USE SEO
TO ATTRACT BOTH
SEARCH ENGINES
AND PROSPECTS
BY SEAN BORDNER, MCT, MCTS, MCSD, MCP, MCAD
ABOUT SIX YEARS AGO, MY WIFE AND I STARTED AN ONLINE
STORE. WE WORKED HARD SETTING IT UP, ARRANGING
EVERYTHING FROM INVENTORY AND PAYMENT PROCESSING
TO WEB SITE CONTENT AND MORE. ALTHOUGH OUR GOAL
WAS TO BE PROFITABLE AFTER THE FIRST MONTH, THE FIRST
TWO WEEKS WENT BY WITHOUT A SINGLE SALE.
Somewhere in the third week I therefore began researching
how to attract Internet search engines. Specifically, I wanted
to know how to get our Web site ranked competitively by
Google, Yahoo!, MSN and others. I wanted to know how to get
our site from page 10, 50 or 100 of customers’ search results
to page one.
The process for improving your search engine rankings is
called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I became fascinated
with it because the better it was implemented, the more traffic
our store got — and because more traffic translated directly
into more sales. I took what I learned from our online store and
applied the lessons to other Web sites I was working on. Before
I knew it, I was hopelessly addicted to SEO.
Today, I actively manage several SEO initiatives, including
one for an organization that has recently switched from advertising exclusively in print to not advertising at all. Instead, it
now relies solely on traffic from search engines to attract new
customers. While this strategy may not work for everyone, it’s
proof that an effective SEO strategy can go a long way toward
marketing your organization.
WHAT IS SEO?
While the exact numbers are impossible to calculate, the Internet is home to an estimated 108 million distinct Web sites
consisting of 29 billion distinct Web pages — and all of them
want to be on page one of your Google search results.
