By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2011-01-19 12:44:04 | Word Count: 664
SEO is a great way to drive traffic to your site, and increase your statistics when it comes to leads and conversion data. However, it’s not for everyone. It requires a huge financial and time commitment in order to be executed properly and be successful.
What is SEO?
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SEO involves making your site as attractive to search engines as possible so that you can rank high in a search index. More and more, internet users are not clicking past the second page of a search index. So, if your site isn’t on the first page, preferably at the top (or “above the fold”), you’re just not going to get seen. Because of this, through no fault of your own, you could pretty easily see the death of your internet campaign.
That’s why it’s important to be aware and consider devoting the time and energy it takes to embark on an effective SEO strategy. What exactly does that involve? Well, it involves four main components.
1. Onsite Optimization means making your actual site as appealing to Google and other search engines as possible. That way you’ll get picked up and ranked higher than your competition. This involves making sure your URL is static instead of dynamic. Static URLs use keywords instead of coding, and tend to be ranked higher in a search index. Additionally, you should optimize your htaccess settings, meta information and your 301 redirects. This will all help your site be more appealing than your competition in the eyes of Google.
2. Offsite Optimization helps people find your site. It means producing relevant back links, utilizing social media to get your name out there, comparing your site to your competition to see what is and isn’t working, and using user generated content.
3. Keyword Research involves getting into the minds of your target audience. Without knowing what they are searching for specifically, you’re not going to be able to consistently rank high in a search index. It’s important to know which terms are popular, which terms are competitive and what combination of terms will help you to achieve high rankings and high conversion rates. That way you can implement those terms within your site to help optimize it.
4. Conversion Optimization is essential to having a successful SEO strategy. It involves analyzing your data and converting it into useful information that can be applied to bettering your SEO campaign. This will help you to raise your ROI numbers and ultimately drive traffic to your site, and keep it there.
How Can You Get Started?
As stated before, this is a very involved process. It’s a process that – if you don’t have the time and knowledge to execute properly – will be doomed before it ever gets off the ground. So, what can you do?
Consider hiring a professional SEO company to do the work. That way you can focus on running your business while someone else works to make you an internet search engine star. The average business will spend around $30,000 on an SEO campaign (with smaller business spending around $8,000 and larger businesses spending up to $250,000), which may seem like a lot for only one aspect of your marketing technique. However, like all of your marketing dollars, it’s an investment in you, which means it’s money well spent.
Optimum7 can help you achieve success through your website SEO campaign. We’ve been in the business for over 10 years and have helped our clients consistently rank high in Google and other search indexes. Contact us today to help your business get started with a successful SEO strategy.
