So, how do you choose an SEO firm to entrust your business to? I believe that there are some simple checks to put in place before committing yourself to any SEO proposal, no matter how attractive it might seem.

The following sections lists a dozen few ways you can identify some potentially good SEO firms, and how to eliminate the dodgy ones, and thus reduce your chances of being disappointed.

1.) How Well Does Their Own SEO Site Rank?

Do a search for search engine optimisation, seo rates and/or seo firm on the country-specific version of each of the big 3 major search engines – e.g. Google.co.nz, Yahoo.co.nz or XtraMSN.co.nz. Alternatively, go to the main Google.com etc site, and search for nz seo, seo rates, or new zealand search engine optimisation (or your own country-specific version of those). The SEO market has become very competitive out there, but you should expect the SEO business you are contemplating doing business with to be on Page One on each search engine! If not, drop them from the list of possibles, because how much help could they possibly be to you? A list of 5-10 potential firms should quickly emerge from this process.

2.) Request For Proposal

From your initial research, you should have a list of contenders you are considering entrusting your business to. Contact each, and request a site review. This usually a free service, and will invariably result in a detailed analysis of your site, and a proposal which sets out what remedial action is required and should include an indicative costing to achieve this. Having now received a series of these, apply the following criteria against each one.

3.) Guaranteed Inclusion in Google/Yahoo/MSN

If an SEO firm offers a guarantee of inclusion into any major search engine, or assures you that they have a special relationship with a major search engine, immediately drop them from the list of possibles. Frankly, search engines simply do not enter into such relationships. That would be as likely as a close friendship between a poacher and a gamekeeper!

4.) What Are They Proposing?

There are two key ingredients to web site optimisation, and if both are not assessed and addressed, drop the SEO firm’s proposal from the list of possibilities!

• The first element is on-site optimisation of individual pages to improve organic or natural search engine rankings. This involves keyword research with associated analysis of the business products and services. This is the most important aspect because it delivers ongoing traffic which is essentially free after the initial work is carried out.
• The second key element is link analysis and recommended remedial action. Basically, the more links to your site from trusted sites carrying high Page Rank, the better. Insufficient links can mean your site appears not worth indexing. Proposals to increase your 1-way back-links from web directories and other trusted sites are good. Use of blogs, and article marketing is also current best practice. However, should there be any suggestions for participation in link propagation schemes, or placing main emphasis on reciprocal link strategies etc, drop the SEO firm from your list because they are not up to date with current best practice.

5.) Google Adwords & Yahoo Search Marketing

Some SEO firms boast that they are certified Adwords practitioners etc. That’s all well and good, but what they mean is that with YOUR money, they are real confident of getting you top placing in the keyword bidding warfare! There can be some short term benefits in that, but guarantees along those lines are not overly helpful to your business. If a proposal places primary emphasis on Pay-Per-Click, slip it down to the bottom of the pile!

6.) References

Can your SEO firm provide you with some reference sites they’ve worked on successfully, case studies, and/or some clients or web developers you can contact for comment? Bear in mind that there are likely to be some commercial sensitivities that apply constraints.

7.) Is There Value in 1 Year Contracts?

Frankly, not to you! The hallmark of a professional, ethical operator will be a fixed price contract to carry out the initial remedial action on the site. As a reassurance, they will usually let you know that ongoing support is available if required, because the rules of the SEO game do keep changing. The best SEO practitioners do not attempt to lock you into 1 year contract because they know the initial work will often take 8-12 weeks to deliver full benefits, and the project cost will usually include a built-in monitoring component over that initial period. It is, in my view, a little unethical to double-dip on the project costs!

Not only that, but what if you are not happy with the results of the SEO firm or their level of service? A 1 year contract might just guarantee you receive a full 12 months of unsatisfactory services! My advice – do not lock yourself into a long-term contract until you have grown comfortable with the SEO team you are dealing with.

8.) Fixed Price Contracts

Insist on one! A professional SEO firm will set out exactly what is wrong with your site, and explain the precise remedial action in a coherent and logical fashion. The actual work will be specified and a total cost provided. It is customary to require payment in advance. This is usually 100% for smaller jobs, which I would define as less than $1500. For larger projects, expect to pay a 50% deposit with balance on completion and/or when Top 30 rankings on agreed keyword terms show a demonstrable improvement.

9.) How Much Should It Cost?

