Search Engine Optimization

SEO is Everything Your Small Business Needs

Search engine optimization is exactly that: optimizing for machines and mathematics, not people.  It is a process whereby search engines are manipulated into perceiving relevance and popularity.  Typically relevance is artificially enhanced, while popularity is exaggerated.  These characteristics are rolled up together into a singular object referred to as "authority." Everything within the SEO realm aims toward achieving this authority status by demonstrating to the search engines that your website deserves it.

SEO sounds rather devious, doesn't it?  I say this to draw out that it does not have to be, nor should it be.

Optimization Is An Epic Process

While work is completed month to month, hopefully according to a predictable schedule, the timing of results depend on how quickly the search engines scan the work and how promptly they credit it toward the "athority" of the receiving website.  The search engine optimization process is a complex, multifacited series of events from beginning to end.  This means that it can take several weeks to months to several months, and even years to build rankings across relevant keywords to gain or deserve additional visitor traffic.

Benefits of SEO

As one very notable SEM professional recently stated, SEO is ultimately designed to draw in traffic.  Set aside search engine results rankings, or increased page rank, or improved Alexa ranking for a moment and it becomes clear that none of those stats have value if traffic is not increased.  SEO will not drive immediate traffic, but if researched and calculated correctly, it should propel website traffic higher gradually over time.

What search rankings do is give your website a fighting chance for a click, which should be a very valuable visitor.  Impressions become valuable to building brand awareness, while earning the click provides an opportunity to offer a meaningful introductory interaction between your core audience and your brand.

Build A Trusted Brand with SEO

Ethical SEO is all about karma.  When a business does "the right thing" aross all of its touch points, good things happen.  Brand building through internet marketing is not an acception.  Search engines and online communities alike are capable of perceiving deception and sniffing out self-interested maneuvers.  This provides small businesses with ample opportunity to build brands distinguished by principled integrity and consumer-centric practices.  I call this a business with a human conscience and is part of humanizing a brand identity.