Everybody who has a website wants to optimise it for the search engines. They may not be sure quite why but that’s what they want to do. So why does so much time and effort (and expense) go in to optimising website.
You may already know the answer from your own habits. For instance when was the last time you looked at Yellow Pages? How often do you ‘Google’ someone before you meet them. The simple fact is search habits are becoming ingrained. It is second nature to visit a search engine to learn more about something.
The problem as a website owner is unless you’re near the top you just won’t get a look in. Eighty per cent of surfers don’t go beyond the first page and seventy per cent don’t even scroll down the page below result five. That a big problem because unless you’re anywhere near the top you just won’t get a look in.
This is why SEO is so important. Unless your website is positioned well for a least some of your main keywords you’re going to miss out on a whole lot of business and because that is where the buyers are you’re not going to find them anywhere else.
What is SEO Anyway?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and strictly speaking it relates to improving the volume of traffic from the ‘natural’, ‘organic’ or free listing. This mean the aim is for the results to appear in the centre of the search pages results and not on the side where you have to pay for it.
Most people that don’t have a deep understand of search marketing take SEO to cover the whole subject. There are other terms such as search engine marketing (SEM), pay per click (PPC) and many more besides.
In reality it doesn't’t really matter. As a website owner or manager your concern is making your website more productive. So whether, the technique is SEO, SEM or PPC doesn't’t really matter as long as it works.
So for simplicity of understanding I use the term SEO as a broad term that includes any of the other techniques as well.
I can’t do this SEO thing – can I?
First thing to conquer is your own self-doubt. You can successfully optimise your website without needing any particular technical skill, just common sense and commitment.
The problem is a whole industry has been built on making SEO seem complex and difficult. Not the sort of thing you would do yourself, because you can only fail. Better leave it to the experts.
Fact is successful SEO is more about applying some basic skill in the right way rather than any particular technical ability. You just need to develop a plan a stick to it.
Keywords are important. In simple terms if you don’t have a relevant keyword on your page the search engine are going to have trouble bringing your website up very often. But there are other things you are doing right now that can really help.
Things live PR, offline advertising, networking with other businesses – all these things can make a really big different and they’re often the same things the so called SEO experts will have the most trouble with.
In simple terms if you can use basic tools such as a web browser and Microsoft Word you’ve got all the technical skills you need. The other skills needed I’ll show you in this course.
Coming Soon: Who's best to do SEO & an Intro to my Really Simple SEO System. Why not Bookmark & come back... >>
"I found the SEO training very helpful. It was at a time when we were looking at changing the look of our website and didn't realise how important even the text on the home page was until I learnt about search engine optimisation.
Jackie Cole, Longleat.co.uk
