Written by: Nick Hantge 

With today’s shift from paper to major search engines and online directories, a website is one of the best marketing tools a company can have.  A website can reach not only individuals searching for your services or products locally; it can reach hundreds of thousands of individuals nationwide and around the globe.

Whether you sell a product online such as cookies or jewelry or provide a service such as laser hair removal, the first step to being successful online is being found on the major search engines.  It does not matter the size of your company or how great your website looks, if individuals cannot find your business in their searches you simply will not be successful online.

Too often, companies or individuals spend thousands of dollars on the design of their website thinking they are doing the right thing.  This idea of creating a website that just looks good is a thing of the past.  If a website is unable to be found under searches relating to its content, this marketing tool is a waste of your money.

The quickest possible way to get listed on the major search engines is through search engine marketing (SEM) where you pay for quality leads to your website often called Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising.  Although PPC does get you immediately listed on search engines, through our research 75% of individuals using the internet do not click on paid advertisements on the side.

A more effective but time intensive way to get noticed by the search engines is through Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  SEO is the science of analyzing and enhancing your website to manipulate your ranking on major search engines such as Google® and Yahoo!®

to increase the volume of traffic to your site.  Since 65% of searches make their decision before moving to the second page, it is vital to have your web site optimized and show up for different search terms on the first page at least once.  The more times your website appears under searches relating to your business, obviously the more exposure you have that will ultimately lead to more traffic to your website.  After your website has been optimized and starts to appear on the first page of the search engine for a few terms, then the appearance, flow, and functionality starts to become a factor.  It only makes sense to keep the individuals on your website once they are they.  The longer people are on your website, the more likely they are to use your product or services.

A huge advantage to SEO when it comes to advertising is the quality of the traffic viewing your site.  Most everyone that visits your optimized website is looking either for the product or services you provide.  This quality lead is much better than the traffic you are reaching through a billboard, newspaper, or radio advertisement.  The reason I say that is because the individuals who hear or see that ad, do not necessarily need or want your services.  Plus in these types of advertisements, your information does not stay in front of individuals, whereas a properly optimized website can be found over and over again with your contact information and list of products and services blaring right at them.

There are many techniques that SEO experts use to increase the ranking of websites.  The key to a good SEO campaign is a constant effort.  Web pages need to be added and updated, link building needs to continue while your website remains live, and submissions to all major search engines along with directories are just a few of the many techniques an SEO company would use to help increase a websites rank.  If you would like more information on SEO techniques or strategies, call Iniquitous as (303) 327-8991 or visit more of our website about Denver SEO