Phoenix Arizona Web Design and Development

Introduction To Search Engine Optimization

Last Updated on Friday, 16 January 2009 13:09

Search Engine Optimization involves making it easy for the search engines to find your website and become “indexed.”  When your site is indexed it is placed in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS) and people searching for terms related to your website will find you and click through to your website.  Unfortunately 84% of searchers never make it past the bottom of page 2 of the search term results pages.  Your goal is to be placed within the first two pages for your most relevant keywords.

Research shows that the power of a top ranking is even more extreme than the 84% statistic.  The nearer you are to the number one position the greater the chances that you will actually convert your visitors into sales, leads, newsletter sign-ups, or phone calls.

So how likely is it that you will actually attain a top 10 ranking?  This depends greatly on how competitive the keywords are.  For example if you are selling Art and you are targeting the keyword “Art” you are going to have to work very hard and invest quite a bit of time to achieve a top 20 ranking, let alone a top position.  Also, targeting the keyword "Art" may not be a sound strategy because the keyword is to broad, and may not bring targeted traffic to your website.

There are essentially three phases to proper Search Engine Optimization: Planning and Preparation (keyword research and on-site SEO), the campaign itself, and ongoing monitoring and maintenance.  SEO isn’t something that can be done once and then forgotten about.  It requires proactive activity and maintenance.

The 3 phase approach can be broken down into 10 steps:

Phase 1:

Step 1: Campaign Strategy
Step 2: Keyword Research
Step 3: Keyword Deployement
Step 4: Configuring your website for Search Engine Submission
Step 5: Website technical foundation and structure.

Phase 2:

Step 6: Properly formatting your pages.
Step 7: Link Building
Step 8: Paid Listings
Step 9: Local Search

Phase 3:

Step 10: Tracking and Tuning

One major question you may want to ask yourself now that you have a basic idea of what is involved with Search Engine Optimization is: “Do I have enough time / resources to invest in this process?”

A proper search engine optimization campaign takes many hours per month continuously over the course of several years (the first 6-12 months are the most important).  For some companies, especially small businesses, this task can seem overwhelming and confusing.  It is our goal to explain each phase and step so that you can successfully optimize your website for maximum search engine results.  Alternatively, we offer Search Engine Optimization services if you would like to save time and have us handle this for you.  For more information please click here.

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