SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process or science of increasing the number of viewers to your website that come from search engines. SEO should be one part of your marketing plan. Search engines look for relevancy between the users search terms or keywords and your website page. If a search engine such as Google, Yahoo or Bing finds a high relevant page to the viewer’s request, the website page will be displayed higher on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). The higher the page is displayed in the results, the more traffic or viewers the website page will receive from search. If your website page is not displayed on the top or first page (top ten results) for your targeted search term, you will receive no traffic from the search engine.
SEO helps to improve the website page rankings by improving the internal and external factors influencing ranking in search results. There are many things that influence where your website page is displayed but using the correct search terms and using them well is a big part of SEO and a big part of internet marketing.
SEO helps make your website landing page (home page or any other primary page) look more search relevant to the search engines and thus bring your website more traffic. Being listed on the top page vs. on page 3 of the SERPs, could mean the difference between hundreds or thousands of viewers per month if on the top page and zero if on page 3.
Assuming you receive 1000 viewers per month and the conversion rate (percentage of viewers that actually take some desired action like making a contact) is 3%, that is 30 leads to your business just from one search term.
Search Terms or Keywords
So a big part of SEO is keywords:
- Choosing the best search terms or keywords for each of your landing pages
- The number of different keywords chosen for each page
- The placement of each of the keywords on the page, in the navigation and in the URL
- The keyword density or number of times used on the page
- The keyword synonyms used and their placement
Designing a website includes many skills like copywriting, link generation, keyword research and much more. SEO is a blend of over a hundred variables that help make your website very relevant and search engine friendly. Top SERP ranking is difficult to achieve and can be impossible depending upon your competition. For the global market, some businesses spend millions of dollars and years of time getting on the top page results.
Relevant Local Search
However for the Small Business looking for local customers, your competition is much smaller and is only located in your business’s local area. This is huge, it makes it much easier for your business to rank well in the search results. But your business still must have a marketing plan and a well working website. Also remember that ranking results in the SERPs change constantly like the stock market, what worked last year, may not work this year. For this reason, every business must continue to monitor and improve upon their marketing.
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Research shows that visitors place more trust in organic search results, especially in the research phase of the buying process. This also is where you build trust with a potential customer. What this means is that a local business needs to be placed well in the organic results, including the local business listings and the business website, in order for any paid placement to be the most effective. And full SEO is a must have.