SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of creating the proper structure and keyword alignment within your web design which will allow your site to move more readily upward in the search engine rankings. It is obvious that even the most well designed, appealing website with unique highly attractive layout, functional navigation and magnificent graphics will do no good for whatever business it represents, if no one sees it. SEO, done properly, allows for the best positioning of a site relative to the search terms utilized on the site. If the internet is the theatre and the website is the play, then SEO is the usher. If the net is one big traffic grid and websites are the cars traveling over the grid, then SEO is the traffic signal system. Thus SEO is a key factor in web design, especially if you want people to actually look at your site.
SEO is the guidance system for the space shuttle internet. Utilizing a very complicated set of algorithms to read and maneuver websites up and down in the search engine rankings based upon the keyword choices the sites have made and the use of these words within the site, among other factors, SEO positions millions of sites in elementary particles of seconds. In a colossal mechanism the size of, say, our justice system, where guilt and innocence are determined within a complex, incredibly detailed legal system by applying the letter of the law rather than almost anyone's definition of justice, casualties of the system abound. At least within the justice system the rules stay pretty much the same from month to month. On the net, the rules change rather radically from search engine to search engine and even within the various search engines from time to time.
SEO is the Old Sea Cap'n navigating the ship using only the night sky. SEO done properly may be the key element in stopping the bleeding from a business hopelessly mired in the red, cauterizing the wounds and redirecting the fates. SEO takes time, at least several months to see significant results but it need not be expensive. SEO is to web rank what CEO is to corporate decision making, but how indeed does the corporate decision maker decide who is both savvy enough and current enough to entrust with his very own website's SEO? If you remember the story where the traveling salesman asked the farmer how to get to the nearby town, the farmer thought for a long time before finally concluding, "You know, I don't think you can actually get there from here," you get some idea of how difficult it is to decide where or to whom you should entrust your SEO. SEO, by the very nature of the beast, is the quintessential moving target. For instance, the website "SEO King" has captured the glorious 186th spot on Google, for God's sake. There doesn't seem to be an "SEO Queen" and the website "SEO Pawn" is a place to hock your website in order to pay for high priced SEO so that your site begins to function. Even "Mr. SEO" has not been able to gain the "top fifty" site ranking on Google, coming in at a distant number 74, three behind SEO Logic, an apparent oxymoron.
So if you want the best SEO for your website, find someone current, knowledgeable and savvy. Remember, SEO does not need to be expensive to be effective. So go to Google, type in Inexpensive SEO and peruse that first page. At least they know enough about SEO to be on page one. Then look for a good deal with a guarantee of moving up. Then talk to the web designer to make sure his thinking on the subject of SEO is current and he knows how to properly decide and research your keywords. He should tell you about needing incoming links, submitting articles to generate more links and that SEO is neither instant nor magic. He should be talking about several months to get fairly good positioning on the search engines. Try to work out a monthly fee with no more than one month payment up front. Ask for a guaranteed increased rank each month or you don't have to pay. Unless you are having other significant work done, the SEO alone should not be more than plus or minus $200 per month. If it all seems to line up " Go For It! In a few months you will be basking in the glory of daily free clicks. More Power to you then because you have just beaten SEO and become a webmaster.
About the Author
Gene Schwerman is founder and head marketing consultant for Truly Unique Website Design. Truly Unique's provides a wide range of SEO and website design services.
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