Search Engine Optimization - getting to page 1
If you publish a web site, your primary goal is probably the same as mine. That is to get traffic to visit your pages. Not just any traffic, but targeted traffic that is interested in your topic.
A lot has been written by others (and I'll throw a few paragraphs into the mix occasionally also) , and a lot of money has been spent on PPC (pay per click) advertising. It's true that immediate traffic can be sent to a site with PPC ... at a cost.
It's also true that PPC can determine if the searching public wants a particular product to begin with, i.e. if they won't click through your PPC ad to view your page, what does it matter if the page is high quality to begin with? In other words, if a tree grows in the forest, and nobody sees it, is it really beautiful? Or whatever.
PPC can help you bridge the gap between the day when a site goes live and the day when free traffic arrives.
BUT ... your goal should always be 2 things:
1. build a site full of pages that converts visitors to customers. A customer might be someone who makes a purchase. Or a customer might be someone who signs up to receive your newsletter if that's what you want to accomplish. Or a customer might be someone who subscribes to your RSS feed, like this one. A customer doesn't need to be someone who gives you money, they might be someone who gives you their time and their trust.
2. build pages that the search engines recognize as valuable enough to award good rankings, so that when a searcher is searching for what you have, they find YOU!
SEO (search engine optimization) is a professional skill which attempts to place your web pages in a position where a searcher will find you. In must cases web pages that are in search result page 3 or higher (assuming 10 results per page) are rarely found for a search term. For valuable phrases, placing on the first page of search results of major search engines (specifically Google, Yahoo, and soon MSN) is pure gold.
Competition is intense for those top 10 positions and SEO consultants who can deliver the results are well paid. Rightly so.
However most SEO work for small businesses on a budget can well be performed competently by the author of the web page if he or she keeps a few core essentials in mind.
Over the course of the next few weeks, I'll be posting the core essentials that I've found to be effective for me in this blog spot. I hope you come back tomorrow when we'll get started in earnest.
A lot has been written by others (and I'll throw a few paragraphs into the mix occasionally also) , and a lot of money has been spent on PPC (pay per click) advertising. It's true that immediate traffic can be sent to a site with PPC ... at a cost.
It's also true that PPC can determine if the searching public wants a particular product to begin with, i.e. if they won't click through your PPC ad to view your page, what does it matter if the page is high quality to begin with? In other words, if a tree grows in the forest, and nobody sees it, is it really beautiful? Or whatever.
PPC can help you bridge the gap between the day when a site goes live and the day when free traffic arrives.
BUT ... your goal should always be 2 things:
1. build a site full of pages that converts visitors to customers. A customer might be someone who makes a purchase. Or a customer might be someone who signs up to receive your newsletter if that's what you want to accomplish. Or a customer might be someone who subscribes to your RSS feed, like this one. A customer doesn't need to be someone who gives you money, they might be someone who gives you their time and their trust.
2. build pages that the search engines recognize as valuable enough to award good rankings, so that when a searcher is searching for what you have, they find YOU!
SEO (search engine optimization) is a professional skill which attempts to place your web pages in a position where a searcher will find you. In must cases web pages that are in search result page 3 or higher (assuming 10 results per page) are rarely found for a search term. For valuable phrases, placing on the first page of search results of major search engines (specifically Google, Yahoo, and soon MSN) is pure gold.
Competition is intense for those top 10 positions and SEO consultants who can deliver the results are well paid. Rightly so.
However most SEO work for small businesses on a budget can well be performed competently by the author of the web page if he or she keeps a few core essentials in mind.
Over the course of the next few weeks, I'll be posting the core essentials that I've found to be effective for me in this blog spot. I hope you come back tomorrow when we'll get started in earnest.
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