What is Search Engine Optimization or SEO?

SEO is the process of getting your Website to be one of the first results in Google or another search engine like Yahoo or Bing. Ideally everyone wants to be the first result on the first page. 

For example if you are a Attorney in Roanoke, Virginia what you want is this: When a prospective client goes to a search engine like Google and types in "Attorney Roanoke VA" and clicks on search. Every lawyer in Roanoke wants their Website to be the first result that comes up on that first page. Or at least to have their Website listed on that first page.

The reason is simple if people want or need a good or service today the number one way people find a provider of that good or service is to search for it on the Internet. Research shows that 80% of people do not look beyond the first page of search results and will probably BUY from one of the results on that page.

So to answer the question "What is Search Engine Optimization?" is this: SEO is what will get you onto the first page of search engine results pages of Google, Yahoo, & Bing (among many).

There are 6 ways to approach SEO.

1. Having Good or Great Origional Content
2. Organic Page Optimization
3. Directory Submission
4. Link Building Campaigns
5. Search Engine Marketing

6. A Combination of the above listed ways

Having Good or Great Content- Nothing attracts visitors to your site like having good (or great) original content.  It must be relevant to the search terms you are targeting. but this is the number one thing to do for SEO and to build traffic. This is sometimes easier said than done, but I can help you identify strategies to maximize the impact of the content you have on your site.

Organic Page Optimization- Most people don't realize that when you design a Website you must do so with two very distinctly different audiences.  The first is obviously the users or guests who come to a Website.  The second is for the robots (called spiders) which are sent out by search engines to index your site so they can display your site in their results pages. While I optimize all of the sites that I build for search engines, not all web designers do so. If your previous web designer did not do this I can go in and optimize the code to attract search engine spiders.

Directory Submission- There are Internet directories just like telephone directories. Not too many years ago all businesses scrambled to be listed in the yellow pages because it was where everyone looked first to find a provider of a good or service.  Now the Internet is the first place people look.  People probably will only search on the major search engines, but they may check out niche specific directories to find providers.  Also those niche specific directories are indexed by the search engines and deemed to be relevant to your industry so the link from them can carry a lot of weight. This has been an effective strategy for some time in SEO. I can help you identify the proper directories that you want listing on and help you get listed.

Link Building Campaigns- One of the ways search engines rank related Websites (determine who to put on page 1 of their results pages) is by ranking sites by importance.  A good real world example would be if you asked a friend who is an allergy doctor for a referral to a good heart surgeon and he said go see Dr. John Smith while you asked me a webmaster for a referral to a good heart surgeon and I said Dr. Sam Jones. Who are you going to listen to? Why? These referrals in the computer world are links. Ok so how do search engines know what Website has more weight in a given area than another? Well they look at traffic, age, history, content, page rank, etc.... You see the search engines rank sites by relevance so if a Website about toy trains links to your site for your dental practice it does not carry the same weight as if your site was linked to by the American Dental Association or even a directory of dentists in America.

What I do is help you identify sites with high relevance to your related search terms and develop strategies that either you or I will utilize to get links from those high value sites and not waste time seeking links from the low or no value sites.

Search Engine Marketing- SEM is utilizing purchased advertising on the web.  This can range from Google AdWords, to purchasing a banner advertisement on your local newspaper, or to purchasing a tower advertisement on a relevant blog, or running an advertisement on Facebook. .This is simply the most effective form of advertising in the history of the world.  The reasons are many and simple. Many sites such as Facebook  know their users demographic information very well. So for example if you had a dress shop that catered to women under 25. would you rather run an advertisement in the paper where many people might see it but you don't know if your target market (young women 15 to 25) will even see it. Or would you run an ad on Facebook (or similar site)  that will only show your ad to women between the ages of 15 to 25 within 50 miles of your shops location? Oh, wait I forgot to mention the fact that you can track exactly how many users clicked on your ad to see what you have to offer (not many newspapers can tell you that!).

A combined approach to SEO- As with most things a combination approach really works best. I will work with you to find the right combination of strategies to maximize the value of your Internet presence.

What do I charge for SEO Work?

I charge $100 per hour for all SEO services.

SEM Campaigns are available on a per quote basis.