All businesses need to communicate through many marketing channels. Not all of the channels will be successful. One marketing arena that already has hungry buyers typing in queries which they want solutions to is the internet, via search engines. This is a targeted marketplace as consumers want information, services and products. To break into this market you need to perform search engine optimization so your website appears at the top of the search engine results.
The top 3 search engine listings take most of the attention. You need to get into these slots in order to capture the lion’s share of the audience. Most research indicates that browsers will visit the top 3 websites more than the other websites on the rest of the page. And that’s only on page 1 of the search results for any particular search term. There can be hundreds of pages of listings for anything you type into Google, Yahoo or Bing. You need to climb to the top of this mountain to be seen.
So how do the search engines decide which website shows up where in their search results?
Search engines crawl the internet and catalogue the websites they find according to what the website text, titles and website code says it’s about. Next they factor in elements such as how many other websites link to this one. They measure up many additional factors and determine where the website should be ranked in their results for any particular search query. Search engines update their database every second of the day, and websites can rise and fall due to many factors. It is possible over time to increase a websites rank by building links and adding relevant good content to the site.
This is where the process of search optimisation takes place. A seo consultant or seo firm can analyze elements of the search engines and draw up a strategy that will enable a website to boost it’s position in the SERPS (search engine ranking positions). This may involve applying changes to the website (on site optimisation) and promoting the website via linkbuilding, social bookmarking and article submissions (off site optimisation).
Search engine optimisation is ususally a gradual process. Results will not generally happen overnight unless you are in a very small market place. The bonus is that the market place is very targeted. Browsers are usually looking for products or services, and with credit cards, paypal and visa debit cards, they can even make online purchases and have no need to visit your premesis, if indeed you have one. That means you could be living in Ireland and sell products or services in Scotland, England and Wales. All without getting on a plane, performing face to face meetings or doing door to door hard sells to disgruntled members of the public. It’s easier to go to where the hungry market already seeking to purchase products.
So how does one get involved in this search engine optimization frenzy. Chances are you’ve already started. You may already have purchased a website some time ago that was set up to promote your products or services. If you did not get the desired internet results it is probably the result of 2 things. Your website was not set up top cope with changing market forces and probably more importantly your website wasn’t set up to cope with demanding market places.
If you’ve set up your business in a competitive field you have no chance or get top ranking spots if you haven’t been building back links and adding new content to your website. Right now Google has put even more focus on adding fresh content especially after their algorithm update named Panda in February. (No relation to Kung Fu Panda apparently).
But you can add all the content you want you still won’t get good rankings without having links from other websites. You still need to add content to your site and make sure you use the appropriate search engine tags on any images and content you upload, so the search engine know exactly what your new content is about.
But links stll decide the majority of the search engine rankings. If 2 websites were almost equal in terms on on page optimisation (content, meta code, meta descriptions) the only deciding factor is back links.
Many people have websites on the internet, websites that they depend on for their livelihood, and yet they don’t understand the simple fundamentals of seo. Your car won’t drive without fuel and being properly maintained. Similarily your website won’t move in the search engine listings unless you maintain it by address all the website on page optimisation elements, and add links to boost it up the serps.
The Process Of Seo
So where do you begin with the arduous seo work? First all simple on page optimisation should always be done when you add new products, items and content to your page. Once your site has had it’s initial on page optimisation fixed (this may take a few months at the start if you have an e commerce site with thousands of product pages), you simply address the on page work each time you add new content. If you don’t you’ll simply build up an enormous catalogue of work to fix.
Then there’s the nitty gritty of off page or off site optimization work. Building back links really. Doesn’t matter if you’re using link bait, using social bookmark sites, using your subscribers to bookmark your site, giving browsers incentives to like your page, blogging, submitting articles, blog commenting or asking other sites for links, submitting press releases, sculpting web 2.0 link networks, building your own networks, it’s all links.
If you don’t have a system or strategy already in place for achieving your goals with link building you’ll wake up in the morning and chase the link building dragon all day not knowing if you’re really achieving any measurable success until one day (hopefully) in the future it’ll all work out.
This is one way to head straight for a nervous breakdown. You need measurable targets in place. Systems you can go to to extract x amount of links. There will always be an element of uncertainty, and this can also err on the side of gaining more links than you’d originally hoped for.
