Where is the first place you turn now days to find a product or service that you are in need of?  Fifteen years ago the answer would have been the phone book. Today however technology has advanced so far that many of us instantly recycle the phone book that lands in our driveway twice a year.  Instead we turn for our I-pads, laptops or phones and start searching the internet.  Businesses always wanted the biggest and best ad in the phone book.  The same is true for the internet.  Your website is the front window of your business.  It must be well designed and functional.  More importantly however is getting the consumer to your website in the first place.  This function happens in the internet world with search engine placement.

We get to websites that sell the products or services we are searching for using key phrases commonly associated with what we need and plug them into a search engine such as Yahoo, Google or Bing.  From there we are bounced to a list that the search engine has found listing the web pages that are associated with our key phrase.  The job of search engine placement is to make sure your company is recognized with the key phrases people will type in for your product or services.  Not only do you want to come up when the key phrase is entered but you want to be on the front page of the search and as close to the top as possible.

This is important because as with the phone book people are going to call upon the first advertisements, or web page in this case, that catches their eye.  So it is easy to see how a website design is important to actually sell your product or service but search engine placement is even more important in that it is the process of getting them to your site in the first place. A company that does website design should place as much emphasis on search engine placement as on the design of your site if not more.

Search engine placement is an ongoing process.  To keep your site rankings on the first page and to get them there in the first place you will need to work with a search engine company that places value on this process.  Working with a company you should expect results within a few months.  It is important to work with a firm that is willing to research key phrases, using input from you, to come up with the most commonly used phrase search engine recognize with your services and products.

Many companies that offer search engine placement services should also offer website optimization.  This includes either building a site revolved around keywords associated with your business or tweaking an existing site to include phrases that will be used in the process of maximizing searches to get consumers to your website.  Your website should then be designed in a matter that is visually impressive, easy to use and includes information that consumers will be looking for.