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Search Engine Optimization Defined
When you type something in the search box of a search engine like Google, Yahoo, or MSN Search, the engine will return results to you, organized by pages. That's how millions of consumers search for goods and services every single day. The search engines even tell you how many results they found. As an experiment, I recently searched for "basket weaving class austin texas" and Google returned around 71,100 results!
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Now if I am really interested in learning how to weave baskets, I'm going to click several of the results that came up on the first page. It's likely that I will find some options that are worth checking out. It's unlikely (unless I have a lot of time on my hand - and who does?) that I'll go very much deeper into the results... why should I if I already found several viable options?
With this scenario in place, let's imagine now that you are the owner of Austex College of Basket Weaving. If your website does not come up on page one of the major search engines (Google, Yahoo & MSN), you are definitely missing business. What can you do to increase your page rank?
Organic Search Results
Organic results are what SEO is all about. Every minute of every day, 24/7, search engines are scouring the internet. They do this by using "robots" and "spiders", which are automated programs that run on their own, following millions of links from website to website, cataloging information.
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Austex College of Basket Weaving |
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Each search engine has it's own cache of information stored in massive database farms. When you type in your search phrase, the search engine checks it's own cache of info and returns to you what it considers to be relevant results. These results are known as "organic", because they were arrived at through the search engines' "natural" algorithmic processes. (Click here to learn about artificial search results.)
The nice thing about this is that when your business appears as an organic search result and someone clicks on your link, you do not have to pay anything to anyone. Notice that I didn't say organic search results were free - there is always a cost associated with achieving good page rankings. Someone had to at least exercise some decent design principles when building your website (even if by dumb luck).
Remember the 71,100 results we found on Google when searching for a basket weaving class in Austin? Well what if your business is a little more mainstream? Let's say you own a BMW repair facility and your prospects type in "BMW repair austin texas". Google now returns around 745,000 results - over 10 times more results than our basket weaving search returned! Getting your website listed on page one is now all the more difficult, but it can be done.
The bottom line on Search Engine Optimization
Whether you consider organic SEO an art or a science of a combination of the two, there are an incredible number of ways to skin the SEO cat - and they change constantly. There are firms who specialize in nothing but SEO. My theory is this: begin with good design that incorporates solid SEO principles.
SEO is an integral part of any website we design or redesign. Need pricing? We'll make every effort to provide you with a realistic quote within 24 hours.
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Can a blog increase a website's search engine ranking?
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