Unless you have these places, the resouces and avenues to tap into you’d better not have a full time job, and work out a way to get them. Seo is something that can be learnt, and it’s heavily bent of applying and gathering resources, relationships, and leveraging time, strategies and money. You can choose to invest all these yourself or go to someone who already has the whole 9 yards in place.
Some market places will not require months of seo to set your website in good stead. Some will require 3-6 months of gradual seo and that will leave them set with a minimal amount of off page seo or perhaps even a bi-annually amount of link building to keep them dominating their field. You can adopt this approach if you are competing in smaller markets and just keep an eye of your ranking positions.
If you notice a slide you can quickly apply a little link building campaign and watch them go back up. But even in small markets now, if you aren’t adding a new page of content every 7-14 days or a new blog post you can watch your ranking slowly crumble. That’s basically the result of The Panda. He’s out to Kung Fu anybody that doesn’t add new content and relevancy to their site. So if you’re a little lazy watch it doesn’t come back to bite you.
You can as many larger companies do train up or employ their own seo professionals in house. If you have the budget for hiring the brightest minds, or trainee seo clerks, web designers, english graduates, and have the ability to multiply their efforts tenfold then go for it. You’ll have your seo army at your fingertips whenever you need to open up a new website or launch new landing pages or test out how your site is performing. This envolves some serious cash flow and if one of your seo professionals decides to leg it to your competitors or go it alone you’ve lost all the time, money, training , effort, and maybe even handed them some trade secrets in the process.
Contracting out the work to a seo consultancy can alleviate these problems in the first place. And the best in house seo crew can usually be beat hands dowwn by the industries leading search engine consultants. The fact remains that search engine consultants operating marketwide are usually on top of the latest seo tactics and can call upon their wealth of contacts and strategies to get the job done.
Surviving in the guerilla world of seo companies has forced the brightest lights to emerge head and shoulders tactically and systematically above the rest of the industries luminaries. You don’t necessarily need the brightest minds if you are a small to medium business, and you certainly won’t be able to employ seo technicians in house if you are a small company. It’s nice to have someone on board that understands search engine optimization basics and they’ll certainly be able to understand how much work is involved in seo campaigns. They might not be realistic about timescales if they aren’t working in the trenches day in day out, but at least they’ll understand the nature of this industry, where if you stop learning, you’ll soon grind to a halt.
Adwords is the first insurance focus for a lot of businesses. The idea of appearing overnight at the top of Google is exciting although the click through rates and cost is not. Adwords if done right and in conjunction with seo can be profitable, but it needs to be done right and put in perspective. Seo is for your future sustained success, adwords is another element of the online marketing realm. Compared to the organic listings the adwords click through rates are abysmal. So low you would hardly even notice them.
But to a new website or business it may be the only chance of immediate success. adwords can also be use as part of an seo campaign to test how visitors are responding to your website or particular web page. This can save you putting a lot of time and investment into your website. It helps you determine whether your webpage is converting and also whether the particular keywords are profitable. No point investing heavily in something that has a low commercial intake.
What To Do Next
So now you know the in’s and out’s of search engine optimization you can decide whether it’s something you need for your site. From there you can then decide whether you need some training on seo, and whether you have the time and cash flow to do so. Then it’s onto the implementation phase, you’ll decide whether you can do the work yourself, or if you have the time and cash flow to wait until you see the fruits of your labour.
You can use the Google keyword tool to check out what kind of searches related to your website are gaining traffic. From there you can test out the strength of the compeitition and compare their website to yours. You can do this all using a software programme called Market Samurai. If you compare the basic charts you’ll quickly be able to determine whether or not you need to employ an seo consultant or whether you have the skill level to take on the market yourself.
If you are realistic about your expectations you’ll save yourself a lot of heartache, money and effort in the process. Many markets will take the skills of trained seo professionals and it’s nothing to feel disappointed about, it’s just part of the territory. Ok so what are you waiting for? Get cracking and we’ll see you on the first page, preferably in the top 3 spots in Google. And did i mention it’s even possible for your website to take all 3 spots, even 4? That’s for another day….
