Search Engine Optimization: Do You Need It?

If you want your website to generate more business from Google searches, or any search engine search, then you need to optimize your website for search engines. Optimizing your website means that you design your website and all of its content so that it is very easy for search engines to find your pages when a potential customer searches for the keywords that describe your products or services.

In order to do this, there are several things you need to consider:

  • Determine what it is exactly that you sell.
  • Determine the keywords or phrases your customer will will use to search for your products or services.
  • Create your site content to target your products and services.
  • Insert keywords and keyword phrases into your page titles, page descriptions, page headings, article first paragraphs, and throughout your article content.
  • Design your site so that it is easy for search engines to index and catalogue the content on your site.
  • Install Google Analytics on all of your web pages so you can monitor and analyse the traffic on your site.
  • Google uses text, not images, to determine if your site is a match for the keywords in the search. The more pertinant content you have on your site, the better chance you have of generating a search match. It’s like lottery tickets: the more you have, the better your chances of winning.
  • Regularly publish new, pertinent information on your site.
  • Give free advice. For example, if you sell “dog collars with flea protection and a GPS locator,” then you should provide information on how to best use your device. Plus, publish useful information for dog owners.
  • Use Google Analytics to monitor your site traffic:
    • To see if your site traffic increases
    • To see what keywords are used to find your pages
    • To see what pages are most popular
    • To see WHERE your traffic is coming from

Search Engine Optimization is a mix of art and science, and there are basically two ways to get your site optimized for search engines:

  • You can do it yourself
  • You can pay someone to do it

The method you choose may be determined by your budget. If you pay someone to optimize your site, you can expect to pay from $500 – $2000, or more if you are marketing on a national level for highly competitive keywords. But if you think about optimization as advertising, then it doesn’t seem so expensive. For example, consider how much it would cost to put a Sunday ad in the New York Times, or to create a TV ad for a national campaign. Two thousand dollars is pretty reasonable to reach a national audience.

If you plan to do it yourself, or if you plan to hire someone, the following books will help you make educated choices about your search engine optimization plan:

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