Well, each proposal should come down to a judgement by each SEO firm on how many hours of work are going to be involved in the project. However, some seem more inclined to make an assessment of your ability to pay in big chunks! There can be obvious, huge discrepancies – its common to see variations of 1000% e.g. you will see that some firms initial cost proposal can be 10 times that of competing SEO firms! From your point of view, you want to know;

• How many pages are going to be amended
• What will be done by way of increasing incoming links
• Are articles being published, and if so, how many?

Reduce it to a known quantity, compare apples with apples! When you are systematic about it, the choices become more obvious, and a decision becomes easier!

10.) You Need to Know What Will Be Done

An SEO professional will involve you at each step of the process, providing you with a preview of all site changes before implementation. You will be able to measure progress of the work on a page by page basis, and see the results in your site traffic statistics as well as SE ranking reports. As in all aspects of life, failing to plan is planning to fail! If there is no plan, no road map, don’t expect a happy ending or any rights of redress.

11.) Black Hat vs. White Hat SEO

There are other danger signs to be aware of. If your SEO proposal suggests cloaking, redirections, doorway pages, hallway pages, invisible text, multiple domain names for duplicated content etc, immediately drop the company from the list of possibles!

There are many Black Hat SEO operators who prefer to attempt to subvert the Search Engine guidelines, essentially looking for rapid, short-term ranking gains by ANY means, instead of taking a responsible, professional approach. If your site is caught up in any scheme like this, banishment from search engine indexes is assured! Essentially, good White Hat SEO involves thoughtful restructuring of site content, within the SE guidelines and parameters, and taking no risks of any kind.

12.) Who Are You Dealing With?

Does their site have some personal profile information? Are you dealing with a seasoned IT industry professional, a kid fresh out of high school, someone moonlighting from their primary job, or maybe somebody who has English as a second (or third) language? SEO is very much about words, semantics, languages skills and this, plus broad SEO project experience over several years, should be a key indicator to consider!

Your web site is an integral part of your business. The people you work with should have an intuitive understanding of your business, products and services, and should by now have demonstrated that they have given your particular circumstances some personal attention. Some, on the other hand, may have merely used automated site assessment tools. From the initial proposal, and exchange of emails with questions and answers to clarify any issues that have arisen, do you feel a sense of rapport with anyone? The best people to work with are those you are comfortable with.

I hope that this has proven a useful and thought-provoking summary of how to weed out the space cadets, cowboys and make-a-quick-buck operators. I really hope you do find yourself a competent, professional SEO practitioner, because they are out there, toiling away. doing a great job for great people like you!

Good luck!

Well, someone at Microsoft was listening to webmaster’s comments and MSN have responded! Now, you can at least get MSN’s search results to show your correct site title by adding a meta-tag or two on your Home page. They suggest either;

• (meta content=”NOODP” name=”ROBOTS” /)
• (meta content=”NOODP” name=”msnbot” /)

(NB: I’ve had to change the “< " and ">” to get the tag to display)

Now, if you were an optimist, you would use BOTH meta-tags in the hope that some other SE’s will eventually follow MSN’s example, and check for the tag…

However, there are synergies and consequent opportunities for strategic partnerships and alliances…

A great many web sites are launched every year, and during site creation, SEO requires extra effort and consequent additional costs. For that reason, many site owners opt to not do SEO at the outset, but will find it necessary to address SEO later – when site traffic and sales revenues do not match initial expectations.

The SEO Reseller Option

Recently, we’ve had a number of approaches from New Zealand & Australian web design companies interested in outsourcing professional SEO services to offer to their existing clients. In each case, they lacked in-house SEO expertise, and preferred to work with an established SEO practitioner instead. They also felt that pricing from some other SEO firms they had contacted was exorbitant and much preferred our more modest search engine optimisation rates!

In response we developed and offered an incremental range of competitively-priced SEO services. This was so successful that we’ve decided to further expand our business by actively marketing our SEO outsourcing service on a commission basis e.g.;

• You quote our price to your clients and you bill them once work is completed
• We supply the webmaster (usually you) with the SEO amendments to insert, meaning there is additional billable work generated for you in the process.
• On completion, we bill you the previously quoted amount, less the commission.

We are willing and able to work cooperatively with any web designer or web site developer seeking to outsource SEO reseller services for their clients.

It’s our preference to offer SEO services on a fixed price basis. This presents clients with a known quantity for budgetary purposes. To review these rates and services [click here] and then contact us to discuss details.

