Help With SEO

Search Engine Marketing and why do I need it? Why
do so many forum groups say it’s important? These are just
a sample of the numerous questions that we are asked
on a weekly basis from new clients, may of whom have very
limited knowledge of SEO, only that they’ve read somewhere
that it’ll help improve their website’s functionality.
As SEO consultants, and may I say it experts in our field,

What is SEO? What exactly is Search Engine Marketing? Why
do so many people say it’s so important? These are just
three of the many questions that we are frequently asked.
As Search Engine Marketing and SEO Consultants, and
providers of advanced web design, you’d think we’d have a
clear answer to these questions. We find that our answer
changes depending on the person asking, but we have found
that one response encompasses everything.

It is becoming more and more difficult to accurately
describe what SEO actually is - mainly because of the
diverse range of features that make up its foundation.
A number of years ago I worked as a teacher of English
and Media, teaching students from the age of 11 to 18.
Friends and family would often ask me: “What exactly does
a teacher day every day? Afterall, you get lots of
holidays!”. This is not an easy question to answer,
especially not within 15 words or less. There were times
when my answer would change, depending on what had
dominated my work that week. As a teacher, I knew no
day would be alike and the demands on my time would
change by the hour. Sure, I could say “I teach kids”,
but that’s not an accurate answer. I could spend hours
talking to people about the behaviour management side
of a teacher’s job. I could talk endlessley about the
mound of paperwork I’d have to do at the end of a day.
And don’t get me started on the amount of marking I
had to do! A simple queston like “What exactly does
a teacher do?” can never have a simple answer. The
same can be said for SEO and online marketing.

My colleagues and I met to discuss the very question that
starts this article: what is SEO? We all came up with our
own take on what the answer should be. We spent days
emailing each other back and forth, coming up with
quick and snappy one liners that could be used to
describe the role of SEO in website development.
Eventually we started to look at the end resulrt of SEO.
This posed another question: why do people spend so much
time attempting to improve their website’s visibility,
usability and productivity? The outcome of any successful
SEO Plan has to be the increase of conversions. But what
exactly are conversions?

Hopefully, when you developed your website, you were asked
by your web designers to come up with a list of targets
for your site: targets that you hoped to meet eventually,
in order to make your website do exactly what you intended
it to do when you started. Without those targets, your
website doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of being
designed around your needs - something which is absolutely
essential if the return on your investment is to be fully
achieved. Most of our commercial-based clients, those
whose main target is to generate more revenue, would
consider their conversion to be the transformation from a
site visitor into a customer. This would be quantified by
the accumulation of revenue through the website. However,
a not-for-profit website that extols the wonders and
virtues of a visit to the Snowdonia National Park in North
Wales, for example, would ultimately consider a conversion
to be someone who asks for more information, even
something as simple as completing an online questionnaire
can be regarded as a conversion: you are essentially
engaging your site’s visitors with your online content,
whether that is through sales or by completing an online
information request form. Why do we focus on conversions?
If you do not know what you want your conversions to be
before starting a web design project, you may as well save
your money and take your family or friends to Euro Disney
for a weekend, because without knowing your target
audience and what you intend that audience to do with your
site, your website will spend the rest of your domain
registration treading water in the virtual sea of the
information superhighway. Your conversions should inform
and shape the build and design of your website. Making it
‘conversion friendly’ is the key to any successful website.

Think of conversions as a transfer of status from visitor
to ‘customer’ (it’s no accident that in rugby a ‘try’ must
be converted to a real result). A change occurs; a switch
is thrown; a transfer is made at the point of conversion
on your website. Choosing and developing the right
conversion point can mean the difference between a new
customer and someone who clicks on the red X on the top
right hand corner of their browser and exits your site.
Why, you may be wondering, when we post the question ‘What
is SEO?’ have we chosen to focus on ‘conversions’ in this
article? Well, quite simply, it comes down to a matter of
results - what do you really want to achieve from your
website? Whatever you answer, if you aren’t currently
achieving that, then you need to start looking at
developing an SEO Plan.

What is SEO? We’re back to that question again! If you were
our client we would tell that it is a set of processes
and tasks that we go through in order to increase the
conversions on your website, ultimiately increasing your
revenue for commercial sites or driving up the visitor
frequency for a non-commercial website.What exactly is
Search Engine Marketing? We would tell you that it’s
what we do to ensure your targets are met, that people
are able to find you and more importantly become a
converted visitor. Why does it seem to be the focus of
SEO Plans? Because it’s one of the most important aspects
of Search Engine Optimization. Gone are the days when you
just need to have a website address, a dot com or dot org
to advertise your company or organisation. The days of
businesses reluctantly ploughing money into developing web
sites are long behind us: we are entering a period of
online development that is seeing billions of dollars
being spent on web site development, SEO and online
marketing by businesses across the world. SEO and online
marketing are more important, and in some cases the most
important area of site development, than the way the
information is presented on the screen.

How do you get more conversions? Develop a good SEO and
internet marketing plan. Spend time researching the best
keywords for your product or service; rewrite parts of your
website to make it more interesting and engaging.
Develop a plan of how you intend to make your much needed
conversions. Target perhaps three to five pages that will
become ‘conversion pages’ (areas of your site that you
will want your visitors to interact with your content,
whether that means spending money or sending you an
email). You can take a horse to water, but you can’t make
him drink! This is not the case with SEO. You can take your
visitors to your conversion page and you can also make them
convert to a customer. How do you do this? Develop the
best SEO Plan you can possibly afford, whether you do it
in-house or ask an SEO firm to guide you. It is vitally
important for the future success of your website that you
have a strong and well-developed SEO Plan in place.
Contact an SEO company and ask how they can help you
generate more conversions and exceed your online potential.
Most will offer you free support and advice if you choose
to do it yourself, but it is always best to invest that
little bit extra and hire an SEO Consultant to generate
your future success with an SEO Plan.

Cortina Web Solutions - advanced web design, hosting and
SEO services. Daniel Gibbins, the managing Director of
Cortina Web Solutions, heads up the SEO department and
offers advice and support to new businesses starting up
on the internet. Contact Daniel today:
www.cortinawebsolutions.co.uk

[tags]SEO, SEO Help, Search Engine Marketing[/tags]

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Ray Burton is a personal training business owner, online writer and growing net entrepreneur. He is also the author of the controversial workout e-book, The Fat 2 Fit Program which is also part of his passive income sources along with the membership site FitterFast.com.

Attention webmasters, ezine publishers, bloggers and forum owners: This article may be reprinted online or offline, provided the biography and website link information is included. (Click for affiliate/business opportunity)

Trackback URI | Comments RSS