Starting out with SEO

During the course of your business dealings, it is possible that you have come across the initials SEO, which means search engine optimisation. SEO is the way to get your website ranked higher in the search engines (SE's) via the natural, or unpaid, search results rather than the Pay-Per-Click results shown on the on the outside columns of the results list. It is an important service because the Internet is changing at a fast rate, and with over 75% of large and small companies with data online, there is increased competition for the market share with regard to the top positions in SE's. For your online business to have the best chance of succeeding the aim of your company should be to have your website positioned in the top ten listings on the main SE's such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. At the moment Google accounts for more than 60% of the total amount of online searches performed. Through research it has been shown that most people who browse the lists on SE's, rarely go past the top ten placements for their search.

Big companies with big online competition invest large sums of money in order to ensure that their website remains high on SE listings but a smaller website with less competition or than is targeting customers in their localised area can still earn high rankings on a much smaller budget. A quality SEO service aims at obtaining a high-ranking for your website because, essentially, that is what SE optimisation is. This service can be vital to the future development of your website and, therefore, your business, unfortunately SEO does not happen by merely creating a website and hosting it online.

When you choose to optimise your website, generally two main areas are involved in the optimisation process. On-page optimisation deals with everything that can be affected by making changes directly on your website such as content and structure. Off-page optimisation deals with the visibility of the website, which means the amount of mentions obtained on other sites and links going to your website. To successfully optimise a website takes time and is hard to achieve all at the same time. If you attempt to do all of the work at once, the search engines are alerted and believe that you are attempting to manipulate their results. Moreover, if you proceed over time and enter the best Internet directories, for example Google and Bing, the result is a better position in searches.

A big difference can be made to your website rankings through submitting articles and press releases to online directories. By submitting to directories you can get the opportunity of a mention plus a place for adding links to your site from related websites.

More and more people are using Internet search engines to find information, products and services, which makes marketing through search engine optimisation as effective or even more effective than traditional advertising routes. A better understanding about how search engines operate, and effectively use them as a tool to promote your website is now vital to your business growth and future development. This is where SEO as a marketing option comes into its own because it provides the links, facility and the know how to help your website to reach a wider client base.

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