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By Amy R. Derr
Most businesses today are finding out that being visible in the online world is just as important as being visible in the offline, if not more. This will explain the incredible number of business sites that are springing up on the web every minute of the day. Not only do websites accord businesses a powerful online presence, but websites offer consumers a convenient shopping experience in the privacy of their homes.
This is a convenience that today’s consumers have come to expect. People want information and they want it quickly. Whether you have a national company or a small local business, people want to find your business on the net.
As a small business owner or a service professional, a website is no longer an added extra. It is extremely important to your overall business. However, having an aesthetically-pleasing website is not going to be enough to do the job anymore. It has to be built incorporating the rules of search engine optimization (SEO) for greater visibility and beating out your competitors for new customers.
Unfortunately, even today many web designers are still unfamiliar with building search engine friendly websites for businesses. They are still stuck in the adage of “If you build it, they will come,” leaving businesses wondering why their websites are still not attracting targeted traffic. In today’s very competitive online markets, designing websites with SEO as part of the site’s architectural structure is a necessary and a fundamental marketing strategy for any business.
So What Is SEO And How Do I Get My Websites To Be Search Engine Friendly?
SEO simply means optimizing a website to receive a steady flow of targeted traffic sent by the search engines. Yes, targeted traffic and not just traffic because the success and survivability of any search engine is delivering what the consumer wants. And if your website is properly optimized, that targeted traffic is now potentially a steady stream of self-qualified prospects for your business.
So what constitutes a well-optimized site? Well, those familiar with designing SEO sites usually design with 3 components in mind: the text component, the link component and the popularity component. In a nutshell, those components are made up of some of these elements:
- Valid HTML and CSS for a standards-compliant site
- Search engine friendly code elements
- Friendly navigational structure and internal linking structure with no broken links
- Keyword-rich title tags and meta data
- Using a 301 redirect for large websites to avoid being penalized by the search engines for content duplication
Businesses that own websites incorporating all 3 components constantly outrank their competitors in the search engines, even for the most popular keyword terms. This means a multimillion dollar corporation could lose out to a home-based business for online consumers simply because of a poorly SEO-designed site. Search engines have indeed become the great equalizer where competition for online customers is concerned.
It’s not too late to get your sites optimized for the search engines, even if you already own one or more websites. So, take advantage of owning an SEO-designed site to constantly outsmart and outrank your competitors and expand your customer base.
Insiteful Web Design is now offering a full range of SEO services! Check out our offerings here.
About the Author:
Amy Derr seeks to help business owners and organizations market themselves effectively online. She is a Professional Web Designer who owns and operates Insiteful Web Design (http://www.insitefulwebdesign.com), a full-service web design firm.
This article may be reprinted as long as the "About the Author" blurb stays in place.
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