Introduction to Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of analyzing your site and modifying it to enable search engines to read it, understand it and index (or catalog) it correctly. This is not rewriting the site or changing the look and feel. It is subtle changes, adding or modifying inconspicuous visible and invisible text so that the search engines can read the site. SEO is not 'spamming' the search engines - it is simply helping the search engines help you.

The need for SEO has become acute in the past few years. Web sites are being created with Java, Flash and images all of which search engines can not understand and ignore. If the content of your website is ignored by the search engines then they can't index your site, If your site isn't indexed then no one will find your site by searching for it in Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. If no one can find your site then your hard work and money spent creating the site is in vain.

Search engines don't like this either, they want to provide the best possible results to visitors and if they can't index a website for any reason they may be missing great content that searchers are looking for. In fact SEO is so important, Google provides guidelines for choosing a SEO service.

How Does SEO Work?

Most websites do not focus on their topic well, keyword lists containing 50 or more phrases per page (Ebay as a keyword is common), the business that has four separate offerings and each page of the website tries to target all four at once and misses. It might be the site is targeting a search phrase that no one is searching for. By focusing each of the pages of the site in turn on keywords relevant to the business and relevant to people searching for that business SEO ensures each page of your site stays focused and is therefore seen as an authority on the topic.

Free Search Engines

The biggest search engines on the Internet are still free, Google and sites using Google's results make up around 50% of the Internet search market on their own. If all you're targeting is Google then you're missing nearly 50% of the market! We offer SEO that works for all search engines, not just Google, and we monitor those engines to ensure your site stays ranked. This is nearly doubling the search engine traffic you can target with minimal effort - imagine what 100% more visitors would do to your bottom line!

Pay Per Click Advertising

The results that appear first on Yahoo and Google are sponsored links. Anyone can appear anywhere they want on these lists - it comes down to how big your wallet is. We can give you the support you need to mount an effective 'pay per click' advertising campaign.

Don't Forget Linking

Have you ever seen a site that breaks all the rules and yet is still high in the search engines for your keyword? Search engines believe that if other people link to your site then it must be worthwhile. If you have no inbound links some search engines won't even list your site. The more inbound links to your site the higher your site will rank. Be careful of link farms (FFA - free for all) - sites designed just to link and no other reason - search engines don't like them and have banned sites that link to these farms. As part of our SEO services we can mount a link exchange program to solicit inbound links from relevant, related, non-competing sites and high ranking directories for a set fee.

How to Choose a SEO Service

Check out their results - see where their site is in the search engine rankings, when you see a site that is in the top 10 for its target keyword that's the one to choose, after all if a SEO company can put their website at the top when all of their competitors are experts at search engine placement, think what they can do for your site.

Elixir Systems have the knowledge and experience to improve your search engine rankings and drive visitors to your site, contact us for more information.