Buried Alive?
Where does your web site rank in search engine results?

 

Written By Jay Grove
posted on January 21, 2008
jay@jaygrove.com

 

When potential customers search for you online, are you the first result that they see? If you’re not first, how many potential customers are you losing because someone else is listed before you? In the Yellow Pages, getting top billing is a no-brainer. “A.A. Adams Animal Activists” will get seen before “Zed’s Zoo & Zebra Lovers” because of the alphabetical and static nature of the phone book. How frustrating is that? Someone wanted what you have to offer… wanted to put money in your pocket, and you lost that revenue because your web site wasn’t listed high enough in their search results. When it comes to the dynamic search results found using internet search engines, generating web traffic isn’t as easy as creative naming. You need to make sure that your site has the right keywords, setup, and presence for different search engines. You also need to constantly monitor and update your SEO so make sure that you’re out in front of any new industry trends or buzzwords. This technique is known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and having it done properly can catapult you to the top of the results page and stop the loss of business and revenue that you may have not even realized was happening.

 

Once you’ve made the decision that you want to stop losing potential customers through poor search result listings, you’ll need to decide whether to handle your sites SEO by yourself, or hire a web professional to update and maintain it for you. Knowing some of the factors that will be involved may help you decide which option works better for your business:

• Time. If you’re at a point with your business where you have several hours of free time, the do-it yourself route might work for you. If you’re finding that you’re schedule is tight already, hiring a web professional will insure that the job is being done right and also being maintained.
• Cost. One of the big benefits of handling the work yourself is that you can do a lot of the legwork and updating for free. But be cautious; having SEO done professionally isn’t that expensive so the money that you think you’re saving by doing it yourself might actually be masking a greater loss. As an owner or manger make sure that your time being spent on SEO isn’t pulling you away from other revenue generation. If your company can’t afford to lose your contribution on the front lines, turn your SEO over to the pros.
• Skills. Are you or anyone else on your staff equipped with the skills to handle your SEO? If you have someone on board with an HTML background and solid marketing skills, they will probably be able to get you moving up in the listings.
• Tools. If you do decide to work with a web professional, having the latest online tools will be a moot point since they will most likely be in the habit of keeping themselves competitive with the most recent tools that are available. However, if you’re keeping the project in-house, make sure that you do a little homework to find out what packages you’ll need to purchase in order to make meaningful changes and keep your site current.

 

No matter who ends up tweaking and maintaining your site, the important thing is that you take the steps immediately to optimize your web site and stop losing money. SEO brings your business closer to the top of online search results Make sure that you’re giving yourself a real chance to succeed…or you could just change your business name to AAA Aardvark Alarm Agency and hope for the best.