Why Would You Use Search Engine Optimization Consulting Services?

Many companies have existing websites and either employ or outsource their web design work. But, as many of you may already know, web designers are not necessarily web marketers. In other words, your web designer may not be up to date or knowledgeable about optimizing websites for search engines. That's when your company would consider using search engine optimization consulting services.

What Would You Get From Search Engine Optimization Consulting?

That's easy. A better website! The obvious goal of any business website is to create business. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of changing and placing your business website in the top 10 searches in as many search engines as possible. We'll explain in more detail later on in this article, but the benefits to your business are simply that you would be exposed to getting more business. For businesses that currently have someone (either inhouse or as an outsource) who is working on the website, hiring a search engine optimization consultant can be the final piece to your website marketing campaign.

How Does Search Engine Optimization Actually Work?

Well, I'll explain in steps...

Step One:
Keyword Research
Basically, you want the words and phrases that people are typing in to search engines to be on your website. An SEO firm would do the research to find out what keyword phrases would be best for your website.

Step Two:
Get Cleaning!
Remember the Matrix movie? Remember how Keanu Reeves began seeing the "world" around him? Everything he "saw" was in code form. Well, search engines see websites like that. You and I see photos, bodies of text, graphics, etc. on a website page, but search engines only see the coding. If you want an example, go to your website, click on "View" at the top of your Internet Explorer bar (assuming you use IE of course) and then click on "Source". You'll then see the coding that the search engines see.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, there are many websites that have cluttered coding. In other words there are symbols, letters, etc. in that coding that don't really belong and serve no purpose to the website. It could have gotten there many different way, but the important thing to remember is that it needs to be cleaned up.

Why? Keyword Proximity. That means that if your website page is marketing the keyword phrase "MP3 Players" the search engines will not only check for pages that have this keyword in it but they will also check for how high up on the page this keyword phrase is. You want the phrase "MP3 Players" to be as high up in the coding as possible. If your site is filled with excess coding, that pushes down the keyword phrase and decreases the keyword proximity of that phrase.

Step Three:
Page Optimization
This step involves the actual act of adding the chosen keyword phrase to each website page. Keeping in mind that it's best to optimize ONE page for ONE keyword phrase. Let's take the "MP3 Players" example. The keyword phrase "MP3 Players" would have to be added to a page's coding, body text and sitemap.

In addition, other website pages should link to the MP3 Players page with the keyword phrase "MP3 Players". This last step is anchor text linking. A very important part of page optimization.

Step Four:
Submissions, Links and Website Logs
Many people know that websites are supposed to be submitted to search engines. That's somewhat true. The truth is, if you NEVER submitted your website to search engines, if your website was optimized, eventually it would be FOUND by the search engines. Of course, "eventually" can be anywhere from 1 month to 1 year.

By all engines? No. But the major ones, Google, MSN and Yahoo!, yes.

So, in order to get into search engines and directories as quick as possible your website should be submitted. In addition, you should be looking for other sites on the Internet to get your site linked on or maybe exchange links with. Why? Because the number and quality of OTHER websites linking TO you is extremely important in order to get a top 10 listing!

Is Search Engine Optimization Consulting Worth It?

Well, let's look at it factually. We'll use the "MP3 Players" example and we'll use the pricing structure at Eckweb Designs, Inc.

Okay, let's say right now the website selling MP3 Players receives 500 unique visitors each month (that's first time visitors). The website sells 10 MP3 Players per month. And let's say the profit for each sale is $10.00. So, 500 unique visitors, 10 sales that figures out to be about 2% conversion.

Right now, without optimization the website generates $100.00 profit per month.

After 12 months of marketing, the average website optimized by Eckweb Designs, Inc. increases the number of unique visitors by 281%. (This is based on 2005 figures). And the average conversion rate is 3%.

So, based on Eckweb's past performance, we can estimate that the MP3 Players' website would increase the number of unique visitors from 500 per month to 1405. Again, using Eckweb's average conversion rate of 3%, that translates to 42 sales per month. The profit on 42 sales would be $420.00 per month. Yearly, that translates into website profits going from $1200.00/year to $5040.00/year.

The averege ROI (Return On Investment) with Eckweb Clients is 200%.

(I know, this is really basic, but it'll give you a good idea of how to break it down so that you can decide if SEO consulting is right for you.)

There you have it, the basic simple facts on how search engine optimization consulting can help you, your website, your business and your bottom line! ¾775

About the Author

Article by Esther C. Kane, Eckweb Designs, Inc. Providing improved search engine rankings through search engine optimization. Affordable search engine optimization services.

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