How Your Web Site Can Bring In Customers
Have you ever noticed when you are in the supermarket, that you are more likely to buy the items that are at eye level? Your kids are crying for a snack, so you go to the store to buy a frozen pizza. Unless you are looking for a specific brand, your hand will probably reach out for the colorful box directly in front of your line of vision.
Why wouldn't you? Frozen pizzas are all basically the same, and who has time to investigate the entire aisle. You have hungry kids to feed. Did you know that companies pay to have their products placed at eye level?
What does this have to do with your web site? The exact same process happens online. It is called Search Engine Optimisation and it is a way to make your business grow. It does that by placing your web site at the forefront of Google and Yahoo for relevant search terms. SEO or Search Engine Optimisation drives targeted traffic to your site with the express intent of turning them into customers.
SEO makes sure that customers who are looking for you, find you. In simple terms, if you are a divorce attorney in Massachusetts, and you have a web site, SEO makes sure that when someone types in "divorce attorney, MA" your web site is at the forefront of the search results.
Due to ability to drive targeted traffic to your web site, Search Engine Optimisation is an extremely cost effective means of marketing. The results of a successful campaign can have a dramatic and long lasting impact on your business. Consider this: 73% of Americans are internet users. 60% to 80% of online users find products or services using search engines such as Google and Yahoo.
Search Engine Optimisation is particularly important if you are interested in the 18 to 29 demographic. 88% of this population is online. The average 25 year old does not go to the yellow pages when she wants to find a business, she goes to Google. If she can't find you there, she can't find you.
Often business owners are in a rush to have an online presence because they have been told that one is necessary in today's business climate. Some will even go a step further and put a lot of time and money into its creation. Once the web site is up however, many business owners are confused as to how to best use it.
I have noticed that there is often the hope that people will somehow just find it. I have also noticed that a lot of business owners really don't want to think about it. I have heard many versions of "I have a web site, and that's fine if people see it, but I don't expect to get any business from it."
Having a web site, but not marketing it is like creating a television ad and then not running it on television. You want your web site to be working for you, drawing in potential clients and selling your services. I don't care if you only spent $100 on your site, if it isn't generating business for you, that is $100 you have wasted.
Or you may have the best web site in the whole world, but if no one can find it, what is the point. SEO brings potential customers to your site, so that your web site is a marketing tool. It can expand your customer base by reaching people who are looking for exactly what you are selling.