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Do I Need SEO Even if I’m Not an Online Business?

boardroom | April 14th, 2008

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Orange Soda

Search Engine Optimization Experts

Contact: www.orangesoda.com

The answer to this is, “It depends.” It depends on whether you care about growing your business or not. If you want your business to grow and succeed, then yes, you need a Web presence and you need people to be able to find you on the Web.

The statistics are staggering, showing that having a Web strong presence is favorable for all types of businesses. Ten years ago, it wasn’t so important to be on the Web because relatively few people had Internet access. Today, however, the Web is quickly replacing traditional media in many areas. A perfect example of this can be seen in the recent decline of yellow pages usage in favor of the Internet when looking for local business information.

Let’s take a look at a very well-known example of a non-Internet based business: the fast-food restaurant chain Wendy’s. Despite not being an online business, they have a website. Why? Because they know that there are a lot of people like me that want information about what’s on their menu, how many calories are in their single-cheese combo, where the nearest Wendy’s is when I’m in unfamiliar territory, and so forth.

In fact, recent research conducted by Marchex shows that 86 percent of Internet users in 2007 preferred to use search engines to research or find local businesses. This number has been trending upward over the last several years.

Since search engines are the #1 place people are going to find a place that offers the products and services you provide, not having a website can be quite detrimental to your business, especially if your competition does have a website.

Just as bad is having a website that nobody knows about. In other words, yes, you will benefit from SEO regardless of the type of business you run.

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What is Search Engine Optimization?

boardroom | April 14th, 2008

orange soda

Orange Soda

Search Engine Optimization Experts

Contact: www.orangesoda.com

The simple answer to this question is that search engine optimization (or SEO as it’s commonly referred to as) is the process of optimizing a webpage or website to rank well for specific keyword terms and phrases in a search engine such as Google, Yahoo!, or MSN. The complex answer to the question is, well, more complex.

Search engines use complex mathematical algorithms to calculate what words a particular webpage should rank for and where it should appear in the rankings. These algorithms are, allegorically, a search engine’s secret sauce. And they, like restaurants, keep the ingredients for their secret sauce very secret. One reason why search engines keep their algorithms secret is to prevent webmasters from abusing the knowledge to rank higher for certain keywords that they probably shouldn’t be.

Since people generally use search engines to find information, search engine programmers wanted to be able to provide the most relevant information to its users so they would come back again next time they were looking for information. They weren’t doing a very good job of this in the mid nineties, as was obvious to those of us who remember.

Then along came Google and turned the search engine world on its side with a new-fangled algorithm that seemed to give everybody the exact results they were looking for. It worked great, until somebody who wanted to sell snake oil to people looking for camping gear figured out a way to abuse the new algorithm.

To stay ahead of the game, search engine algorithms are in constant flux in an attempt to provide us users with the information we desire while keeping out irrelevant results.

So, to get back to the original question, SEO is about showing the search engines that your site is relevant to whatever keyword term you are attempting to rank for. This requires keeping a constant finger on the pulse of the search engine world, knowing proper search engine strategies, and having the ability to implement them all while being flexible enough to adjust to the constantly changing world of search engine optimization.

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