Update: October 2008 – This article is outdated. Please see the Beginners Guide to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for updated information.
Just because you have a website doesn’t mean visitors will come. You still have to promote it. The easiest way to do so is through offline channels such as putting the URL on your business cards or sending current clients and prospects a postcard/letter announcement that you just put up a new site or redesigned your old one.
What Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Search engine optimization is the art of getting your website to appear in the first 1-3 pages of search results for a particular keyword or phrase. It is strategic in nature because you want your site to show up for the words and phrases that your target audience is likely to search for when they are looking for your services. It is an art because search engines are proprietary and have control over which sites they display. SEO firms can use best practice techniques, but no one – I repeat – no one can guarantee rankings on search engines. In fact, I will quote Google:
“No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
Beware of SEO’s that claim to guarantee rankings”
- Google’s SEO Tips page
Why Should I Care About Search Engine Optimization?
Studies have shown that web users don’t look past the first 3 pages of search results. Many don’t look past the 1st page. Therefore, if your not on that page, they won’t learn about your site and they’ll hire a competitor over your firm. This doesn’t mean only being found for your firm’s name but your geographic area, your practice areas, your industries served, etc. The more keywords you optimize for, the more leads you will receive.
SEO brings in targeted leads. The people that search for keywords self select those words and are specifically looking for more information about those topics. This lead is already highly qualified because he has self selected to find out more about your firm and its services by reading the short search description search engines provide and clicking through to your site.
SEO is also the cheapest way to show up in search results. There are other online marketing techniques, such as Pay Per Click (or Pay for Placement) advertising, that will guarantee you show up in search results for a fee. Over time, that can become quite expensive. With SEO, once a search engine lists you, you receive basically free traffic.
How To Optimize Your Site
As mentioned above, this requires picking strategic keywords and phrases that users actually search for when they are looking for more information. Once you have a list (and the list can be quite long depending on how many services you offer), you make sure those words appear frequently in content on your site and in your meta tags. Search engines are also much more likely to give sites with content better placement. Interestingly, as I write this today, Yahoo no longer uses Google results in its search. It purchased Inktomi a while back and this week made the switch over. MSN is positioning itself to get into the search industry soon as well – it also currently uses Inktomi results.
As of now, a recent article on CNN.com stated
Google’s Web sites handled 35 percent of all Web searches in December, compared with 27 percent at Yahoo sites and 15 percent for Microsoft sites, according to the latest data compiled by comScore Media Metrix, a research firm. AOL and other Web sites owned by CNN’s parent company Time Warner Inc. have a 16 percent share. Those sites largely rely on Google for their search results.
These numbers may change significantly in the upcoming year, so keeping up to date on recent changes is crucial to your optimization strategies. Inktomi and Google use completely different algorithms for ranking pages and it is challenging to get a good position in both. It will probably be even more so when Yahoo and MSN join the game.
Paid Inclusion – Your Site Will Be Indexed, But Rank Isn’t Guaranteed
There are a number of sites that offer you inclusion in their directory for a fee. Yahoo is probably the most well known, but Inktomi, Teoma/Ask Jeeves, Lycos, AltaVista and a number of others are now offering fast inclusion into their directories for an annual fee. Inclusion into Yahoo is $299/year while Inktomi is $39/year for the first URL + $25 each for additional URLs.
Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising – Guaranteed Rank, But For a Price
PPC is a quick way to get into the top page of search results for a given set of keywords, provided you are willing to pay for the results. The most popular PPC advertisers are Google’s Adwords, Overture, Findwhat, Lycos, and Looksmart (which recently switched to a PPC model from a Pay Inclusion model.)
PPC works by bidding on the keywords you want people to find you for. Depending on how popular the keywords are, you can pay anywhere from $.05 (min bid on Lycos & Findwhat) to several dollars on Overture or Google. The results are displayed as ‘sponsored listings’ on a variety of search engines and if searchers click on your link, your account is debited the price you bid. The best PPC campaigns try to minimize your cost per click through while still sending a large number of visitors to your site.
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