SEO is the art and science of increasing a websites rank on search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing, with most of the effort being directed towards Google. Investing in SEO is important for you because over 95% of all traffic clicks on one of the first 3 links of a search. If your website isn’t one of them, you’re missing out on all that potential traffic. The truth is, a well planned SEO campaign is one of the most predictable marketing practices you can invest in and can translate into a significant long-term increases in new business.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services in Madison WI
There are 2 very general ways of thinking about SEO that are helpful for understanding SEO from a small businesses perspective.
On-site SEO consists of techniques that are used on the actual website. These may include using proper header tags (h1, h2, etc.), naming images based on keywords, or even optimizing the underlying code to help the site load faster. There are literally hundreds of possible variations that may affect on-site SEO and overall ranking in the search engines. Google has repeatedly stated that they will continue to reward sites that put out relevant content on a regular basis, which is why blogging has become so important.
Off-site SEO involves any techniques that are done elsewhere on the internet in order to increase traffic and overall popularity of a website. This may include promoting a site via social media, creating backlinks from more reputable websites or getting listed in industry specific directories and publications.
Please Note: Great care must be taken with off-site SEO as search engines such as Google have been more pro-active at cracking down on many off-site SEO practices. Practices that were standard SEO as recently as a year ago, can actually cause a site to LOSE ranking in the search engines. Beware of Blackhat SEO companies selling snake oil…there’s no way to guarantee top results for $99 and many of these techniques will result in negative search results.
You get what you pay for!
SEO is marketing, plain and simple. The more you put into it, the more you get out of it. The best part is that it can be VERY predictable in terms of what needs to be done to achieve a specific result. For example a good SEO consultant can tell you exactly what keywords your customers are searching for and what it will take to get your website into a position where you can expect to start making money. Let us help manage your SEO strategy to get the most out of your marketing plan.