The SEO Imperative…

To any business enterprise hoping for significant Internet-based sales, it’s imperative that prospective clients can actually find the web site. Many business / client relationships commence through contact established via search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN.

The prospective client seeks a product by searching for a specific keyword or phrase. If your site doesn’t rank in the Top 30 results, you have minimal chance as barely 10% of searchers will go to (or past) the 3rd page of results. If they don’t find what they want on the 1st or 2nd page, the majority will either refine their search term, or go to a different search engine.

Search Engine Optimisation is all about marketing a web site more effectively, with the goal of improving the site’s exposure to customers and clients on the Internet.

I’ve been practicing SEO since bG (before Google); back when Alta Vista, Excite, Hotbot and Northern Light ruled the search engine world. Additional background information is available at TheSeoGuy’s web site.

SEO Return On Investment…

In terms of the potential results for your clients, reflect a moment on the fact that there is a great deal of competition for rankings on the search engines. Not ensuring that a site is properly optimised dooms to mediocrity. The “return on investment” for SEO is usually very good indeed.

No-Risk Test of our SEO Services!

Pick a “normal” site whose owner thinks it needs a rankings boost, and provide us with the details. We are so confident of success that we will put our money where our mouth is by offering a do a Basic SEO Package project for one of your clients on a “no cure, no pay” basis. E.g. we do a SE ranking report before commencing the job, and again after completion – if there is not a demonstrable improvement in Top 30 rankings in 6 weeks, the job is free! You could document the project, and include the details in your monthly newsletter.

Hey, thanks for taking the time to read this, and I look forwards to hearing from you soon!

Kind regards

Ben Kemp

aka “The SEO Guy”

+64 9 974-3553

bjk

I’m often asked if the Domain Name is important, and I have to say yes, the selected domain name is a very important element in the overall scheme of things, for a variety of reasons. Some of these are outlined in this article.

Keywords in Domain Name

The search engines assign some relevance/importance to the words used within the domain name. You can see some evidence of this in Google’s search results, where any words in your search term that exist in the URL are highlighted.

When starting a new site, it is important to maximise whatever advantage the name might give you! I can’t say for certain just how important it is, but as sure as God made little apples, every little element that you have working in your favour can only be regarded as “a good thing”

There are limits… not only to the total length of the URL, but in terms of what might be acceptable, and the only thing the SEO experts are consistent on is all having a different opinion!

However, here are a few thoughts;

• From a total length perspective, there is a limit to what people are prepared to type in…
• keyword spamming would not be a smart idea here as in any other area…
• Some suggest separating all words with hyphens, others say use only one hyphen at maximum…
• I’d say two to three primary keywords is enough – any more and it becomes difficult to enter accurately.

Dot.Com or Country-specific

The choice of domain type does have an effect on the way the search engines categorise the site. If you are a New Zealand or Australian business selling to a lot of USA or UK clients i.e. if its a global deal, then a Dot.Com URL is arguably a better option. Not least of this is that its easier to get it listed in some international directories.

However, if you are marketing a specific NZ/AU product/service in the domestic markets of New Zealand/Australia, then a .CO.NZ or .COM.AU is the best choice.

With the increasing trend of search engines towards “Local” content, explicit in the Google.Co.NZ, Google.Com.AU and Google.Co.UK, it will become more and more difficult for a non-country-specific site to dominate within a specific country. To put that in context, a Dot.Com site will struggle to out-rank a .Co.NZ site in Google.Co.NZ…

Google, Yahoo, MSN, Alta Vista, Lycos etc are all expanding their country-specific indexes. These do (kind of) get incorporated into the main index in the parent Dot.Com site, but you would need to be more specific in your search for a country-specific product.

E.g. if you were on Google.com, and search for “mats” the results would be different to carrying out the same search on Google.Co.NZ (having specified NZ sites only).

However, if you searched on Google.Com for “mats new zealand” the result might well include sites which ranked highly on the Google.Co.NZ search.

Multiple Domain Names

You CAN have the two or more URL’s pointed at the same site… but I would not advise any attempt to actively promote more than one! There is a danger that the SE’s could could punish you for attempting to get duplicate content indexed, which is a forbidden practice.

