If you're marketing a business on the Internet whether you succeed or fail relies largely on bringing qualified traffic to your web site. The important word here is qualified - by which I mean people who are interested in buying or consuming your product or service.
Driving traffic to your web site is extremely easy - but on its own merely drives up your hosting costs. What you need are sales and there are important steps to achieving this - which although are not difficult - do involve some work and time. In this article we are going to look at the first steps of this challenge and arguably the most important.
For the purpose of this article we will focus on what "organic traffic" to your site. This refers to people being directed via search engines to your web pages. Arguably the best sort of traffic as its qualified (via the search term) and best of all it's free - studies suggest that search users are 80% more likely to select an organic result to a paid one (all the sponsored links above and to the side of the search listings).
Lets first of all think of how these people arrive at our site. They start up their browser and likely select Google, Yahoo, Lycos, MSN or whatever search engine they use. Into this search engine they type in a phrase or words which they hope will answer their question - this is a very important point to consider. Think very carefully about your potential customers and how they would find you on the internet.
Lets say you manufactured and sold burglar alarms in Manchester. The most attractive visitors to you are people who are looking for burglar alarms in your area. Ok I'll be that customer and lets run through what might happen - I own a small shop in Manchester which has just been broken into. I am getting a new burglar alarm fitted so I need someone to install and fit it.
I type in "burglar alarm" into google - what do I get? Lots of paid adverts with burglar alarms for sale from all over the UK. Also a list of organic search results. At the top will likely be a large (or maybe not) manufacturer or retailer of burglar alarms - the search engine will bring you results based on your location to a point but in my case they all seem to be in London. I don't want a firm in London I want a local firm who can come and give me a quote and see my premises. So what do I do next - well why not just type the same term in but add Manchester to the end.
I type in "burglar alarms manchester" - what do I get? Well the search engine has brought back lots of links with burglar alarm specialists in Manchester - great that's what I want :)
It's very simple but to me the above searcher is worth thousands of non-qualified hits. But if I want to improve my search engine rankings and my business that's exactly how I must think. I want that searcher very badly - there is a very good chance he or she will become a customer.
Some basic analysis of our situation - we want all the above traffic - both the UK searcher for burglar alarms but especially the "Manchester burglar alarms" searcher. What we must focus on then are the keywords - which words would our potential customer likely use in order to find us. Don't try and be to clever about this - think logically - ask your friends, partners or anyone the same question - it's likely you will receive many different answers.
Try to think of different scenarios - humans approach things in many different directions - lots of searches could originate in much different ways. In our situation a searcher may follow a similar pattern and arrive via the search "secure my premises manchester", "house alarms manchester" or "secure my house manchester". The lists are endless but generally you can narrow it down to some likely terms. You will then have compiled a list of important keywords which will be vital to the success of your web site in generating business (not just traffic).
If you're asking someone to develop a website for your business or optimise for search engines - these keywords are crucial.
An impressive flash based web site built with no regards for your business or keywords will bring your business little - a web site built or optimised around your keywords will bring you real life paying customers. Professionals can help you with establishing these keywords but they will not know your business as well as you - the web professional who doesn't involve you in this critical phase is likely not worth the money.
Of course there's a whole lot more to the whys and hows to get ranked highly but never lose site of your keywords - they will bring you customers and are vital!!
Joe Simpson Improve my Search Engine Rankings
About the Author
SEO and IT Specialist Hard working Welshman
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