Technology
Lost and found
Optimize your Web site to help customers find your business — and double your return on investment along the way.
By Jessica Tremayne
Smart Business Columbus | November 2008
Page 1 of 3
If your IT guru has told you that something
called search engine optimization is the way
to go, but you’re still foggy about what it is or
why you should care, consider this: When
done right, SEO could double your return on
investment and help you acquire scores of
new customers.
Search engine optimization in its most
basic form is simply about making your Web
site appear higher up in search results from
sites like Google and Yahoo.
Search engines are the starting point of
almost all online activity, second only to e-mail, yet more than half of readers surveyed
by Smart Business say search engine optimization isn’t part of their current marketing
strategy. Search engine optimization has a
rightful place in every company’s budget, yet
few companies ‘get it,’ and they don’t allocate
serious funds into the development of a program.
It all starts when a potential customer
enters a search term into Google. Two types
of search results are displayed: natural and
pay-per-click.
Natural search, which are the results
shown on the left side of any search page, are
based on merit and validity to the keywords
used. The results in the narrow column on
the right are pay-per-click results.
When you optimize your site for natural
search, it can take three months to see
progress in your rankings. The better the
optimization, the higher up your site will
appear in relevant searches, increasing your
chances for a sale.
Pay-per-click gets immediate results by displaying your ad when someone searches for
a particular keyword that you choose, but
you are charged every time someone clicks
on your site. This is an advertisement and a
temporary fix.
