Search Engine Optimization Fundamentals
Frequently Asked Questions
What is search engine optimization (SEO)?
Search engine optimization (also known as SEO) is the process of enhancing your website so that search engines see it as a hyper-relevant match for a broad set of search queries.
By improving the relevancy of your site, search engines reward you with better search engine rankings in the organic (unpaid) area of the search engine results pages (SERPs). This means more visibility and more free targeted clicks through to your site.
What is ethical search engine optimization?
A well executed SEO strategy can have an enormous impact on your rankings and business success, while a poorly executed attempt at optimization can leave you frustrated with little or no real improvements, a marked decrease in rankings, or at the extreme a de-listing from one or more search engines.
When choosing a search engine optimization service, be sure to ask whether the firm uses “black-hat” techniques and get the answer in writing. Black-hat SEO involves exploiting loopholes in the search engine algorithms and using techniques that are explicitly banned by the major search engines in their terms of service and webmaster policies. If you’re found to be in contravention of their terms, they will penalize your site’s rankings and possibly de-list you entirely from their index.
Black-hat SEO is not an effective long-term business strategy. Always go with an ethical search engine optimization company that uses white-hat SEO techniques exclusively.
Benefits of Search Engine Optimization
SEO means free targeted traffic
When a searcher clicks on your listing in the organic results, that click is free and they are taken to your website.
At that point you’ve intercepted a potential customer at the precise moment that they are actively seeking the product, service, or information you provide. You now have a highly targeted potential customer on your site, and the incremental cost of that visit was zero.
As you can see, a search optimized site that is ranking well can be a tremendous asset to your business.
Eye tracking studies have shown that searchers scan a search results page in a triangular pattern that focuses on the top 3 search results listed, which means you want your site’s search engine placement to be at or near the top of the listings. A higher search engine ranking will exponentially increase the number of searchers who will visit your site.
SEO delivers an excellent return on investment
Search engine optimization is one of the highest ROI marketing activities you can invest in; in fact, in a recent survey of online marketers conducted by MarketingSherpa, SEO was rated number 1 in terms of ROI for both lead generation and product sales activities. This was over and above email marketing to a house list, paid search marketing (PPC), public relations, and direct-mail marketing.
Results like that help explain why SEO and search engine marketing in general have been poaching budget from more traditional marketing tactics over the past several years.
In a recent survey of online marketers conducted by MarketingSherpa, SEO was rated number 1 in terms of ROI for both lead generation and product sales activities
Once the initial cost of the search engine optimization service has been recovered, your ROI is practically infinite since you are no longer paying for clicks or visits like you would if you were running a pay per click (PPC) campaign.