The Importance of Search Engine Optimization
Numerous studies have shown that the most cost effective means for B2C and B2B businesses to create brand awareness and generate sales leads is through search marketing. The data says that 91% of buyers go to a supplier’s website before calling. If they don’t find what they need, 80% choose another supplier.
A fantastic website is not enough. Ensuring that prospective customers find your business on the Internet is of critical importance and Search Engine Optimization is a technique designed to do just that.
Search Engine Optimization Explained
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing a website for Internet search engines in order to achieve high page rankings for a specific industry’s key terms. While search engine companies published guidelines and there are some frequently used techniques to improve rankings, SEO remains more of an art than a science due to the rapidly evolving nature of the Internet and digital marketing. Search engines are constantly evaluating the relevance of websites with respect to search terms (a.k.a. keywords) since new competitive websites appear regularly and established sites are regularly changing. For this reason, SEO is an ongoing process and not a one-time solution.
The content of a website will play one of the largest roles in determining how well it will rank with the search engines. Therefore the content must be optimized for specific keywords and closely related terms. Identification of appropriate keywords is critical before optimizing the website content and it requires more analysis that mere common sense. Professionals with expertise in keyword selection are a must.
Overview of Search Engine Optimization Techniques
Link Building Process
Due to the rapidly changing guidelines of the major search engines, it is becoming increasingly more important that a website have a well-planned link strategy. We refer to this as the Link Building Process. This entails a steady growth of new, quality links pointing to your website. The value of these links depends upon the relevancy of the website from which they come. As an example, if your site revolves around broadcasting equipment, a link coming from a website which focuses on basketball will not be as valued as a link from a website which focuses on broadcast electronics.
Article/Blog Creation, Submission & Announcement
Content is King! The creation of articles or press releases to drive qualified traffic to your website, as well as provide you with highly relevant links, is a process which requires much planning and forethought. To undertake a strategy such as this without the proper knowledge will ultimately result in failure. We use proven methods to strategically spread the word about a website through various channels across the Internet, ensuring that there is no duplicate content being shared across the world-wide-web which could have a negative impact on the website.
Utilization of Meta-Data
Part of the reason for including meta-tags and title tags in a website is to help the search engines index it more accurately so that they may deliver more relevant search results. The major search engines constantly alter the algorithms used to determine the ranking of websites within their indexes in an effort to deliver more relevant results to the end-user.
Keyword Creation
It is of vital importance that one selects the correct keywords against which to optimize a website. These are normally a collection of general terms and long-tail terms. A long-tail term is normally a highly specific phrase that is industry specific. These terms, while not yielding as much traffic as the general terms, often times provide much higher conversion rates for a website. These long-tail terms are created to target prospects that already know exactly what they are looking for and are ready to take action.
Content Optimization
When it comes to search engine optimization, the content of a website will play one of the largest roles in determining how well a website will rank. Due to this, it is vital that content be optimized for specific keywords and closely related terms.
Choosing a Search Engine Optimization Provider
The goal of search engine optimization (SEO) is to produce measurable results which means increasing customer website traffic. SEO providers should be selected based on their track record generating page rankings. Be wary of providers with little-to-no experience who offer a cookie-cutter process and of providers promising a quick fix. SEO is an on-going process that takes time to establish and time to grow. Choose an established provider that has demonstrated an ability to modify techniques in lock step with changing SEO requirements.
NetEdge Marketing is an established consulting service that has helped many local and multi-national corporations optimize their websites using search engine optimization.