Want to break out of your little box and gain traffic from all points to your website, then Search Engine Optimization is one of the most important sources of your success.  It is all an intricate dance that developers play to attain higher rankings on the major Search Engines.  Almost a decade ago a good header title, description, meta tags, and general key words would have been sufficient to rank your site in the first page results.  As the internet has grown and matured, more “calculus” is needed.  Keywords are now Key “Phrases” and even placing specific phrases within your site may not do the trick anymore due to intense competition as well as the advanced algorithms, created to go against suspected spam sites that tend to crop up.

Achieving a high-status ranking isn’t impossible though if it is important to your organization and you are willing and patient to play the game correctly.  Here are some important bullets for you to consider:

• Select the Correct Keywords and Phrases; Use Strategically.  View your website from your customer’s point of view.  If you were looking for a specific widget that your company sells online- if you were on Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc… what word or phrase would you look up to find it?  Google has some “free” tools in their arsenal that you can use to assist in gaining analytics to determine what words people are using to help.  Pages that contain these widgets should have those words and phrases tucked into the background code of the site, but also contained strategically within the descriptions on the page.  If your company has a blog (and you should) articles should be written containing those keywords (strategically)- but not just for search engine crawlers, they should be relevant and useful to the reader.

• Pay-per-click (PPC) is the fastest and most reliable way to drive targeted traffic to your website- thereby attracting people who are already searching for your product or service.  A Key Phrase Analysis can be used to create hard hitting PPC ads and landing page.

• Analytics:  SEO strategies cannot be launched then abandoned to “do their thing.”  That’s like throwing your laundry in the washer and assuming that the intended outcome will just happen without keeping the process moving.  Continued monitoring and analization of your online marketing strategy is essential to their viability and success.  A good source available to anyone (with a Google account) is Google Analytics.

• Retargeting or Behavioral Targeting isn’t just for the “big data” players.  Ever notice that after you have searched through the Disney Resorts website dreaming about a family vacation (that is sure to cost in the thousands…)- that after you go on with your day and for many days into the future- Disney Resorts ads seem to keep appearing in the banner ads on your USA Today site viewing, Fox News, CNN, etc…  Same goes for your PPC ad.  You can set up a retargeting strategy that will “remind” lurkers that have left your site about the items they may have left in your virtual shopping cart and will encourage them to return.

Business often embrace the technical activity of building their site, but will then shy away from performing the critical exercise of Search Engine Marketing.  This is an important step in assuring that when John or Jane Doe go to Google (or other) and type in the “widget” they are looking for- your online store is of the first options delivered to their search.