What does SEO stand for? I have heard hundreds of people ramble on about how important SEO is and here I stand clueless about why this acronym is so special. That is why I took it upon myself to figure what the madness was all about. Wikipedia defines SEO, search engine optimization, as the process of improving the visibility of a website or web page in search engines. I know what you are thinking and that is what I thought to. I just spent all this money on designing a website. Of course search engines will spot out my site. It is unique, functional and new to the internet right? No, that is not what is going to get your site viewed. I have found that in order to get traffic to any site they need to invest in SEO. Search engine placement is the key in getting people to visit any site. It is like the newspaper, if your article is going to get read your headline must be on the front page.

Search engine placement is an internet marketing mystery. It matters that your website is functional and well designed only after you have the traffic visiting it. In order to get traffic to your website you need to be ranked well within search engines. Take this for example: search Toy Stores in Sockville, Michigan where there is one right down the street. It doesn’t come up on the first page of the search. After scrolling through three pages you finally find them. How many people when searching something on the web look past the first page of search results? If you didn’t know there was a toy store just down the street it would have never found because you wouldn’t have continued looking past the first page. The first page lists five toy stores in the area. Those toy stores have obviously done SEO and when their websites is found it is functional and easy to order from. They will get your order. SEO helps guide the customer to your website.

SEO is to the internet what the yellow pages are to the phone book. Five years ago when you needed a furnace repair man you looked in the yellow pages under furnace repair. You would call the first few that were listed or the one with the biggest graphics and they would get your business. The same is true today on the internet. You search out furnace repair for your area. After viewing the first page of listings it gives you five furnace repair shops in your area. You visit their websites and are attracted to the attention to detail in one site. You choose to call them over the others because of it. You haven’t even searched the next two pages all with reliable furnace repair shops but because they didn’t immediately come up catching your eye they will not get your business.

The above example is exactly why SEO is the buzz right now. For years we have heard how important it is to have a website that is easy to use and delightful to look at. Now that isn’t all that is needed. You have to get people to your site and search engine placement is going to get the traffic you are looking for. Make sure when you have your company’s website designed that you speak with them regarding SEO. It is the only way you will maximize the traffic to your site. Let’s be honest that is the reason you have spent all that money on the functional and well designed website in the first place.