( Do I Need SEO?)

It's getting close to the end of the year, and Google has just released its annual Zeitgeist Search List for 2011, which makes interesting reading (for more on that you can read here) It also offers a timely reminder of how important search engines are to how we use the internet, computers in general, and how we live our lives in the modern, evolving world.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of your website in search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. Put simply, the higher your site is ranked in the search engine, and the earlier you appear in search results, the more ‘natural’ or un-paid traffic your site will get (often called organic traffic).

Google (and other search engines) are increasingly part of our lives and everyday actions. In this day and age if we don’t know something we ‘Google it’. Because of this, the position and rank of a website in the search engine is becoming increasingly vital to business success. In addition to this, there are increasing numbers of businesses that are relying on their online presence as part of their business model, which means that the number of other sites you are competing with for position is ever-expanding

…. Its not enough to simply have a website anymore. Some research indicates that around 94% or natural traffic goes to the sites on the first page of search engines, so it’s important to make your site visible. If you don’t buy on-line ads then without SEO your traffic will be comprised only of your relatives and close friends, you will be invisible to the billions of searches made each day.

An SEO strategy encompasses many things to achieve a greater number of “the right kind of” visitors to your site. It considers how search engines work, the actual search terms that people are using to find businesses like yours, the amount of competition for those terms, and the search behavior of the target audience.

Optimizing a site includes editing content to increase keyword relevance, changing the HTML (or other code) to make keywords and tags obvious to search engines and remove barriers to the indexing activity they perform on your site. It will also involve promoting, listing and registering your site with appropriate directories and other locations to get backlinks (inbound links) to your site that offer traffic and increase your ranking.

In addition to these initial aspects of SEO there are many ongoing activities that must be performed on a site in order to increase its rankings. Google’s current algorithms, which evolve every couple of months, reward content, content, content!

Your site’s content needs to change and be updated regularly, ideally at least once a week. This content needs to contain links to other parts of the site and it needs to contain phrases and keywords that you want to be found on in search queries. Some sites, like Facebook, for example, are naturally dynamic in this way; however, many business websites do not lend themselves to ever changing updates. For this reason, a useful tool is setting up a blog, which can be added to your site regularly (yes, like this one). This is a labor of love for some, but many businesses outsource this task to companies with experience in SEO, like Prodigm. All you need to do is to suggest relevant topics on a weekly basis, allowing us to generate optimized, keyword-heavy content which we then upload to the site.

An effective SEO campaign also encompasses a wide range of other techniques which take time and/or experience to implement, like the use of titles, meta tags, alt tags, video channels, social media engagement and Micro-blogging.

Because of this, most companies choose to either employ a webmaster with SEO experience or use SEO Consultants to do the work for them, for a monthly fee. There was a period of time when some companies were reluctant to pay an ongoing fee for this type of work, but many quickly realized that it was far cheaper than the cost of ad campaigns and AdWords.

Search Engine Optimization will cost you time and money, however the alternative is to spend a lot more money on advertizing campaigns.

The organic traffic generated by SEO is a much more cost-effective long-term solution to connecting with potential customers. It offers higher value leads than clicks from ads, which have a high bounce rate and low conversion. (Bounces are people who leave the page quickly, not having looked at other parts of the site).  SEO is essential for your online presence. Without it who will find your business?

If you would like to discuss your online presence with an SEO consultant Contact Us, we will give you advice and options relevant to your individual companies needs.

Tim Lawless | IT & Marketing Consultant | Prodigm Inc. | Toronto

“Every Company and Organization needs a good web site and a great CRM!”

Contact: +1 416 564 1446 | tim_lawless@prodigm.ca | www.prodigm.ca

We provide CRM and associated business, analytical and technical services to get you up and running quickly. We can also help you build a great web-site and get it noticed. We have been working successfully with practical CRM solutions for companies like yours since 1992