SEO Search Engine Optimization

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SECRET SAUCE #4

SEO also known as SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, once understood and implemented can put your website on page 1 of GOOGLE. Take the time to learn SEO and you too can make money by having your website on PAGE ONE of Google.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization 101

In an increasingly global Internet community, many techniques have surfaced in order that companies may take hold of as much market share as possible. After all, the Internet is used by a huge variety of people from all over the world, each in their own way a potential customer. Formerly, going through the Internet and finding content relevant to one's search was simple; only a few websites were up and running online. These days, however, the Internet is a deluge of content in all shapes and sizes, with people of various age groups, backgrounds, and geographic locations, generating their own online publications and content. Therefore, customers rely greatly on various tools made available to them to simplify their lives.

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Search engines are online interfaces used to search for relevant content online based on the keywords entered in the field by the Internet users. Therefore, businesses online must find a way to be prioritized among hundreds and thousands of businesses offering similar or congruent content. One of these methods designed towards maximizing the potential of the Internet for businesses that rely greatly on generating Internet traffic towards their online website is SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. Search Engine Optimization is a method used to give a particular website and its content better ranking in a search engine's query response listings. It usually tries to give websites an edge over others, particularly in those organic or crawler search engines. Organic searches are those listings yielded without payment; crawler search engines simulate the act of crawling through the web and following links through to their respective web pages.

However, like all good things, SEO has come under attack of misuse by people who wanted to take advantage of it. This is the reason why today, SEO is categorized into "white hat SEO", or SEO legitimately used by consulting agencies to assist clients online, and "black hat SEO", used to manipulate search engine listings with unethical methods.

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While "black hat SEO" makes use of unethical methods to manipulate listings and to deceive others, "white hat SEO" focuses on honest methods of improving a website and its contents in order to promote it in the Internet much better. Many websites try generating traffic to their website by various methods—pay-per-click advertisings, prepaid advertisements, and organic search listings. SEO is much more interested in increasing profitability through the last method, organic search listings. Pay-per-click advertising, which entails the advertiser to pay Google or similar agencies only for the number of clicks an online advertisement banner generates and not for ad placement, may ride up costs. This happens when the website tops listings and generates traffic from a huge client base, of which not all of them are interested in purchasing the product or service that will provide the company profit.

Organic search listings, however, display listings of websites regardless of whether or not they are paid. What SEO primarily does in order to maximize the power of organic search listings is concentrating relevant keywords. "White hat SEO", because it focuses on improving websites collectively in order to generate genuine rankings in listings, concentrates on better content for the website. Accurate portrayal of a business's identity is at the core of ethical SEO. The first way to do it is by making a clean code, which is a significantly simpler code aimed more in delivering content to the users of the website. A cleaner, simpler code helps crawler search engines decipher the relationships and links between pages and © 2011 Branding System PRO™ All Rights Reserved

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keywords. The second means is creating beefed up content written in order to provide information and maximum satisfaction to customers. Search engines take into account the 'satisfaction" of customers on the basis of relevance of content and even the frequency of visits, usually related to the quality of the content offered by the website. By concentrating on providing quality information and content to customers, the website gains grounding among online visitors. At the end of the day, by helping the consumers understand and interpret better the content of the website even at the point of indices in search engines, one can best maximize SEO and the rankings of the page in listings. Relevance is key in trying to make sure traffic is directed towards the business's website; only by providing relevant content can longevity be achieved amidst various trends that claim to provide the business all it needs.

Why Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Important?

The Internet has provided ways to revolutionize how we live our daily lives. It has crawled into the different dimensions of human lives, business, communication, information dissemination, and personal relationships. People have made a paradigm shift towards using the Internet to aid them in their daily activities. With this context in mind, many people are continuously struggling to get noticed in the world of the Internet. Websites are growing like mushrooms everywhere, every time. © 2011 Branding System PRO™ All Rights Reserved

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How can one's website get past the millions of other websites and eventually be noticed by its target audience? Search engine optimization aims to achieve the goal of getting more visitors to a website by helping it get higher rankings in the search engines. This simply means that search engine optimization's goal is to make a website appear on the first pages, if not the first page of a search done through the search engine. There are two ways to be able to get noticed by search engines. One is through pay-perclick-advertisements. A good example of a pay-per-click system that is employed by search engines is the Google Adwords system. It has created a hype and has given Google around 5 billion dollars in terms of revenue per year. Webmasters can place their bids to be shown when a surfer searches a keyword. The highest bidders will get their sites to appear first when the search is being done. The second way of getting high rankings from search engines is through organic searches. Search engines evaluate websites by using what they call 'spiders." These programs scan the websites and collects information about them. They then collate the information and pass it on to the search engine. This area is primarily the main arena of search engine optimization. It utilizes a set of methods to be able to get search engines to list the website on high ranks.

Traffic

The main purpose of search engine optimization is to increase the traffic generated by a website. Websites are built to be seen by Internet surfers and search engines can help it achieve this goal. The power of the search engine should not be underestimated. It is one of the building blocks of the foundation of the Internet. A survey showed that 90% of all Internet users employ search engines to aid them in their Internet-related activities. Google, the dominant player in the search engine industry, generates 70% of all search-related Internet activity.

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People and Search Engines are Alike

Search engines behave like people. They like websites, which contain substantive information about a certain topic. The best sites usually appear first in search engines because people like them as well as the search engines. Search engine optimization does not only generate traffic, it helps maintain the traffic. The behavior of the search engine is indicative to the behavior of the people who visit the website. Search engine optimization leads to the optimization of a webpage or a website. It will lead to a website which is more organized and a website which contains substantive information.

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Target Audience

The use of the search engine to be able to target one's target audience is one of the most effective Internet marketing strategies. It is not like other on-line marketing techniques (such as email marketing), which can lead to a lot of leakages in terms of targeting the right audience. Search engines segment the market and connect the right people together. People search for topics, which they are interested in, and this is the main strength of search engines in connecting markets together.

Cost Effectiveness One can do search engine optimization under the assumption that he knows what he is doing. Search engine optimization is a full-time job and has a very long learning curve. This is why most people would resort to out-sourcing the job to experts who are good at what they do. One should be cautious, however, in hiring a search engine optimization company or consultant. Factors such as pricing and service should carefully be assessed before signing a deal. If done properly, search engine optimization is a very cost effective way of getting more people to know about one's products or to know about a certain issue or event that a website is disseminating. SEO is very important for websites since it determines the position of the website in comparison with its competitors. It does not only generate traffic from the targeted audience but is also a cost-effective way of optimizing the website.

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