What SEO means for your business

Article written in 2006 by Scott Salwolke

Imagine you're on a sidewalk and across the street you see a potential customer. You wave to him, but he doesn't see you. You wave again and he still doesn't respond. Why? Because all around you, are your competitors. And they're also waving to the man. How is he going to notice you in all of this?

This is what it is like to be a company doing business on the web. Over one billion businesses have a site on the web.  You're not in competition with all of them, but even the few you are may be doing more to get noticed.

This begins by finding the words your customers are using on search engines. After all, they're not typing in your company's name. They're typing in your product or your service.

And even then you have to decide how they describe what they do. Are you a contractor? Then are people typing in contractor or home builder?

And once you decide on what words or key phrases customers are most likely to use, you need to incorporate them into the text. This is search engine optimization. It involves not just using these words in the text, but also in the title and the computer code. How often you insert these words into the copy can impact how your site ranks on Google.

The search engines send out spiders to look through web sites. As the name implies, these spiders crawl through your web, looking through your text.  They're looking to see how many times the keywords appear.

The objective of any copy that a copywriter fashions, however, is to convince the readers to perform some action. It could be to order a product, or to visit a vacation destination. Or perhaps its to generate leads for a sales staff. So while how many times a keyword is used could impact rankings, using the words too much could damage your credibility.

There is only one way to judge a company’s site. A successful site generates sales 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

To see if your web site is successful, first determine if it can even be found. Most people doing a search aren't typing in your company's name, they're typing in your product. So go to Google and do a simple search. If you sell nationally, just type in your most successful product. If your business is local, do the same, but add your location.

For example, if you type in Dubuque Bed and Breakfast and you’re one of the top three sites, you're in good shape. 84% of people doing a search check out at least the top three. If your site isn't even on the first page, then you're in trouble. 70% of searchers never go past the first page.

So what to do if you're not ranked high. You could contact a search engine optimization specialist, a web site designer, or an advertising agency. You could even decide to make your own alterations. It's time consuming, but it will pay dividends in the long run.

First examine your site. If the focus of your site is your company and not your product, that needs to change. People most often are looking for what your company does, not who you are.  So not just your words, but your titles, headlines, even your Html code have to reflect this.