Searching for the truth in SEO

SEO, an abbreviation for "search engine optimization," is one of the terms most often mentioned when it comes to web-based marketing. And one of the least understood, or most misunderstood at that.

Add to that the confusion caused by a few, very agressive, but unethical SEO vendors that chase down website owners and promise them the moon in return for money - to the detriment of obviously those owners, but also of many other SEO vendors who provide useful services like copywriting and keyword research.

Webopedia defines SEO as "the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a Web site by ranking high in the search results of a search engine. The higher a Web site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that that site will be visited by a user. It is common practice for Internet users to not click through pages and pages of search results, so where a site ranks in a search is essential for directing more traffic toward the site."

So far, so good. Until recently, SEO mostly was focused on Google and Yahoo. But with Microsoft pushing its new Bing search engine, that focus is widening. Depending on your target market, you could also include AOL, Ask.com, AltaVista, and Lycos. Basically, you want to make sure that potential customers in the geography you serve can find you when they search for the products and/or services that you provide.

So how do you get top ranking if you're a small business? Well, you may be competing with multinational giants, so you'll have to spend your money and efforts wisely:

1. Create content on your site that contains the keywords that your prospects use in their searches. And be sure that those keywords are actually in synch with your overall content. If they are not, the search engines may penalize your site, or you may end up getting visitors - but no actual prospects.
2. Keep content current and fresh. Search engines put a premium on sites that are updated often. As mentioned in our June Newsletter, having e-mail newsletters stored in your website structure is a great and affordable help.
3. Work on getting links from other websites to your site. The more relevant and popular the originating sites for those links are, the better. Even though a link from cnn.com might be great, links from your partners and customers will work too - and they will require a smaller investment in time and money.
4. Base your website and e-mail newsletters on a technically sound web content management suite (web CMS). A modern web CMS will ensure that all your site content is indexed by search engines, that it is easy for you to update your site, and that your e-mail newsletters are all available and indexed to your site.
5. Make sure that you work with a professional web designer or developer who can create a site that is not only professional looking, but also structurally sound - i.e. information is well-organized, with logical, accessible navigation, and with the correct placement of your keywords in page titles and other tags.

So the short version of this list is:

• Hire a professional web designer/developer
• Make sure that he/she implements the design in a modern, affordable web CMS

- and the rest will follow. Naturally, I can warmly recommend caSaaS web CMS to fulfill the latter requirement. But even if you decide not to use caSaaS, please choose some other web CMS, and use the numbered list above as inspiration.

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Thank you for your interest in caSaaS and all the best,
Erik
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Erik Seifert, CEO
caSaaS