For some reason this basic point seems to escape even the very brightest of web site owners. Most people spend a good amount of money building their web site, they hire professional web design firms as they should and pay from $3,000 and up for a nice web site. They research the various firms and put them through the paces to select the one they feel will deliver the very best product. They do all of this, but when it comes to the most important part they seem to lose their mind.
SEO “search engine optimization” is 10 times more important than having a nice web site! Don’t get me wrong having a great web site is important, but what good is it if no one can find it? What is the sense of paying thousands of dollars to have it sit on page 5 or 10 of Google? When it comes to SEO well intentioned people seem to go a little crazy, they think that they have the time and energy to do it all themselves. Maybe there are those rare few who do have the time to do it, but for most business owners they have more important things to handle, like inventory, legal setup, billing, employees, etc. Why would companies hire a web design firm to build the site, but then tackle the SEO on their own? SEO done properly in most cases is a lot more complex than building the web site.
Let’s look at the basics:
SEO involves extremely thorough keyword research, the ability to achieve at least a 5% weighted average per keyword per page, the ability to get the information to the search engines properly and the ability to analyze and study the results properly. This is also just the basics; this does not take into account blogging, Press releases, social networking, etc. A typical SEO certification course is around 100 pages of information to learn, and again that is assuming you already understand the basics.
SEO that is done correctly is a game changer! Imagine what having a first page listing for your keywords can do for your company! Why would any company skimp on this part? A true SEO campaign can be worth millions to a company. My advice, skimp on another area of your business but never, ever cut corners on the SEO, it will come back and bite you in the end, or on your bottom line.
I was genuinely interested in reading your article on keyword research, until i saw your tags.
Do you honestly think that the title words you have chosen are appropriate? Personally i found you on page 16… Maybe you should re-evaluate giving advice on something you need to CLEARLY work on yourself.