Website SEO - Beginner's Guide

It is estimated that at least 340 million people use search engines to find websites, products and services every day.

That's a lot of people!

The top search engines use link popularity to decide which websites come up first when you do a search.

It is possible for a business to have a beautifully constructed and slick looking website, yet not attract any visitors. Many business proprietors will have realised the importance of having a website, and may have spent significant amounts of money in getting someone to create it for them. Unfortunately, website design and SEO are two entirely separate disciplines.

The methods used and algorithms employed by the main search engine providers are constantly under review and subject to continual ‘fine tuning’, and sometimes complete replacement. Unfortunately for us, they do not announce these changes, in fact these revisions are highly guarded secrets – this is entirely understandable as it is their business after all, and with over 340 million searches per day, it is easy to see how big it is!

Imagine your website as a hotel which you have invested heavily in. Everything is perfect – the decor is stunning, the food fabulous, and the staff highly trained and ready to go. Unfortunately, there is no vehicular access to your new business – the new road hasn’t been built, and the signposts haven’t been installed. What do you think will happen? Now, this may sound slightly ridiculous, but is the exact same principle as owning and operating an under-optimized website with no SEO.

In terms of cost, SEO generally costs less than to design a website from scratch. However, it could prove to be one of the smartest moves you make, considering how much business SEO could generate.

As a rough rule of thumb, if your website uses SEO effectively, approximately 90% of your website traffic will be search engine generated. This figure also gives an idea of how much traffic you may be missing out on if your website is not properly optimized using SEO.

Wouldn't it be nice if your website came up at the top of the list?
It is a possibility with search engine optimization, or SEO.
The theory behind SEO is fairly simple, however putting the principles into practice is considerably more challenging.

The main search engines (i.e. Google Yahoo and MSN operate in differing ways, whether by searching the internet with cyber ‘crawlers’, sometimes also referred to as ‘spiders’, or ‘bots’.

These mysterious entities are, basically, algorithm-based computer programs which are sent out onto the internet to assess website relevance, quality and popularity.

The Internet is truly a massive resource for marketing, the likes of which no one has ever seen before.
In an age of online shopping and Google it is a necessity for all businesses/organizations to have an online presence, but it shouldn’t stop there.  It can’t stop there. You need SEO

Although the Internet provides near unlimited resources, it is easy to have your website fade away.
For even some of the most specified niche keywords, Google will present its users with millions of results. Seeing as how most people never pass the first page of Google when searching, the majority of links on the second page receive less than 1% of clicks; it is important for your business to be on the first page for at least one common search phrase. There are many ways to achieve this and many people scoff at the hundreds or even thousands per month that proper SEO may cost.

The reality is that without SEO you are wasting money on a website, as untapped spenders will never see your website. To truly understand this though, one must first understand Google. Links on a Google results page are broken up in two categories; sponsored links on the top (typically set against a light yellow background) and right of the page, while the organic links reside on the left/center portion of the page.

Search engines are currently used for over 90% of all Internet searches. Of that 90%, most are performed through Google. It may seem from that alone that Google has a chokehold on the Internet, but it even further secures its dominance by providing results for 70% of the searches conducted elsewhere. This makes Google not only your prime target for marketing, but it makes it everyone else’s as well. Competition is quite fierce.

Once you have a successful SEO campaign up and running, you could see your business flourish and develop in ways never thought possible.

Some may use Pay Per Click campaigns as their solution, as it is quick and provides you first page results, but there are downsides that everyone should be aware of. First Google doesn’t keep track of who your competition is. With the anonymity that the Internet provides, competitors are free to click your Pay Per Click links with no intention of making a purchase to knock you down on the sponsored links list while costing you money. Also, only 25% of the clicks on Google go to sponsored searches. The other 75%, which are most commonly consumers, use the organic listing. Understanding this leads to a point of clarity.

Although you may spend hundreds per month on SEO, you will be in front of thousands of consumer eyes while maintaining stability and exposing with no vulnerability to your competition. Also, if even a small fraction of those consumers convert to sales, it will pay for the SEO work many times over. In addition, while people may see Pay Per Click as a cheaper route, the fact is that most end up actually spending more on PPC than they would on SEO with worse results.

Now, one may think that this is more advertising than they could possibly need for their small business or neighborhood store, but that is a big misconception. A vast majority of consumers would rather jump on their mobile Internet devices rather than flipping through a 1,000+ page book. Also, the sheer size of the Internet could open up your business to additional markets.