As many of us web developers already know, Google is rated as the number one search engine in the world. We all personally know that our websites get about 85%-90% of their search engine traffic direct from Google searches.
Search engine optimization/ search engine marketing (SEO) is the art and science of publishing and marketing information that ranks well for valuable keywords in search engines like Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and AltaVista.
Search engines only show 10 results on the first page, and most searchers tend to click on the top few results. If you rank at the top business is good, but if you are on the second or third page you might only get 1% of the search traffic that the top ranked site gets.
The 2 most powerful aspects of search engine marketing are
- users type what they want to find into search boxes, making search engines the most precisely targeted marketing medium in the history of the world
- once you gain traction in the search results the incremental costs of gaining additional exposure are negligible when compared with the potential rewards, allowing individuals and small businesses to compete with (and perhaps eventually become) large corporations
While many people consider SEO to be complicated, I believe that SEO is nothing but an extension of traditional marketing. Search engine optimization consists of 9 main steps
- market research
- keyword research
- on page optimization
- site structure
- link building
- brand building
- viral marketing
- adjusting
- staying up to date
