If you’re new to online marketing, there is no doubt that you’ll run across the term SEO very soon. SEO stands for “search engine optimization” and the name says it all – optimizing your site so that it ranks well in the search engines. SEO uses creative and technical processes to improve a site’s rankings and to therefore drive more traffic to it. There are a lot of different ways to approach SEO but it all comes down to showing the search engines that your site is there and having these engines understand what your site is all about. At the same time, your site needs to be user-friendly so that your visitors can get the most out of it.

Does your site need SEO?

If your site is not appearing on the first page of Google or on any other search engines, you’ll definitely need to work on some key optimization points to get it there. This is the best way to build up traffic to your website so that you can make sales and increase your profits.

Proper SEO can bring targeted traffic to your website better than any other type of marketing and provide a higher ROI. It is the first marketing method to explore when you are ready to boost your sales and raise your revenue.

Helping the Search Engines Figure It All Out

Search engines use certain algorithms to figure out what your site is all about. For example, if you are selling cat toys you’ll want your site to appear in the listings that are relevant to these types of toys. If your page shows up to people that are looking for children’s toys, you won’t receive any targeted traffic.

You need to let the search engines know exactly what your site is selling or promoting. This is done by placing relevant content on your site that the search engines can crawl easily. This crawling is done by automated robots that look through the links on your site to see its pages and documents. When the engines discover these pages they can decipher a code on them and decide where to put your site on the search engine listings.

The search engines use spiders or crawlers to find this data and store it in huge data centres that are located worldwide. These facilities have thousands upon thousands of machines that can process vast amounts of information quickly. A person that is sitting at his computer and submitting a query to Google will expect fast and relevant results.

The search engines often assume that a popular site must be valuable. The engines use mathematical equations called algorithms to determine the relevance and popularity of a site and then rank it accordingly. There can be hundreds of variables associated with these algorithms, which will determine the ranking factors for websites.

Built for the End-User

SEO all equates to a fine balance between satisfying the search engines and the end-user. Somebody that is typing “Cat Toys” into the Google search bar wants to see a listing of cat toy sites and nothing else. At the same time, when the user clicks on a site he wants it to be clean, load quickly and offer valuable information.

Recent research shows that more people than ever are using the Internet every day. It’s estimated that Google sends 90.62% of the traffic to sites while Yahoo! and Bing send less than 4% each. The power of Google is intense and if you don’t have your website showing up on the top page, you’re quite simply leaving a lot of money on the table.

As far as local searches go, at least 67% of the people from a survey had used a search engine within the last 30 days to find a local business while 23% had used social networks online as a media source.

SEO can turn a failing business around so that it can land back on its feet and can also help a successful business reach new heights. To find out more about the power of SEO and what it can do for your business, consider giving Qode Media, the best SEO and internet marketing company in Toronto, a call or visit www.qodemedia.com. SEO methods can help any business owner realize his dreams.