Why Optimize Your Site For Search Engines?
Sometimes a search engine optimization company will miss that
glaring question posed by potential clients and assume the
benefits of search engine optimization are obvious to everyone.
While shelling out a couple thousand on an SEO campaign is
common sense to some, others may find it hard to part with the
cash unless they know it is an investment in their business that
is sure to bring a good return.
Search engines account for a huge portion of traffic to web
sites. Data varies depending on what sources you read, but the
bottom line is that search engines are used millions of times
each day by consumers searching for goods and services. And
having your business displayed at the top of search results is
essential if you want to do any business from the major search
engines. Nine in every ten users will find what they're looking
for in the top 10 results and won't go to page 2.
It's obvious that people can make a lot of money from online
sales, but how you advertise your products has a large bearing
on what kind of profit you make. If you buy advertising space on
Google AdWords or other services that charge per click, you may
only shell out 10 cents for every visitor to your site - But
what if it takes 100 clicks to make one sale? If your products
only sell for $10 a piece, then there is no profit being made.
Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns will also never stop costing you
money. Search Engine Optimization, on the other hand, can be
very affordable over months and years.
Many SEO and Internet Marketing companies will say that ongoing
maintenance is needed to reach and keep top search engine
rankings. While this is true, be careful how the company says
they do it. There is an affordable way and then there's a way to
pad the pockets of the "experts." For more on this issue, read
my other article entitled "What Constitutes a Complete and
Effective SEO Campaign?" In short, the affordable way will
involve an intense content optimization followed by work to
raise link popularity. This link popularity development should
be the bulk of any ongoing maintenance. A couple times a year
keyword research should be done again and the content should be
looked at. Search trends can sometimes fluctuate so you want to
make sure your content is still aimed at the right audience.
What is affordable and what isn't varies greatly from company to
company, industry to industry. In the bed and breakfast
industry, $30 per month may be enough to keep a top 5 ranking on
Google if the market is not very competitive. A web site
competing for a top spot in a database administration field may
be looking at several hundred a week if not more. The bottom
line is, if you pick the right Search Engine Optimization
company, your return on investment from an SEO campaign can be
over 1000%.
While there are other ways to advertise a web site (No, search
engine optimization is not the be-all and end-all of online
advertising) very few can match the wide targeted audience and
affordability that search engines provide.
