blood of your on-line business and is usually among the primary sources of traffic. According to Google, 82% of people looking for local business services and goods are using search engines to do it. With numbers like that, you can imagine that being on page 1 versus page 100 is significant. It can mean the difference between Zero sales a day to Thousands of sales a day depending on your location and market. The truth is that owners and operators are spending thousands of dollars on creating and maintaining websites that very few people ever will see or find.  If your site is not optimized for your target keywords then your are missing potential business each and every day.  Hear are some fundamental things your website must have to be optimized.

The 5 Fundamentals of SEO:

• Content – Your site must have original, non spamming, optimized content
• Keywords – Your Content, Titles and Descriptions should target the keywords your target users are searching for
• Backlinks – People on the web need to like your content enough to link to it from their website
• Titles – Each page on your site must have a unique title
• Descriptions – Each page should have a good description

In Summary:

• SEO can be a vague word, but it has real world implications that will benefit your business.
• It is something that business owners can contribute to, but can not totally succeed at without professional help or training.
• It is a continues process that must be done during the initial design and on-going maintenance of a website.
• It applies to Web Pages, Blogs, Videos and Social Media
• It is not a get quick rick scheme and does not happen over night; it takes time.

We would love to here you feedback and answer any questions you may have.  Please feel free to contact us or use the comments section below.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 10th, 2010 at 4:02 pm and is filed under SEO, Wichita. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.