How Can SEO Help My Business?

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), or Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is about improving the volume and quality of the traffic to your web site or blog from search engines via "natural" or "organic" search results for your targeted keywords.

If you think of the most popular ways to attract visitors to your website, it might make this statement a little clearer …

You can either pay for traffic using Pay-Per-Click, you can borrow traffic by Joint Venturing with someone or, you can attract your own traffic through the search engines and now, using social media or Web 2.0 techniques.

When it comes to the search engines, they won’t tell you exactly how their algorithms are programmed hence the reason the business of search engine marketing is based on "observation" and "reverse engineering." The search engines are constantly changing their algorithms and shuffling their indexes so what is effective today could be ineffective tomorrow.

Basically, you can safeguard your business by applying reverse engineering strategies so that even if Google changed it’s algorithms tomorrow, it wouldn’t have a major impact on your sales and, by keeping two fingers on the pulse of the major search engines, you can know if Google hiccups or if Yahoo! gets stubborn, you can still apply strategies to coax those rankings back to the first page.

So How Exactly Does SEO Work?

This is the million dollar question. And you can almost guarantee that for every person you ask, you’ll get a different answer!

That’s because as explained earlier, you only get to know "how" the search engines work through observation and I’ve done some testing and our researching over the years to find out what the major search engines like and dislikes so I’ve been able to implement the most effective search engine optimization strategies on my own sites as well as my clients sites.

Because the search engines change their ranking algorithms (the equations they use to analyze a website’s reputation and rankability) so often, and they each use such widely varying criteria, there are literally hundreds of ways to promote your site to the first page of search results but, in my experience, there are just a handful of methods that online marketers really need to focus on. In other words, there really is no need to try and implement every search engine strategy that presents itself in your email inbox.

That said, there are certain universal guidelines how you go about implementing a search marketing strategy and, there are also very clear rules against certain practices that attempt to cheat or trick the search engines. Naturally, if you want to maintain a long-term business online, you need to steer clear of these strategies.

A Couple of Fundamental Principles for Successful SEO

1. Content
Good quality content will always be your key ticket to top rankings. Without it, any rankings achieved will be short-lived. You also have to remember that it’s people who will buy your services, not search engines so it really is important to connect with your visitors otherwise, you might end up with high search engine rankings, but few sales.

I suppose this now gives me an opportunity to clear up one myth … high rankings does not necessarily equal high volumes of traffic and it certainly does not equate to high conversions. So you still have to write with your human visitor in mind, giving them good quality information and utilizing good copy techniques.

For more information on how you can get higher search engine rankings, request a free consultation.

2. Links
More specifically, one-way links from other authoritative websites. You can find out how authoritative a site is by looking at its PageRank but, you should also be aware that high PageRank does not necessarily mean high traffic volumes or higher listings in the search engines … I know I’ve just repeated myself, but it’s worth a second mention.

One of the best linking strategies is to find sites that compliment your site content but may be not a direct competitor. You can then include your information on their site with a reference link back to you, or they can refer directly to your site for more information. Either way, you are getting a link in their content, instead of a link on some "hideaway" links page which has little benefit to anyone.

3. Visitor Behavior
What you want to know is how long a visitor stays on your site, which pages they visit and and their interaction when they reach your site.

Interesting, useful content combined with good copy is important to converting prospects to paying clients.

4. Human Idiosyncracies.
Google for example wants to know that a human is running the show. Certain automated SEO software, or any techniques that add hundreds of pages or in-bound links to your site within a short period of time will ring alarm bells with Google because the site is not growing "organically" or "naturally."

This practice could get you blacklisted in the search engines and a strategy the reason we hand craft every single page of information on your website and upload those pages consistently over several months.

Universally Illegal SEO Practices: Avoid at ALL Costs

Search engines may provide vague information about what you can do to get top rankings. However, they are less vague about those practices that will get you banned from their rankings. For instance, Google provides Webmaster Guidelines that detail what you are NOT to do when promoting your website.

Staying within these guidlines will ensure a long and success online strategy that will bring you more visitors and provide you more sales in the long run.

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