Article by John Black

Search Engine Optimization or SEO as it’s become known by, is an essential ingredient for any web site to be successful.  However it can be very puzzling for website owners particularly for those new to the whole concept of selling online .  There are usually 3 reactions the whole concept of SEO ;

1.  Some feel that it is a waste of time and that simply the act of putting a website on the web is enough.

2.  Some feel that they can just do it all themselves and that there isn’t much to it.

3.  Many feel that it is certainly something that should be delegated to a professional and that their valuable time is better spent doing things for their companies that they excel at.

All three perspectives have merit, for a few companies just having a website is sufficient.  The sort of business this would work for is one that is unlikely to have people searching for their services on the web.  For instance a personal Chiropractic practice in a reasonably tiny town.

In barely bigger cities, depending on the quantity of competing businesses have internet sites online, it may be possible to get great results by doing a bit of promotion yourself.

For the majority getting it to work fine really does need the services of a professional Search Engine Optimization expert.
Search engine optimisation is a field that is consistently changing and the systems and techniques that need to be used to get good search engine visibility are also an ever changing phenomenon.

the great thing about using Search Engine Optimisation to get your website to rank highly in the search engines is that it is advertising that not only is working for you twenty four hours a day, seven days each week.  It is a way of bringing in shoppers that are actively searching for what you are providing.

Consider the traditional kinds of advertising – paperspapers, mags, TV, local papers or radio.  They are all a sort of shotgun approach, sending your advertising far and wide in the hope that your future clients happen to be reading, watching or listening to them at precisely the right time.

While with search engine promoting it is simply possible with good SEO services and a well set up site, to put your offering directly in front of the folk that have purposely looked for your service by typing it into a search engine.

Another great thing about using search engine optimisation to lift your business, is that it is measurable.  Unlike more standard forms of advertising, it is entirely possible to track what quantity of folks come to your website.  Not just that you can tell where in the world they come from, which keyword phrase they used to find you, which search engine they came through and how many came thru each of the keywords.

with additional traditional advertising not only is it a shotgun approach, usually it isn’t quantifiable and typically the costs involved are extremely high.

For cutting edge SEO services at a fraction of the cost of other Search Engine Optimization services visit www.linxhurricane.com today

Should I optimise my new website for SEO or is the design more important? This is a question that will raise a lively debate but the company you keep will have a large bearing on the answer.

A graphic designer who specialises in visual design will debate that in a high percentage of cases that the website design is the priority of course. And let’s face it without that visually pleasant to the eye design a browser will navigate away from your site within a matter of seconds or so they lead you to believe. But then that raises an all together different debate of how did they find your site in the first instance?

The basic web design criteria or curve goes along the lines of visual design is storyboarded for client ..website design looks excellent let’s go for it. We need some content ok, Take the text from our existing old site…..website goes live and time passes but no visitors!

And then even more time passes by until eventually perhaps months and sometimes years later the situation is either so critical or the company are having to spend out on adwords that finally a search engine optimisation company gets called in or the sales manager starts to question the lack of inbound enquiries from the web, and before you know it you are investing in a web marketing strategy to try and achieve some search engine results.

Is this really the best way to go? The thousands of website owners that have followed this exact or similar path will certainly argue that it most definitely is not as this hope and pray web development criteria delays any websites success by unacceptable periods of time, and even more frightening  results in thousands in lost profit, turnover and ongoing prospect capture.

The search engines don’t care about what the site looks like but with no attention to SEO so often this initial chance to make the best impact when the site first gets indexed is totally wasted, if all the search engines find is a badly optimised site with little regard paid to any SEM requirements or keyword capture.

With only a little extra investment spent on pre development SEO ,for example keyword research and optimisation gives an worthy return on investment as invariably initial indexing is bound to achieve a far better search engine ranking from the beginning and it has been known for pre-optimised websites to hit a page one result straight away.

To find out more about search engine optimisation visit SEO Services Southampton .

Here is a case study of the revenue that a client achieved by optimizing a single keyword that moved from the bottom of the second page of Google to a number 4 position, above the fold on the first page.

A client’s website had a ranking of 18 for their primary target keywords on the second page of Google’s natural search engine results. Considering how many marketers are competing for the top positions for this keyword, appearing on the second page of search results seemed a like an accomplishment, but we thought that it could be better.

SEO Works

We focused our optimization efforts on improving the natural keyword ranking for this one target keyword. Eventually, the ranking for the keyword first moved to the number 9 position, and then to the number 4 position of the first page search engine results. The improved search engine ranking for this single keyword generated an increase in sales leads far more than expected, which subsequently converted to an increase in sales revenue amounting to over $1,000,000.

Tracking the Moves

The list below shows the search engine ranking relative to the number of sales leads that were generated from the company’s primary target keyword:

• Nov 08 – position 18 = 6 leads
• Dec 08 – position 9 = 31 leads
• Jan 09 – position 9 = 126 leads
• Feb 09 – position 4 = 102 leads
• Mar 09 – position 4 = 207 leads
• Apr 09 – position 4= 221 leads

Summary of Results

The increase in the number of monthly sales leads can be seen as the target keyword ranking moved up over the six month time period. The full benefit of the keyword moving from the 18^th to the 9^th position is reflected in the January total because the change occurred later in the month of December. The same applies to the move from position 9 to position 4 because the change occurred later in February.

For marketing managers and business owners who are wondering about the difference between having a major keyword listing on the first page of search results compared to the second page of results, this case study should provide some insight based on our experience.

It also shows an example of the potential benefit from having keyword search results listed above the fold of a web page as opposed to below the fold where viewers must scroll down to see more search listings.

Based on these results, there is clear evidence that a higher organic search engine ranking can dramatically affect sales lead generation and company revenue, in this case over ,000,000.

Wriiten by Rick Smith: Online Marketing Agency, Newspaper SEO, Auto Dealer SEO.