What IS SEO Exactly, and Why Do I Need It?

This is the fundamental question each business owner / marketing manager should ask themselves, and the sooner the better. Let’s start from the beginning and work our way forward.

What is SEO?
SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. It’s an online marketing approach aimed at drawing targeted visitors to your website.

What is a search engine?
You probably don’t call them search engines. Most people don’t, even though they use them every day. A search engine helps you find information. The most popular search engines are Google, Yahoo!, MSN Live, and Ask. Now it’s all beginning to make sense, I bet. Search engines are the most popular way people find information online. Without realizing it, we trust these search engines to show us the best websites and information when we type what we’re looking for into the search field and click “Search”.

What does SEO involve?
That’s a detailed question we’ll discuss in greater detail in future blog posts. The top level answer is that SEO involves professional analysis, tracking, strategy, and adjustments to help the pages of your website rank higher in search results. The higher a page ranks, the more traffic it will receive. And we know from years of experience that any time your page ranks lower than page three of search engine results, you gain virtually no qualified leads or sales. People have short attention spans and lack the patience required to read past page three (most don’t even look as far as page two). As you would with branding and product development, you should tailor your web marketing to appeal to your target audience. Part of reaching your target audience involves appearing on page one of Google, Yahoo, etc.

The Information Gathering Stage
If you’re reading this and all of this is news to you, you are likely in the information gathering stage of online marketing (i.e. not prepared to make well-informed spending decisions). If that’s the case, feel free to contact us through our website and request more information on SEO or any other service or need you may have. While gaining new business is good, we also want to educate our community. As more business owners and marketing managers are educated about the tremendous value to be had from search engine optimization, the more companies we can serve.

It’s been our experience that prospects in the information gathering stage rarely understand the value of SEO to the point of making a “purchase” decision. Other agencies make the mistake of attempting to hurry a prospective client through the information gathering and convert them into a client. Doing so usually establishes an unnecessarily tense situation. If you are not yet convinced of the value of SEO, please do more research before making a decision. Otherwise, you’ll likely end up with a sub-par SEO (i.e. someone whose bargain price point fit your understanding of the value of the service).

Once you’ve done your homework, you’ll see that SEO is crucial to the success of your online business. Let us know how we can help you learn what you need to know.