Your Business Web Site and an Introduction to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

You're building a new web site for your business and new customers are about to start flooding in the door, right?

Unfortunately there are thousands of web sites out there in internet-land that never see a new customer. Why? Well building a website can be a bit like going fishing, there are plenty of fish to catch - IF you have the right equipment, are in the right place, and you have the right bait. But if you don't, then chips is all you'll be having for dinner.

So where do new customers come from on the internet? The answer is mostly from typing a search term or phrase into a search engine - and there's a pretty good chance they use Google. In fact, market research shows that about 75% of people who are looking for a new product or service on the Internet will use a search engine.

This means that when someone uses a search engine looking for a product or service that you want to sell them, your web page needs to appear in the search results. The higher up the list of results the better. So how do you make that happen? Well unfortunately it's a competition between you and all the other web sites out there trying to sell the same product or service. Enter the term – 'Search Engine Optimisation' or 'SEO.'

SEO is basically the set tactics you can use to make sure that your business's web site appears in search engine results for the 'key words' (the words people use in searches) that are relevant to you. Essentially, it's about getting your web site to the right fishing spot.

Although getting new customers from search engines is in itself free, getting your web site to the right spot and keeping it there requires an investment. SEO has become a serious weapon in the marketing department of companies and they are allocating huge budgets for it.  But the good news is that there are some very simple things that can be done in SEO that will put your business way ahead of many of your competitors...