SEO for the CEO

pTo many a CEO, a href=http://www.youraustinseocompany.com target=_blanksearch engine optimization/a will either sound like black magic or expensive, or more likely, both. This short primer is provided to help you understand more about what you are investing in, where it goes and why. /p
pIf youre expecting it as a commodity buy, you will want to alter that mindset. Like any other business expense, you will compare what a client is worth and how many you need to acquire in order to recoup. /p
p You just have to understand a little about your business website. Were not talking about intensive programing issue at all, it just the part that search engines and search bots view. Your website needs to be fluent in their language as well as the language of your website visitors. This is initially what youre investing in and the information pertains to not only to whats on your site, but is related to what is on other businesses websites. In other words, parts of it can be simple and parts of it can be as complicated as multi-dimensional chess./p
pbr /strongSo what is the strategy for SEO?/strongbr /br /First, you need to know that 75%-80% of a websites traffic comes from search engines. And research shows that most people dont go beyond the first 2 pages of results. If youre not doing something with an eye to optimization, at best youre leaving money on the table and at worst, your competitors are grabbing it. And who in their right mind would let that happen?br /br / Oh, and that your company websites is #1 when you search your companys name or website doesnt count. You need to have your site come up when customers are using search terms for the service or product you provide while they search in Google, Yahoo, Bing or other search engines. br /br /strongNow what specific tactics are used to advance the strategy?/strongbr /br /This is where an a href=http://www.youraustinseocompany.com/what-seo-search-engine-austin-means-for-you target=_blankSEO company/a will look at two different aspects of your website – the on-page – what is read by a search engine and indexed (or not indexed) and the off-page – what other sites communicate to search engines about your site. br /br /What most businesses dont know is that even for a 100% fully-optimized site – the on-page factors account for only 20 – 30% of the reason why a search engine places a particular site within the results where they do. Which means, the rest, namely 70 -80% of the weight comes from other factors off the site that account why sites are in the #1, 2, or 3 spot. br /br /The good news is that most sites are not fully-optimized. The bad news is many established sites have been at this for a long time and they have a large contingent of sites that tells the search engines this site is an authority about x. This means the on-page factors are the easiest to affect and the off-page factors are the most challenging. br /br /strongON PAGE Factors/strongbr /br /So specifically, on-page factors will be all the meta-data that only the search engines see. This means defining what specific keywords youre wanting to go for overall.br /br /Then there are four (4) specific locations per page that are viewed by the search engines. You dont have to be an SEO expert, all you need to remember is its title, description, URL, and header info. Most webmasters should know what this is – although you would be working with them most likely to refine the information to conform to a format that most search engines consider expected. This is not an area to be creative, in other words. When it comes to search engines, follow instructions. br /br /strongOFF PAGE Factors/strongbr /br /This is an ever increasing range of factors – basically it boils down to other sites linking back to your site. What those sites are and what site search engines believe are authority and relevant information is what constantly increases and changes. So this is where hiring an seo firm can get interesting. There are multiple ethical ways to increase links and most of those require hard work, elbow grease and some degree of imagination.br /br / When you hire an SEO firm, once your one page factors are settled, the off page factors will most likely require 100% of the time spent on your account. br /br /strongHow long before you see results?/strongbr /br /Typically, you will see it bounce around initially once a site is optimizednbsp; and it should take about 3 months for it nestle into a settled spot within the natural search results. Whether its for a restuarant or a Fortune 500 company, the steps to increasing backlinks aka the work, it takes the same effort no matter what. br /br /Also, note that very competitive search terms will require a longer committment to acheive higher rankings. Keywords that have a decent amount of searches but not a lot of people optimizing for will start ranking relatively quickly. So how long it takes is relative to how many other sites are aiming for the same target keyword. br /br /strongHow will you know its working?/strongbr /br /You should begin to notice an increase in the traffic naturally coming to site especially when viewing the search terms that source the traffic. Analytics are critical to have in place before you start any SEO/SEM because with them you can see a relationship between what youre paying for and what its bringing you. You are to be able to see when youre moving only when you know where you were.br /br /strongHow long will this last?/strongbr /br /Well, as long as youre offering something that people buy, youll be fine. What you are not in control of is what your competitors do in response to whatever SEO efforts you have done. If you have more or higher authority links than your competitor, you most likely will rank higher until such time as they get more or higher authority links. Its like the search engines grade on a curve, it depends on whose in your class.br /br /strongMonthly reporting/strongbr /br /If you are paying monthly for SEO services you can expect to receive monthly reporting to confirm the ranking and traffic from the targeted keywords. nbsp; The items to look for are traffic and the specific keywords bringing in the traffic. What youre hoping to see are general keywords bringing traffic to your site in addition to your business name. br /br /br /strongFinal words about SEO/strongbr /br /A word about visitor behavior, all the best SEO in the world for your business wont matter if your website experience isnt conducive to the visitor. Your SEO should get a visitor to your site, your compelling description and offerings are what keeps them. So dont blame your SEO company if you cant convert a visitor to a client, their job is to get them there, your job is to keep them there.br /br /It is in a companys best interests to maximize the visit of a prospect to the site. Capture of their name and email in exchange for a white paper, or a special report or a personalized review of their needs are some best practices and then a timed repeat communication by email is the most effective way to change a visitor to a client.br /br /If you would like to speak with someone about SEO in general or to review your current website, fill out a a href=http://www.youraustinseocompany.com/%3Cspan%20class=%27posible_changer%27%20id=%27spin_64%27%20onclick=%27ShowSpinOptions%2864%29%27%3Econtact%3C/span%3E target=_blankcontact page/a at Your Austin SEO Company to have someone get back with you.br /br /br //p