The overwhelming majority of web users go to the major search engines to look for the products or services they want to buy. They might enter a brand name or a generic description depending upon exactly what they are looking for. Some of those queries will be a single word, and others will be a longer phrase. As a commercial web site owner, you need to figure out what words or phrases your potential customers are using most often. Once you have that information, you should work to increase your search engine results ranking for those terms.

While web users will take the time to use a search engine to find what they want, the largest majority will choose web sites only from the first page of results. Less than a third will go to the second page of results and click through to a web site from there. The number of click-throughs you get to your web site will be directly proportional to your search engine ranking. In other words, to get more customers visiting your web site, increase your search engine ranking.

The practice of increasing a web site’s search engine ranking is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and it involves constructing the HTML code and content of your web site in such a manner as to make the topic of your web site clear to search engine algorithms. Search engine rankings are also determined by how valuable the search engine thinks your content is to the user. This is measured, in part, by the number of incoming links to your web site from other websites. Incoming links from web sites that also have content related to your web site and a high page rank value are given the highest weighting and have the greatest influence on your search engine ranking.

Search engine marketing firms provide assistance with all aspects of SEO for their clients. They may either suggest HTML and content changes, or go in and make the changes themselves on your behalf. Many also offer link-building campaigns designed to help cultivate incoming links to your site from authoritative sources. All three aspects should be used in concert for the best effect on your ranking.

Will fresh content create new rankings for you? Yes, if you have a blog or a news site and you use Wordpress or other formats with SEO plug ins.  You can get great rankings for new terms within a day. That is because Google has determined the query or phrase you are targeting “deserves freshness”. To learn more about QDF click here and read this article by the New York Times written in 2007. It clearly explains the concept of QDF and how it works. Google is expanding on that concept with their recent blog post, “Relevance Meets Real Time Web posted on December 9, 2009.

Write content to attract new visitors and thus creating good link bait.  Adding new content because, “Google loves fresh content,” is not only a waste of time but a useless exercise only practiced by Voodoo SEOs.