However, it is completely legitimate and common practice to point multiple URLS at the same IP address;

• To prevent competitors pinching your domain name/s on .com, .biz, .info etc etc.
• To prevent confusion e.g. the client types the “wrong” URL, but still finds you – e.g. a miss-spelled version.
• Having a longer keyword-rich URL to maximise Search Engine ranking gains, and a shorter (easier) one for people to type in to get to the site.

You could easily a Dot.Com URL for advertising purposes, letterhead, business cards etc, and even use it as Google Adwords “display URL” but be careful to only use the primary (.Co.NZ) URL for all search engine promotions, link building, search engine and directory submissions.

Approximately 90% of searchers will not go past the 3rd page of results! Something like 60% will not go past the 2nd page… So if your business is not listed on the first 3 pages of search engine results, its certain that you are missing a lot of potential clients for your products and/or services.

Well, under stress, its always good to have a goal…. So after a visit to the validator URL above, and verifying that there were indeed some issues, we downloaded a copy of CME’s HTML Validator Lite 3.5 from www.htmlvalidator.com and systematically eliminated every issue. None were major – some extra and tags, which translates as incorrect nesting. The home page title had an ampersand done as “&” instead of “&” So now, there is not a single HTML error in the site’s index.htm page…

Now, I have to say we had serious reservations about something as simple as this being the key to reinstatement in the Yahoo index. I mean, since when have search engines been pedantic to the point where they will completely banish a site for a few minor code errors? Google, the epitome of search engines, has obviously accommodated or ignored the minor errors on the site.

White text on white background, ok… but an ampersand? Please! 

Well, to my complete amazement, within 12 hours the site was back in the Yahoo index, sitting at No.1 for the expected range of keywords within Yahoo web results.

All the best stories have a moral, and this one could even achieve parable status.

• First thing is, go check your custom 404 pages.
• Second, tidy up your HTML code before they drop your site.
  

This exercise has got to be good for you (just like organic muesli, bran flakes etc). After all, how often do find a legitimate excuse to mess with raw HTML code these days? Honestly, either option is about as appealing as a bout of self-flagellation!

Speaking for myself, I have an intense dislike of anything that raw – muesli and/or html. I must also make the point that I did not make the HTML code mistakes myself, you understand? (Well, maybe I did the & ampersand thingy) J

Complacency is the issue – the site was error free on creation, but has been online for several years, generating business. The regular maintenance, rebuilds, rearrangements etc had obviously allowed accumulation of some minor HTML code errors over time, and we had foolishly not kept a close eye on that particular issue, relying on the HTML editing software too much.Like most webmasters, since their invention I’ve cheerfully and unashamedly used a “WYSIWYG” HTML Editor – which of course inserts the dodgy code all by itself. In my case, the culprit is Microsoft’s FrontPage, which I am very fond of. I love it because it does lots of really, really clever stuff at a very sensible price. There is a touch of irony to this story, because MSN Search is currently getting its results via Yahoo… Microsoft’s own software could therefore be responsible for eliminating some very good sites from its own search index.

1.1 Introduction
Should you be contemplating a new web site, or the rebuild of an older site, there are many issues you need to consider. High in the priority list at the outset should be search engine rankings, and design of the site to maximise the site’s potential web profile is crucial to success. A key design criteria should be to ensure that the web site, as launched, will require minimal remedial search engine optimisation. In the process of site creation there is almost always conflict between form (design) and function.

1.2 Focus on the Product
Be very clear what it is you are selling… and aim all content and copy at ensuring that potential customers know that you have it available.

1.2.1 Decide on Site Name/URL
There is definite benefit in having primary keywords in the site’s URL. e.g. www.fast-food-delivery.com  There is a balance to be struck between wanting to include multiple important keywords, and user inconvenience in typing very long URL’s.

Separatong words with a hyphen; e.g. www.fast-food-delivery.com  is possibly better than stringing them together as  www.fastfooddelivery.com – although some SEO guru’s suggest being sparing with the total number of hyphens. Some say one is enough…

1.2.2 Internal Page Naming
There is also definite benefit in having keywords in the site’s internal HTML page names, e.g. www.fast-food-delivery.com/riccarton-food-delivery.html The more clues you can give to the search engines regarding the content of a page, the easier it is for the SE to rank it.

