How search engine optimization can multiply your revenue.
The Benefit Of Being First.
According to comscore.com, Over 11 billion searches are conducted every month by more than 500 million users. Even if a small fraction of those searches apply to your business, you could be losing thousands of dollars by not being highly visible on those results pages.
Recent eye-tracking studies by firms such as OneUpWeb and Enquiro have provided us with very solid information about how people search and what their eyes are attracted to. We know that users click on paid advertising less than a third of the time, and that the first few organic search results are usually the first to be observed and clicked despite the paid links appearing first on the page.
The picture to the right shows a composite of information captured by the Eye-Tracker project. As you can see, the most “eye-traffic” is directed at the top four results. It has also been discovered through Eye-Tracker that ~75% of people will click on natural, “organic,” search results, rather than the sponsored, Pay-Per-Click (PPC), results.
In 2006 AOL released collaborating information compiled from a study of 658,000 subscribers making over 20 million searches. This information is very eye opening as it shows conclusively the effect a high search engine ranking has on web traffic.
Understanding Search Engines.
The web results you receive on a SERP (search engine results page), is not what is actually there right now. The result is a cache or a copy of what the content was when the search engine was last there. Every result on Google is a cache in Google’s index. An index is a digital library of the caches, or copies. When you make a Google search, you are actually searching through Google’s index, and not the live internet. Each search engine has a specific way of creating that index, but the concept is the same; search engines release bits of code onto the web, with the sole purpose of crawling through a link and creating a cache of whatever it finds, from there moving through another link and so on. These bits of code are known as “web-crawlers,” or “spiders.” These “crawlers” start on a page and move through each link on each page, copying, or caching all of the relevant data. Each search engine saves and values different data. This particular data is kept a secret and it’s what makes some search engines “better”, or more relevant, than others.
Search engine crawlers will come back to your site at certain intervals. This interval is mostly determined by your site’s history and how frequently you update your website. Pages and sites that change more often are cached more frequently. Being cached on a regular basis is an important factor when implementing optimization strategies, as your work will show up faster and frequent content helps to quickly build rankings and relevance.
Whenever a user types a “query” into a search engine, the index is accessed, and the most relevant websites (based on the cached date) will rank the highest on the SERP. With the actual algorithmic values being hidden, it is important to remember that SEO is ENTIRELY about becoming RELEVANT on the web.
The Dark Side.
There are individuals and businesses that aim to “trick” Google by manipulating code in a way that misleads the web crawlers. These techniques are known as “Black Hat,” are against the terms and agreements for most search engines, and are used to rank websites for keywords even if the site may not be relevant to what the user is looking for. An example of “black hat SEO” is to place invisible links and keywords on the website, receiving the maximum search engine benefits while not having to change the content on the site. This is a practice the search engines actively investigate and shut down.
A strategy that has just recently come under intense fire, is the practice of buying links. Buying links is the act of paying a webmaster or an institution to link to your website. This can involve any site, from highly trafficked blogs to .edu establishments, but the goal is the same, to pass on the “link juice” to your website (see trusted sites). As of now, buying links is a fairly common occurrence. Recently however, search engines have been cracking down on this practice. On its own webmaster page, Google states the “Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and can negatively impact a site’s ranking in search results.” Purchasing a link and not displaying it as an “ad” can get you in a load of trouble. Recently Overstock.com and JCPenny.com took a huge hit in their product rankings for purchasing links. This may have some people agitated, but is really a good thing. This crackdown will prevents companies with deep pockets from saturating the internet with irrelevant advertising. They will have to do it the hard way just like the rest of us.
How to become Relevant.
If search engines are motivated by relevance, what can you do to become more “relevant” and start cashing in on new web traffic?
Relevancy is rooted to keywords. For example, if you type in a search for “Dentist in Boston, MA.” you are obviously looking to find a dentist somewhere in the Boston, Massachusetts area. The search engine will now search through its index, and proceed to rank pages based on the keywords entered – “Boston” and “Dentist.” Therefore, the text content used on your website becomes a significant consideration when the search engine is looking through its index. Keywords should be used in sufficient numbers throughout a website’s content in order to get the search engine’s attention.
With modern search engines, the amount and type of content you have will also play a large role. Do you have video? Are there links to your Facebook Page? Are there articles being posted on a regular basis?
Another factor that plays a significant role in building rank and relevance, is inbound links. The ranking of the site that links to yours is a very large factor in determining the relevancy and weight of that link. Different sites will have different link values, for instance; If a university .edu website links to your webpage, it has a lot more bearing on search results than a website for a restaurant, or a bar. The sum total of the link value provided by an inbound link, which is known to Google as PageRank (named after co-founder, Larry Page), will transfer over into your website’s relevance equation. This is why receiving links from highly regarded sites is so important, and why you will want to avoid links from less-than trustworthy websites.
Staying relevant online is not all about keyword density and links however. To become truly relevant in the search engines as well as to your users, you must become a reliable source of information. Provide information in every way you can; videos, articles, promotions, social media, etc. Articles and videos have become very powerful SEO tools as they are consistent, informative, and frequently linked to. Writing articles and creating custom video is a sure way to become more relevant, and to improve your search engine ranking.
The Future of Search Engine Optimization.
More and more companies and individuals are become privy to the art of search engine optimization. Basic knowledge and a few months of tinkering can put your website on top of the search engines, that is, if no one else has beat you to it. As the search pages are becoming saturated with “optimized” websites, a highly competitive environment has been created, especially for the do-it-yourselfers. As professional search engine marketers become increasingly necessary, these professionals will also become very competitive with each other. This can only be a great thing for businesses in need of search engine marketing.
The future of search engine optimization is going to become very competitive, and exceedingly saturated. The need to stand out and become a source of information has become significantly more important. Video will soon be utilized as a more commonplace sales tool and those businesses without it will succumb to those competitors that do. Social networks will become so much a part of searches, that your network’s feedback and activity will make or break your business when customers compare you to competitors. The competition will be between competitors and their content, those companies without any will disappear completely.
The Future of Business.
The current economic state has seen a large drop in full time employees, and has likewise seen a spike in individuals deciding to go into business for themselves. Most businesses must have an online presence to survive. There is only one page of results that people really care about, the first one. With more and more businesses popping up each day, there is A LOT more competition. On top of that, it’s becoming a necessity to have multimedia and social networks integrated into your website. Without a strong online presence, users will potentially come to the conclusion that you are not as “professional” or as “good” as those competitors that do have a strong online presence. Even if you are a thousand times better than your competition, the prospect will never have a clue if you don’t grab his attention and allow the prospect to autonomously learn about your business. This is the future of Internet Marketing.
The web atmosphere changes so quickly that it can be hard to keep up. Do not let the rapid nature of the internet dissuade you from getting online. It is guaranteed that the businesses that do stay ahead of the curb, will make the money. Do you have 11 billion potential customers a month walking past your store?