William Foote’s Internet Insider Blog

Search Engine Optimization: SEO 101

January 23, 2008 on 10:58 am | In Search Engine Optimization |

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a very complex topic and a “War and Peace” length document could be written on exactly how one can go about achieving the highest results. That said, the following five steps in this order are the cornerstones of any good SEO strategy.

• Research the keywords your prospective clients will be using to search for your web site.
• Optimize your web pages for these keywords so that they can get high search engine rankings.
• Submit your web pages to the major search engines and internet directories.
• Get incoming links from other web sites to your website.
• Track the results and refine the first four steps accordingly.

Most websites focus exclusively on aesthetics and completely neglect one all important truth. The purpose of a web strategy is to drive sales for the business and websites that fail to garner top ten rankings are losing an enormous number of their prospective buyers. Consider that 85%-90% of all internet users rely on search engines to find information. (Georgia Tech /GVU Survey)

Search engine users are some of the most qualified and motivated visitors your web site will ever have. However, getting listed in a search engine doesn’t do you much good if you’re number 375 out of 1,447,000 search results. In fact, it doesn’t even help much if you hold the 11th position, as 75% of internet users never click past the first Search Engine Results Page (Georgia Institute of Technology).

Posted By: William Foote, Co-founder of http://www.vmg-interactive.com