Search Engine
Optimization. aka SEO, is a very important part
of most website projects. A
"pay-to-play" plan such as a Google AdWords
campaign can be also. It
is important to determine whether or not you
want SEO or pay-to-play at the very beginning of
the project. SEO can always be worked on
at a later date, but knowing SEO is to be part
of the project changes the way the project
should be handled.
How do you know if you need SEO or pay-to-play? Just
answer this basic question: "Do I want my
website to only be a place where people can get
more information after they have contacted me,
heard of my company, or received my business
card, or do I want people to be able to search
on the Internet and find my business?" If
the answer is the latter, you need SEO or
pay-to-play.
SEO refers to the original "natural" or
"organic" way of "optimizing" a web page to help
the search engines know how to catalog or
"index" your website. It entails someone
setting up the web page with certain elements in
such a way that the visiting search engine
determines how to index that page. Once
the page is optimized it is submitted to the
search engines for inclusion in their databases.
There is one very important thing you need to
know about this process. NO-ONE can
absolutely guarantee you a SPECIFIC RANKING for
your SPECIFIC KEYWORDS using this system.
Developing and maintaining great rankings the
organic way is an
ongoing and sometimes time-consuming job. That does not, however, make
optimization unimportant. Any successful
way to get people to your website COULD be
beneficial if it is cost effective.
The second way to get people to your website
through the search engines is PPC, short for
"pay per click". Also known as
"pay-to-play", PPC is a system
whereby you select the keywords and phrases you
want your website to come up under when someone
searches that keyword or phrase on the search
engine. You "pay-per-click" each time your website is listed
on the search engine results page AND someone
clicks to see your page. You pay for a page
view. Arguably the most well known pay-to-play
is Google AdWords, where you can find keywords
with cost per click ranging from a few cents to
tens of dollars.
I have worked on SEO and managed Google AdWords
accouts for clients for many years. Making
both work efficiently and economically can be a
challenge. Let's put together a plan for
your website and see what traffic we can
generate for your business!
