Is Your Web Site Visible?

Web sites are meant to be seen by as many people as possible. That’s especially true for commercial websites that rely on internet traffic to find customers and make sales. The best way to make sure that people find your web site is to make sure that it appears high on the list of search engine results for the key words and phrases that relate to your business. Specifically, you want high ranking for the words and phrases that your potential customers would use if they were looking for your products or services.

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.