Last month we talked about the difference between Organic and Paid listings for your website searches. We discussed the importance of optimizing your website for key words that are specific to your business sector and how SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can help with your overall marketing initiatives. We also explained that 70% of the traffic generated from a search is from the organic or natural listings not the paid ones. People tend to trust the listings generated from a search engine more than the ones that are paid for. It is not enough anymore to simply create a site and expect it to magically end up high in the organic listings.
So how can an SEO Professional help you attain higher natural listings and stay there? First off keywords are very important to a website. Key words are simply those words that a person may use in a search engine to find your business.
Lets say you are a Paint Shop. What words would you use to describe yourself? “body paint”, “paint shop”, “car painting” or “auto paint shop” to name a few of the obvious ones. How about long tail versions such as “Las Vegas auto body paint shop”, or “Henderson Nevada car paint shop”? These are called long tail keywords because they are longer than the regular key word choices. These are important because this is the first step in determining what we need to do to optimize your site so potential customers can find you.
So, if you have a site call JoesPaintShop.com this means that on your pages we will write about your site “Joes Auto Body Paint Shop in Henderson and Las Vegas Nevada, featuring the best professional painting and finishes with state of the art auto body car paint booths and baking machines for a superior car paint finish to accommodate all budgets. We accept all major insurance and offer free estimates.”
Many websites are built by design professionals who tend to concentrate on the overall look of the website. As noted above many of the aspects of what a search engine looks for will be lost on even the best looking websites. Descriptions such as the one that we created above may simply say “Joes Paint Shop”. You have to take into account that there is much more to that name and type of business that needs to be considered when writing about it.
We always urge current and potential clients that if you are lucky enough to include an SEO Professional during the creation of your website, you will keep your initial costs down as many of these basic techniques can be implemented along with the design elements and content that the web designer will be creating. Even Google.com the worlds largest search engine says, “If you’re thinking about hiring an SEO, the earlier the better. A great time to hire is when you’re considering a site redesign, or planning to launch a new site. That way, you and your SEO can ensure that your site is designed to be search engine-friendly from the bottom up. However, a good SEO can also help improve an existing site.”
So now that you have incorporated an SEO into your site and your pages have been optimized how long does it take to start rising in the search engine rankings? Allot of that depends on how many competitors you have in the top rankings and how your site compares to them via the search engine rankings. The SEO will analyze your site compared to the competition and determine along with your keywords what else needs to be done in order to help you rise in the rankings. We also have to take into account that the search engines change this criteria often so it is not enough to optimize your site once, it needs to be optimized at least monthly to keep the content fresh so that search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN can pick up on the changes. Many times it can take months to rise toward the top. With that being said patience is important during this period.
Next time we will discuss the importance of constant updates with content such as monthly newsletters, blogs and other ways to keep your site fresh and high in the search engine rankings. We will also talk about the importance of carefully accomplishing this goal without overdoing it.
Bill Gornet is a Professional SEO and is owner of SEOinvestment.com. With over 10 years of retail and service oriented website experience, his services include search engine optimization, web marketing, analysis including return on investment, customer experience and overall web marketing strategies.