1.2.3 Image Names
There is also benefit in giving descriptive image file names e.g. gourmet-hawaiian-pizza.jpg is better than pic1.jpg

1.3 Design Issues
There are many elements to be considered in building site that will rank well on the search engines.

1.3.1 JavaScript
Bear in mind that pretty much anything contained within JavaScript is ignored by the search engine spiders. A nice JavaScript menu is all very fine and dandy, so by all means use one – I always do. However, because the links to internal pages within that menu will not always be seen by Googlebot and other spiders, it is crucial to provide an internal HTML pathway that allows the spiders to index all your content. Achieve this by;

1.3.2 Flash
Do NOT use it to build a site in its entirety. There is no known benefit and lots of downside. Seriously, Flash animations should only be used where they can serve a key purpose – perhaps to establish a theme, or to tell a story. Images should be kept small, and file sizes less than 200k if possible.

1.4 FRAMES
Frames are an architecture solution for strictly controlling what the viewer sees on the screen. They are also a disaster from a search engine perspective, as search engines cannot readily penetrate into internal content Were search engines able to index internal pages, a viewer directed to the indexed pages would not see that page within the normal context of framed page menus, headers and footers, making navigation a confusing experience. Do not allow your web designer to use FRAMES.

1.5 Splash Pages
A growing trend on web sites is to have a “splash” page which might have a nice animated Flash graphics introduction etc, and looks superb.

A “Splash” page is like the box-within-the-box type of present – really amusing for the guy who cello-taped up the boxes, but bloody irritating for the person trying to get inside to the goodies.

Splash pages are invariably a monument to the designer’s graphical and artistic genius, and serve no purpose in the site’s function.

1.6 Databases vs Text
I am fixated on not using databases, as this is generally an awful approach to building a web site from a SEO perspective. For most “small business web sites” there is simply no sound justification for a database-driven approach. However, on an e-commerce web site it will almost certainly be necessary to drive your online ordering system via a database, often using extensive JavaScript programming etc. What I’d recommend is building an “outer” HTML-based site with an inner Shop.

For an example of this, take a look at www.kozitoez.co.nz or www.BenArthur-Photography.com  – These are modest little static HTML-based sites with an osCommerce core and a reasonably seamless integration of SEO requirements… Perhaps your online ordering application could work in a similar same way, where the outer HTML pages would be unique and fully optimised with individualised file names, titles, description, keywords etc.

Most database-driven sites make it difficult to produce unique pages – usually there are generic title, description and keyword tags to make it easer to maintain. Databases are also famous for impenetrable URLs – any URL having a “?” or “&” in it makes life difficult for search engine spiders trying to index internal content.

Databases are often promoted on the “ease of maintenance” grounds. Instead, I recommend the use of “include” pages to produce standard elements such a header, footer, side menu. One change on one page is reflected across all pages.

1.7 Page Layout
Keep it simple. There are some basic rules to be observed that will ensure best results in search engine rankings. These can conflict with the site designer’s view of the world, and you need to make informed decisions when/if compromises are to be made.

1.8 Content
Content is king, content rules, ok! To achieve consistently high rankings, you need good content, able to be readily indexed. To me, this means a series of simple heirachical HTML pages, which might include;

1.9 Links
Incoming links to your site are a crucial element of the search engine ranking game, and especially important on Google. In fact, its very difficult to get indexed at all on Google if there are no incoming links to your site.

1.10 Geographic/Location Searches
These days, most searchers refine their query with multiple words, frequently using location e.g. “fast food delivery Christchurch” or “hotel accommodation Ashburton.” If you are city or suburb specific, be specific about that. E.g. specify this in page Title, Description, Body text etc. Include city, suburb, address, postal code in the page footer on all pages.

1.11 HTML Coding Errors
Ensure the designer does produce perfect HTML code. You can easily validate (check) this, but be sure to indicate to the designer that this is a prerequisite. Yahoo in particular will not index a site if there are HTML code errors – and this as a consequence would exclude you from MSN and many other search engines and portals as well!

1.12 Choosing a Designer
By now, you’ve got a better idea of the overall design goals, and you can use these points to help in specifying your design requirements. Set out a design brief and circulate it to several designers for appraisal and request project cost estimates.

1.13 Maintenance
Site maintenance is a key issue. There will be ongoing site changes – to the links pages, food specials, pricing etc. You need to figure out who will do that for you, and to keep it as simple as possible. Rather than requiring expensive, complex software, or arcane FTP file transfers etc, you need a simple maintenance process, no more complex than using a word processor.

