Solutions for Online Marketing - Search Engine Optimization

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a process whereby your present Web site page design is fine-tuned to match the algorithms used by search engine “spiders”. Search engine spiders are programs owned by the search engines that scan your web site and then index the results in their databases. Individuals searching the Internet by Google, Yahoo, MSN or other search engines will enter words, known as Search terms or Keywords, and, hopefully, your Web site will be one of the resultant links displayed.

Why would I need SEO for my Web site?
People using the Internet, that may at some time be interested in obtaining your services or product, fall into two categories:

• Those that are aware of your company
• Those that are not aware of your company

Most eMarketing divisions reach their customer base by email campaigns, specialized mailings, brochures, ads placed on the Web site. However, all of these methods can be used only if you know the identity, eMail address, phone number, etc., of your customer. In addition, a sustained, known customer base eventually reaches a point where the number of sales per user becomes optimal. At that point, you have no growth, only a static, flat, sales curve. You need new customers to maintain constant growth.

You cannot email unknown individuals, so how do you reach them? On the Internet, there is a very large group of users that are actually seeking your services or product. They do not know the name of your company, but they know what they want. More often than not, they will use a search engine to find that item that they desire. The purpose of SEO is to have your Company be one of the first sources that appear in response to the customer’s query.

Remember, these are pre-sold customers, they want the service or product, they are actively looking for it. All that is needed is to get your name to them, ahead of your competition.

How does SEO work? What is involved?
SEO is a multi-stage process with defined steps. It involves:

• Knowing your market – Not just in general, but understanding the actual end user or purchaser. How do they perceive your product as opposed to how you think they perceive it or how you think they should perceive it? How will they query the search engine?
  
• Understanding your Web site – Is your site designed to inform customers or simply display your product line? Is the content written in such a way that it is understandable to both the customer and the search engine spider? This is important – humans and SE spiders look at Web site content in completely different ways.
  
• Knowing how your site is used – Your Web site, whether it is hosted inside or outside of your Company produces log files that display every action performed by a visitor to your site. There are software packages that will read these files and display this information in a form that can be used to analyze the effectiveness and performance of your site. These metrics are crucial in determining how to best use SEO techniques to modify your site and how to analyze the effectiveness of the SEO process post-change.
  
• Understanding the major search engines – Search engines use algorithms to “read” your Web pages and index them in their databases. This process, that of ranking your Web pages, will determine where your page link is placed in the results page created in response to a user query on a search engine. It may be on the first page, it may be in the top five, or it may be four or more pages back in the results where it will never be seen. Each search engine uses different processes and measures to create the final ranking number for your page. The goal of SEO is to understand the search engines so well, that you create a page that is optimal for the most popular search engines, but will still be effective for the rest.
  
• How you already rank on the popular search engines – If you cannot measure it, it’s not science or business. There are many tools available for analyzing Web sites or a single Web page. There are special commands that can be used to query the Google, Yahoo or AltaVista databases in order to learn just how many pages you have indexed in their database. You can learn if other Web sites have links to your Web site on their pages, which can be very important. You can learn if the way your Web site is designed has created issues that affect how your pages are ranked.
  
• Understanding your competition and their presence in search engines – The tools used to query a search engine regarding your Web site can also be used to determine how effectively your competitor’s site is designed with regards to SEO. You can determine the percentage of their site pages that are indexed. In addition, you can determine the number of sites that are linked to theirs. It is also possible to analyze their site pages to determine how advanced they are in the SEO process or if they are aware of it at all. If not, you have a definite competitive edge.
  
• Measuring your success effectively – Using the tools and metrics mentioned above, you will have spreadsheets designed to show growth of traffic on your Web site. More importantly, you can see growth in general and growth that specifically occurs as a result of SEO. This can be refined to the point of growth from exactly which search engines. This will allow you to “tweak” the pages as needed to increase ranking on a particular search engine. It will also allow you to be warned if a design change in your Web site has affected your ranking or if a search engine has changed its method of analyzing and ranking Web pages.

View our list of Search Engine Optimization Features.

How costly is Search Engine Optimization?
As many companies have determined over the last few years, advertising and marketing campaigns using the Internet are the most cost effective processes available. Rather than thousands of brochures, one page on a Web site can be viewed by thousands of users. Rather than costly mailings, email costs only for the time to prepare the user database.

As for SEO, the cost is very low in proportion to the results:

• The primary cost involved is that of the evaluation and analysis of the points discussed above. Once that is done, you will have a Best Practices document that will detail exactly how a Web page is to be built to be most effective for search engine spiders. A template can be created and the cost of creating a new Optimized Web page would then be minimal.
  
• The secondary cost involved is that of training your IT or eMarketing department in the tools and procedures of SEO so that they can continue on their own to optimize future pages.
  
• The final cost is developing the procedures for measuring and reporting the results of the SEO process on your Web site. This includes the “tweaking” process and what issues to watch out for in future site design changes.

Our approach to SEO is different in that we realize that the process has been fairly well defined over the last few years. Many free programs and online services are available on the Internet that allow anyone to do many of what were once arcane tasks. Whereas prices quoted on the Web range from $5,000 to $20,000 for just Keyword selection and site submission, we provide those services and more for a far more reasonable fee. Contact us and see just how reasonable it can be to have a fully optimized site to put you on an even playing field with your competition.

Also, This is not a one time only process. Just as you update information on your Web site, you will have to modify your SEO processes as search engines change algorithms and competitors modify their sites. We will provide you with documentation will allow you to continue this process on your own.

How do I start this process?
Download our Evaluation Checklist and let us provide you with a no-charge review of your Web site. Receive a free Search Engine Positioning Report comparing your positioning vs. three of your competitors on Google, Yahoo and MSN for searches performed using three of your most important keywords. . Let us show you how we can help you improve your search engine rankings.

Contact us at sales@softwarekey.com if you have any questions regarding this service.

Please note: This is a volatile market and the competition may be optimizing their site in response to your changes. Thus, we can guarantee that you will better your position in search engine ranking, but cannot guarantee that you will be number one on page one. You may also drop in the ranking after a time as other competitors modify their sites, which will require “tweaking”. What you can be assured of is that the modifications you make in response to our suggestions will increase the traffic referred to your site by search engines.