Make Money Online “How to”

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a term used to
describe techniques used to drive traffic to your website
from search engines. Most of the web traffic you get will
come from the three search engines with the largest number
of indexed sites Google, Yahoo, and MSN. If you want to
succeed in marketing your products online, you need to make
sure that your customers can find you.

Keywords

Most visitors to your site will find you by typing keywords
into a search engine. These may be a single word or a
phrase. By putting content on your site that contains
relevant keywords, you have a better chance of having Web
surfers find your site.

How Search Engines Work

Very briefly, here’s how the process works

Search engines have programs that go out through the World
Wide Web looking at content. These programs are referred to
as bots, spiders, or crawlers. Even the most advanced
search engine doesn’t have every web page crawled yet;
according to estimates, only about half of the 20 billion
pages online have actually been indexed.

Once a particular page has been crawled by a search
engine’s spiders, it is indexed. Indexing means that the
page has been added to that search engine’s database. Web
crawlers will revisit your pages to see whether they have
been updated since the last visit, so it’s important to
keep feeding your site with fresh content.

When you type a search query into a search engine, the
process is really quite impressive. The search engine
software goes through all of its pages to find a match for
the word or phrase you submitted. The more narrow your
query, the more specific your results will be.

The search results you are given are not just pulled out of
the air (figuratively speaking); they are ranked according
to a formula known as the search engine’s algorithm. The
specific factors that a search engine uses to rank sites is
a closely-guarded secret; the best anyone has come up with
are strategies that seem to work to get a higher ranking.

High Ranking and Web Traffic

If you want to attract a steady stream of traffic to your
site, you need to get a high search engine ranking. SEO
techniques will help you to reach that goal by helping you
to determine which keywords people are most likely to be
using to find information relevant to your niche market.
When you make a point of putting out content with these
well-chosen keywords in it, you have a better chance of
attracting site visitors who are interested in what your
site has to offer, and motivated to buy from you - now.

A key component of SEO is to track where the traffic coming
to your site is coming from and what kinds of keywords
Internet users are using to find you. If you can’t track
your results, you have no idea what techniques you are
using that are the most effective, and that is an important
aspect of Search Engine Optimization.

To Your Success,
Harry

The short answer to the question of when you need to hire
an Internet Marketing SEO Consultant to help you achieve
success in the virtual marketplace is anytime you are
running a business that you want to see succeed. This may
not be feasible when you are in startup mode, but as soon
as you have the financial resources you should consider
getting some expert help in this area.

Many business owners get used to wearing many hats and
doing everything themselves, at least in the beginning. The
fact is that you can’t possibly do everything yourself;
there aren’t enough hours in the day. At some point, you
will need to bring in other people so you can focus on
building the business, as opposed to doing everyday things
that are necessary, but that don’t generate any income.

What a Consultant Can Do for You

Less than one-quarter of all businesses hire a consultant
to help them with their online presence. Those that do tend
to have higher search engine rankings, which is key to
driving traffic to a web site and increased sales. A
ranking in the Top 10 would be ideal, since most Internet
users don’t go through more than the first couple of pages
of search results to find the information they want.

If you don’t know how to use keywords, meta tags, and other
strategies to achieve a search engine ranking, hiring
someone with the expertise you need makes perfect sense.
You may already be working with an accountant, a lawyer,
and a business banker, so why don’t you bring in an
Internet Marketing expert, too This is another
professional who can help you achieve success.

How to Find the Right Consultant for Your Business

The Internet Marketing consultant you work with is going to
be acting as a guide and you may need to contact a few of
them before you find someone you are interested in working
with. In short, you want someone who shares your vision for
your business and who you click with. If there isn’t a
certain amount of chemistry, trust, and mutual respect, you
are not going to be able to work effectively as a team.

You will also want to find out about the person’s level of
experience. Find someone who has worked with companies that
are similar to yours in size and focus. A person who has
worked for large corporations only may not be the best fit
for a startup.

Ask for references and contact each one to find out more
about what working with that consultant is like. You will
also want to see if you can find other previous customers
who are not being given as references to see if they have a
different recollection of their experience working with
that person.

As always before working with someone new, take the time to
check them out with the Better Business Bureau online to
see if there are complaints and if they were resolved
satisfactorily.

Helping You Succeed,
Harry