Maintenance becomes an issue for many, either from a technical or lack of time perspective. Usually the task does not require a full-time webmaster, and but for small business there are not always skilled staff available to handle it the task. Your site designer will usually offer to do maintenance for you, and there are also “contract webmasters” available to assist.
1.14 The SEO Guy’s 10 Design Rules

1. No “Flash”
2. No “Splash” page
3. No “FRAMES”
4. No unnecessary databases
5. Simple layout – Logo, Heading, 1st paragraph, followed by balance of body text
6. Use HTML pages – fast, easily indexed
7. Unique Pages – every page has a different title, description, keyword targets
8. Fast page load times, minimal graphics use
9. No Coding Errors permitted
10. Use of Headers, Footers, Side Menus– via “include” pages, to minimise maintenance

Web design and search engine optimisation are two quite different disciplines. Most web designers are focused on form – intent of producing a visually attractive site which will gain a cusomers interest and attention long enough to make the sale etc. Few web page designers implement SEO as an integral part of the web development project.

Retrospective SEO requires a great deal of extra effort and, consequently, additional costs. For that reason many site owners opt to not do this at the outset, but find it necessary to address it later when site traffic does not match initial expectations.
 
For any business enterprise hoping to make any Internet-based sales, or promote its services, it is crucial that your prospective clients can actually find your web site.  A great many businesses and clients will make their first contact via search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN.

The prospective client seeks out a service or product by making a search using a particular key word or phrase. Those web sites that appear in the first 1-2 pages of results have the best chance of making a sale. If your site does not rank in the Top 30 results, you basically have no chance of success, as barely 10% of searchers will go to or past the 3rd page of results. If they don’t find what they want of the first or second page, the majority will either refine their search term, or go to a different search engine.  

Search Engine Optimisation is all about marketing your web site more effectively, with the goal of improving your site’s exposure to customers and clients on the Internet. It has often been described as “part art and part science.” There are two main aspects to SEO;

The first is where we improve your “organic” or natural search results -achieving higher rankings by optimising and increasing the relevancy of your site to a specific search query. This is done by carefully analysing your sites ‘”theme” and ensuring that it is easy for the search engines to accurately categorise and index it. This requires the ability to concisely and accurately describe precisely what the site is about, using correct key words and phrases.

These key words and phrases are positioned at the strategic on-page and off-page locations that search engines expect to find such descriptive elements. These elements include meta-tags such as Title, Descriptions, Keywords, Image ALT and Comment tags, page and image file names, hyperlinked anchor text & bookmarks, paragraph headings, and body text.

Organic search engine rankings are regarded as the ultimate because they are “free” once the initial work is done. Better still, searchers regard these “natural” high rankings more favourably than the sponsored listings type described next.

The second aspect of SEO is pay-per-click, where your site appears in the “sponsored listing” section of the search engine’s results page and in Adsense advertising panels in many individual web sites. This requires you first to develop a list of relevant keywords or phrases. Then, you write advertising copy by way of titles and descriptions to be displayed to a searcher who uses the keywords or phrases you’ve chosen.

If a searcher clicks on your listing within the “Sponsored Listings” and goes to your site, you pay a predetermined amount per click. You set the “bid” threshold that you will pay, and this ranges from a few cents to over a $ for very competitive keywords. The most commonly encountered example of PPC is on Google – do a search for anything, you will 2-3 sponsored listings at the top of the page, and a block of them down the right hand side.  

For many businesses, a combination of organic and PPC search engine optimisation works best. This is especially true if you sell a wide variety of items. Under those circumstances, it can be difficult to target all possible permutation of keywords and phrases within pages on the site. However, using Google Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing, it is possible to target hundreds or key words and phrases – the usual editorial criteria being that you can only use terms which are relevant to the content on your site.  Listings are validated by the PPC editorial staff prior to allowing them to go live online.

Both organic and PPC options are good at delivering “qualified” traffic to your site e.g. these are visitors who actively searched for the specific product or service, found a link to your site and clicked on it.

These days there is a great deal of competition amongst millions of web sites for rankings on the search engines. If you do not ensure your site is properly optimised for your specific theme, product and service, then it is doomed to mediocrity.

The consequences of NOT optimising your site are;

• most people will only find you by accident
• you don’t get “qualified” traffic – visitors who want what you sell
• you miss out on sales of products and services - your competitors get them instead!

However, the “return on investment” for SEO is usually very good indeed!

A properly optimised site will see prompt and measurable increases in search engine traffic, usually accompanied by an increase in enquries and sales.

Author: The SEO Guy