subject: The Importance Of Search Engine Optimization For Small Business Owners Trading On The Web [print this page] Newcomers to the world of internet marketing often have the erroneous notion that setting up a truly amazing website is sufficient to draw interest and clients. This would be truly good news if creative skill and talent were the main criteria for determining internet success, because there are many truly creative website designers whose sites are hallmarked by their witty graphics, astounding images, ingenious multimedia, clever design, and inventive prose.
Unfortunately, search engines do not have the inbuilt capacity to appreciate these wonderful traits that humans instinctively recognize. Consequently, enthralling website features are rendered of little value because often search engines can't see them. Because search engines operate according to different standards, it takes more than creative website design to make a mark in search engine results; it takes adept search engine optimization to make websites discoverable to search engines. Various factors can pose problems for websites seeking inclusion and ranking in search engines. Technical issues such as poor link structuring, coding errors, and inaccessible audio, video, flash, or plug-in content may contribute to a search engine's evaluation that a website is not important. So, concerns of a technical nature are all within the scope of search engine optimization.
But technical details are not the only factors that can render a website invisible. One common issue is inappropriate content-to-search matches. A chief example of this is the use of wrong keywords and phrases. Let's say you've just created a new, fantastic carbonated soft drink. You're trying to create web interest, but find you're not getting as much internet buzz as you want. That may be because you're referring to your beverage as pop, while the majority of searchers are looking for a soda or even a tonic. It's important to know what words or phrases people use to formulate their queries. It's crucial, too, to use the right language for your target market. You may be targeting Polish youth but if you're talking to them in Urdu or American English, you may fail to reach them altogether. Even something as simple as misspelling a keyword may cost you heavily.
If you're selling condiments to the UK or Australia (where flavour is spelled with a u) and the name of your website is Flavorful Seasonings, you run the risk of appearing in the back pages of search engine results because your would-be clients are searching for flavour, not flavor. So appropriate content is important, but just as good web design is not enough to make your website successful, neither is proper content.
Imagine you have the best stocked, most up-to-the-minute service station/market/restaurant complex along a busy thoroughfare. Perhaps it's the only one for miles around and you just know that people are looking for what you have to offer. But you sit there day after day, wondering why no one stops byuntil it dawns on you that no one knows that your station is there. So you make signs to your station and build a way to get to it. And then, lo and behold, traffic to your station increases sharply.
The same is true for websites. Many companies have really good products and services to offer as well as brilliant features in their websites, but their businesses fail for the simple reason that their sites are not search-engine friendly, and few people even know of their existence. The proven methodology of search engine optimization provides what is needed to generate the popularity needed for web success.
