SEO is critical to your company's credibility.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a rather murky area of internet marketing for many business leaders.  In that sense, it is not much different from the origins of other forms of marketing and advertising, all of which at some point suffered from being the new kid on the block.  But understanding SEO, at least enough to take advantage of it, can be a boon for many businesses whose competitors are not doing so and is a necessity for those whose competitors are doing so.  Here are the answers to some FAQs about SEO that will help you get in on the ground floor of this marketing opportunity.

• What is SEO? SEO is the process of making your website attractive to search engine algorithms. Search engines that “like” your website, based on a variety of factors, will rank your website higher when potential customers search keywords that are related to your business. For example, a psychologist who specializes in divorce counseling wants to appear on the first page, preferably in one of the top spots, when the keywords “divorce counseling” are searched by Google users. SEO makes this happen.
• What is the difference between SEO and PPC? A website appears in PPC, which stands for Pay-Per-Click, results when a company bids on keywords in an advertising campaign, for example via Google AdWords. When a potential customer clicks on the ad, the company pays a fee for the “click” whether or not the “click” results in a conversion, or sale. A website that appears in organic (non-PPC) search results from SEO; the company pays nothing when a user clicks on organic results. However, the company is probably paying a professional to improve their SEO.
• Should I abandon PPC for SEO? Absolutely not! A good marketing mix is as important as ever. Use PPC for top-of-mind awareness and SEO to build credibility as an industry-leader.
• What are “keywords?” Keywords are words or phrases that your customers use to search for your product or service. If your company is a defensive driving school, the keywords you would emphasize, or optimize for, might include “defensive driving class,” “defensive driving course,” and “traffic ticket class.”
• How do I link keywords to my product or service? You can do this by optimizing your website copy for those keywords, as well as generating “quality content” for the web in the form of keyword-optimized articles and blogs.
• What is quality content? Quality content is online content that search engine algorithms deem worthwhile to users. Quality content relates to your industry and offers useful information; content that is purely a sales pitch does not qualify. Search engines assign greater value to quality content, which raises your website’s search engine rankings.
• Can I just post the same “quality content” in different places online? No. This is called “duplicate content” and search engines penalize your website for this. Quality content is original and fresh. Put yourself in the user’s shoes: wouldn’t you find the same article on several sites annoyingly repetitive? Search engine algorithms are sophisticated enough to account for this.
• Will I receive direct inquiries from quality content? It’s possible, but that is not the aim of quality content – it’s a bonus. Remember, quality content is about branding your company. No one calls Johnson & Johnson to ask why their products are suitable for babies; it’s simply part of the company’s persona because of the content they’ve generated over many years on TV and on the web.
• Will I see immediate results from an SEO campaign? Possibly, but probably not, because it takes time for search engines to index the quality content you are producing on behalf of your company. You should see results, meaning a higher ranking in search engine results, from your SEO campaign in about 90 days. Make a commitment and be patient!

Tags: Internet Marketing, search engine optimization, seo

This entry was posted on Monday, July 12th, 2010 at 12:55 pm and is filed under Internet Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.