Search engine optimization, aka SEO, is the term that refers to the things you
can do to improve your website’s visibility in the search engines. Search
engine optimization techniques focus on increasing the organic, or natural,
traffic that you receive based on your ranking within the search engines.
The goal of search engine optimization is to ensure your website appeals to
search engine crawlers, or bots. The search engines will take note of your site
and its content, categorizing it in a way that will allow it to show up in the
SERPs (search engine results pages) when certain keywords are typed.
Search engine optimization is achieved through a wide variety of methods.
Many webmasters or SEO professionals will focus on proper keyword
research, clarity in the setup of your website’s headers, tags, file names and
descriptions, external backlinking, internal cross linking, and quality content
creation.
While each search engine uses its own algorithm for determining the ranking
of every page that is indexed, it is possible to increase your rankings by
making your site informative and visible via both on-page and off-page
techniques. Sites that are designed with ease-of-use and quality information in
mind tend to do better than those built sloppily and without a solid plan.
Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing, or SEM, is similar to search engine optimization but
focuses less on natural rankings and more on the actual promotion of a
website. SEM techniques generally include natural SEO but almost always
branches out to include contextual or paid search advertising.
Paid search advertising models became more prominent in the late 1990’s,
after the search engines themselves became more popular. SEM focuses more
on business-oriented websites and their overall online marketing strategies.
Because many of the paid advertisements appear at the top of the search
engines, the FTC in 2002 responded to complaints by clarifying that paid
advertisements and website listings must be clearly denoted so that
consumers do not confuse them with websites that have obtained high
rankings naturally.
It really doesn’t matter what type of website you have, whether it’s personal
or geared towards your business. Incorporating search engine optimization
techniques into the creation and ongoing upkeep of your site will ensure you
receive higher levels of traffic and, ultimately, greater success.
If you’d like professional SEO help, we’re here for you. We are experts in
optimizing both websites and Google Places listings and can help you get new
business as a direct result.
If you’d like to see how we can help, give us a call at: (425) 760-5041 or
Schedule an appointment now:
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We look forward to talking with you and will do our best to help you increase
your web exposure, get new business and outperform your competitors!
