Running an Internet marketing campaign will be unsuccessful unless you take into account the importance of SEO or Search Engine Optimization. If you ignore or skimp on this part of the equation, you will surely fail at promoting your website, product or service. While the acronym SEO is bandied about with abandon by gurus and would-be gurus, most Internet marketers have little idea what it means or where to start to get their site in shape to be in the top 10 of search engine results pages. Even those with some knowledge are always learning, expanding and evolving with the ever-changing algorithms and strategies that will produce targeted traffic on a consistent basis.



Advertising has been an integral part of business for a long time. Advertising to reach new clientele is a time-honored tradition that has been universally accepted to promote products and services. The difference between a geographically located store and a virtual store is extreme. While you can hang a sign in your physical store, there is a totally different method to attract visitors to your virtual outlet. If you are lucky enough to already have a customer base, you need only add your website URL to your business card and inform your clients. If you are new to the Internet and are trying to carve out a niche online, search engine advertising and knowing the ins and outs of SEO will make or break you.

There are a number of free and low cost advertising methods available on the web with varying degrees of success, but if you want a lot of traffic on a continuous basis, you'll need to really learn and understand the search engine advertising methodology.

While Google isn't the only search engine out there, it is the best known and it uses a variety of complex algorithms to arrive at which websites should be listed in the top 10 on relevant keywords or search terms. When you type in the search term "red nail polish cheap", for example, a certain website will be listed as #1 on Google. People will usually click on the first search term they see and as a result if you can attain that position versus position 4,234,030, you will get significantly more visitors looking for red nail polish. How you accomplish this feat falls under the purview of SEO. If you can understand this example, it will be immediately clear just how important it is to optimize your website.

With the "Why Optimize" clarified, lets talk about how you accomplish it. Most larger business go out and hire an SEO specialist who has their ear to the Internet ground with their thumb on the pulse of search engine algorithms. The world of SEO is complex and their are people who do nothing but navigate the industry for you. Their services do not come cheap; however, the results can be amazing and your company can benefit exponentially. Business owners who utilize SEO specialists versus the do-it-yourself method will have a distinct edge when it comes to ranking and position.

Some of the basics to familiarize yourself with include keyword density, META tags, titles, backlinks, unique content and the like.

Keyword density is measured by the number of words on a page divided by the number of times a particular keyword or keyword phrase appears on that same page. The concept behind keyword density rests in the fact that if a particular word or phrase appears a certain amount of times, when a visitor searches on that word, your webpage will appear nearer the top because it is more relevant to the searcher's interest. For instance, web pages on dog toys will never appear in a search result about nail polish. While this is fairly straightforward, it is more complex than that. If you put the word "nail polish" on a page too many times, you will incur penalties because it will be deemed inappropriate. Search engines will think you are trying to cheat the system and your page will wind up 4,000 pages down in the results.

META tags are part of the HTML code where you tell visiting search engines (called spiders) what your web page is all about. In conjunction with the META description, the search engine will put you in certain relevant search results and use the META description as the description in the listing. Again, you will want to avoid putting irrelavent keywords and idiotic descriptions in these areas because you will be penalized and your page dropped into obscurity.

Inbound links, also called backlinks are also taken into account when spiders visit your site. The more backlinks, the more popular your site. A backlink or inbound link is where somebody quotes you on their website and lists your site in the quotation or write up. As a result, the more backlinks you receive, the more search engines think you have some good, useful information to share. Otherwise, why would somebody else list you on their site if all you had on your site was junk. Logical, eh? Different search engines take backlink relevancy more or less into account.

Unique content or low duplicate content is another important factor for search engines. They will compare the content on your site to the content on every other indexed (listed) site in their database. If they find a ton of other websites with the exact same content, you will be penalized for duplicate content. Their thinking is that you are simply taking content from other places and placing it on your site. It is just junk to fill up the site. So, keep it to a minimum and use as much original content as possible. If you do cite or use content from another website, give them the love through using only a portion and giving them a link back to their total article. In your write up, give them credit, and write up your thoughts and feelings on what you've read. In that way, you will be creating original content and not snatching others hard work. It will be viewed as unique content.

If you can't string three words together, there are professional freelances on the Internet who are willing and capable for a fee to provide you with as much unique content as you need on any subject you desire. This extra step and small investment will insure that your website is valuable to your visitors and a site that the search engines adore. It will all convert into more sales for your business in the end.