SEO- What is it? Why is it Important?
SEO- What is it? Why is it important? Sometimes when you spend a bit of time in a particular field, especially a technological field, you begin to develop the exclusive lingo, and become a little geeky.
You kind of forget that the rest of the world doesn't always understand this lingo.
Example: My wife: What did you do at work today? Me: I worked on the SEO for a few sites.
My wife: What the heck is SEO? ME: HELLOOO.
Search Engine Optimization.
DUH.
My wife: Search Engine WHAT? English please! It hit me then, that SEO, the thing which I've been taught to see as a very important thing, is a hidden realm to a lot of people who don't work in the Internet world..
I thought I would spend a few minutes and try to explain it the best that I can.
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is basically the tweaking of a website to make it more friendly for search engines.
Most Internet searchers don't look past the first search engine results page and very few look past the second.
The goal of SEO is to get your page ranked as highly as possible so it can be viewed by as many people as possible.
As you know, the market is a competitive place.
If I want to buy a specific lantern, and I can't find the sporting goods store, then the odds are, I'm going to be making a Wal-mart run, even if I know it might cost me a few dollars more.
The Internet works the same way.
If you sell hammocks on your website, and potential customers can't find you on line, then your competition will probably be getting the business.
You can see how this is a problem.
You want these customers relaxing in your hammock and no one else's.
Now the big question is, how can I get people to find me? In the physical world, the best way is to build your building in a convenient location, one that everybody drives by on a regular basis.
The Internet is kind of like this, but not really.
You do want links to your site in places that a lot of people will see such as directoriesand other listings, but chances are that most people won't find you accidentally.
On the Internet, people search intentionally.
If they are looking for a hammock, then they will probably go to Google or Yahoo and type in "Hammock.
" The Hammock companies that show up on the first two pages (such as Hammocks.
com and Hammock-company.
com) are the ones the searcher will probably visit.
If they see something they like there, then those companies are probably the ones who will be getting their business as well.
The gist of it is, if they can't find you, then they can't view your product.
If they can't view your product then they won't be purchasing it from you.
If they don't purchase it from you, then they will purchase it from someone else.
SEO is very important and is becoming increasingly important for your site, as more and more people are using and purchasing from the Internet every day.
So now the question is, How do I get my site optimized? Can I do it myself? The answer is a complicated one.
Yes, you can try to do it yourself, but I wouldn't recommend it.
You will be competing with companies who are hiring trained professionals to get their sites ranked higher than yours.
Most companies guarantee aplacing on the first two result pages.
It would be very difficult to achieve this yourself (unless your product or service doesn't have much Internet competition).
I recommend shopping around, but if you're looking for a place to start I know that9th StreetCreative (www.
9thstreet.
com) can help you with your SEO needs.
They have several first page rankings and can guarantee that your site will soon show up on the first two pages for your local search queries.
(ex.
Chattanooga Hammocks) I hope this helped explain what SEO is and how it can help you bring inthe customers searching on the Internet.
You kind of forget that the rest of the world doesn't always understand this lingo.
Example: My wife: What did you do at work today? Me: I worked on the SEO for a few sites.
My wife: What the heck is SEO? ME: HELLOOO.
Search Engine Optimization.
DUH.
My wife: Search Engine WHAT? English please! It hit me then, that SEO, the thing which I've been taught to see as a very important thing, is a hidden realm to a lot of people who don't work in the Internet world..
I thought I would spend a few minutes and try to explain it the best that I can.
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is basically the tweaking of a website to make it more friendly for search engines.
Most Internet searchers don't look past the first search engine results page and very few look past the second.
The goal of SEO is to get your page ranked as highly as possible so it can be viewed by as many people as possible.
As you know, the market is a competitive place.
If I want to buy a specific lantern, and I can't find the sporting goods store, then the odds are, I'm going to be making a Wal-mart run, even if I know it might cost me a few dollars more.
The Internet works the same way.
If you sell hammocks on your website, and potential customers can't find you on line, then your competition will probably be getting the business.
You can see how this is a problem.
You want these customers relaxing in your hammock and no one else's.
Now the big question is, how can I get people to find me? In the physical world, the best way is to build your building in a convenient location, one that everybody drives by on a regular basis.
The Internet is kind of like this, but not really.
You do want links to your site in places that a lot of people will see such as directoriesand other listings, but chances are that most people won't find you accidentally.
On the Internet, people search intentionally.
If they are looking for a hammock, then they will probably go to Google or Yahoo and type in "Hammock.
" The Hammock companies that show up on the first two pages (such as Hammocks.
com and Hammock-company.
com) are the ones the searcher will probably visit.
If they see something they like there, then those companies are probably the ones who will be getting their business as well.
The gist of it is, if they can't find you, then they can't view your product.
If they can't view your product then they won't be purchasing it from you.
If they don't purchase it from you, then they will purchase it from someone else.
SEO is very important and is becoming increasingly important for your site, as more and more people are using and purchasing from the Internet every day.
So now the question is, How do I get my site optimized? Can I do it myself? The answer is a complicated one.
Yes, you can try to do it yourself, but I wouldn't recommend it.
You will be competing with companies who are hiring trained professionals to get their sites ranked higher than yours.
Most companies guarantee aplacing on the first two result pages.
It would be very difficult to achieve this yourself (unless your product or service doesn't have much Internet competition).
I recommend shopping around, but if you're looking for a place to start I know that9th StreetCreative (www.
9thstreet.
com) can help you with your SEO needs.
They have several first page rankings and can guarantee that your site will soon show up on the first two pages for your local search queries.
(ex.
Chattanooga Hammocks) I hope this helped explain what SEO is and how it can help you bring inthe customers searching on the Internet.
Source...