SEO and why it is important to your page

The definition of SEO is:

Short for search engine optimization or search engine optimizer, SEO is the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine (SERP). The higher a website ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that that site will be visited by a user.

It is common practice for Internet users to not click through pages and pages of search results, so where a site ranks in a search is essential for directing more traffic toward the site. SEO helps to ensure that a site is accessible to a search engine and improves the chances that the site will be found by the search engine. 

credit to Webopedia.com for definition

Now that you know what SEO is, let's take a look at what you can do to get your web site listing higher in the results

1.  Key words are a important part tied into every page you have on your site. They need to be descriptive to what services you offer. Think of it this way, if you were looking for a business like yours in a different city, what words would you use in your search engine? This will be a good start on building your key words, but there is more to it than that.
2. Link pages in your site to one another, this will make it easier for the search engines when they crawl your site to pick up on all of your pages.
3. Have all of your most important pages listed and linked from your home navigation page. Search engines will assume what they find on the main page "home" page have the most important information on them.
4. Use social networking sites and blogs, tie them into your web page. Post things often and apply labels & tags.
5. Use Google webmaster tools and Google Analytics - these are invaluable to webmasters as they give you an insight to see things as the search engine comprehends them. They give you insight as to how the key words show up and in what numerical order throughout your web site. If you see that terms or words that you use are lower in the list than less valuable terms in your opinion you can then adjust them on your individual pages to help increase them in search results. IE: Say I am selling widgets and I care about selling them more to local residents than to global. I would use words often in my page descriptions focusing on my local area and the items I sell. 
6. Upload your site index maps and reload them after major changes on your site. This will keep your information up to date on the search engines. You want the search engines to crawl your site to show up to date information.

If you find all of this overwhelming, you are not alone! It is never easy and it takes a lot of "tweaking" to get your site producing results to the front page, but it can be done with management and careful consideration of what is working and what is not. I strongly suggest that small business owners (when possible) be involved in a proactive relationship with not only a advertising / marketing campaign but also a web host who can help you with all the tools to help you with your placement on the web. This is even more important for those who do their own websites. Make sure you pick a web host who has tools and widgets included in your package that will not cost you over and above your Web Hosting fee's. It is your business, it needs to be all about your details and budget!

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