Beat the Credit Crunch Online

Its a common misconception that if you have a business you need a website. You don't. If you have a business you need a website that is getting regular hits and converting those into sales or inquiries. I regularly come across websites that have had a lot of time spent on them aesthetically but are ghost towns as far as hits are concerned. Businesses seem to be of the mindset that all they need to do is put their business on-line and the hits they will come. This is not the case. If you are adding a site to the internet you're one amongst many. SEO is needed to raise your sites head above water. It would be strange for a business to spend a lot of money on the interiors of a shop only to neglect factors such as its location and marketing yet this is common place with a lot of company sites.

When I explain SEO to people I'm met with the same response which is "so my site will show up when I type in my business name". Its important to get found for your name of course but just think of the wide range of things people search for. I've found that apart from the top end of the competition level there are usually geographical keywords that you can stand a chance of being optimized for. The fact that the general public don't understand what SEO is and how it works is where the opportunity lies. A website without search engine optimisation can be a drain on finances whereas an optimized site can pull in customers from far and wide.

So how do you go about it? SEO is not a mystery, its just a process. A process with a lot of elements to it but a process nonetheless. Here are the main points you will need to address.

1) Ensure you research keywords that do not have too much competition. Use Yahoo site explorer to count the number of pages and links your competitor has and then count your own.

2)Place your keywords in your page titles and description tags as well as your pages content.

3)Get some links pointing to your site that contain your anchor text. About 10 a month should do it.

4)Register your site with Google webmaster tools. Then you will be informed of any problems.

Then just watch your rankings grow and add more links.