The Optimizer's Corner

A Search Engine Optimization Primer: What can SEO do for you?

You're a business with a website. You think your site looks great, and it features all your products and services, and it even makes your logo look great. But when you search for your products and services on Google, you don't show up on the first page. Or the second page. Or the tenth page. Why is that?

What that probably means is your website, with all its great design and branding, is not targeting search engines. It should be the goal of any business with a website to rank high in search engines.

A good, search engine optimized site can accomplish significant gains for your business. How? It's simple:

1. More people searching for what your business offers will find you.
2. More people finding you on Google or Yahoo drives more people to your site.
3. More traffic to your site means more people contacting you.
4. More people contacting you can translate to more sales!

But "showing up" on Google isn't as easy as showing up in your phone book - search engines don't list alphabetically and placing an ad doesn't guarantee you your most relevant placement.

Sometimes you need help, and 360 PSG's expert search engine optimizers can help you improve your site.

Paid advertising vs. Search Engine Optimization

There are two methods you can use to show up in search engines: organic search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising.

The latter method is as it sounds - you pay for your website to show up in related searches. That has its benefits - you can target specific phrases or location-specific searches and your company's website will show up in "sponsored" search results either at the top of a search engine's result page or in its side bar.

Those are prominent positions, but such a placement comes at a cost. Pay-per-click ads can be expensive, and paying for that placement does not necessarily guarantee increased sales.

A much more cost effective - and in the long-term, simply more effective - way of improving your ranking on Google or Yahoo is to organically optimize your website for search engines.

What is Organic SEO?

Organic search engine optimization takes into account many different factors that affect how search engines index (or "read") your website. Some factors are about how your website is designed, but the majority is all based around one thing: content.

Your website content - or the words and images you use to share information about your company through your website - is the single most important factor for search engines.

When a person searches for something in Google, the search term they probably enter contains specific keywords related to their search. For example, someone searching for a store that sells comic books most likely is going to type a phrase such as "comic book store" into their Yahoo search.

When those search engines submit their searches, they read that visible text that goes into your body content, so it's important to have those keywords in crucial areas of your website content. What are your keywords? They are the words that are most specific to your business, products or services.

The 360 PSG Advantage

360 PSG search engine optimization professionals work with you and your business to identify those key words your site needs to be optimized for. With our system of audits and reports that see where your site stands now and what needs to be done to improve your site.

Search engine optimization is one of the best - and most cost-effective - ways to improve your website's traffic. Contact a 360 PSG representative to learn more about how you can improve your website's search engine standing.