One of the key concepts of marketing in the 21st century is search engine optimization, or SEO. If you’re new to online marketing, you may have heard the term and wondered what it meant. The concept is fairly simple, but in practice, it can be quite complex. Below, you'll learn what SEO is and why it's important for your business.

Your Guide to Search Engine Optimization

What Is It?

SEO is a series of strategies businesses use to attract website traffic. They do this by adjusting the content of their web pages so the pages rank as close to the top as possible in search engine results. Some of the techniques that marketers use to increase their pages' "visibility" to search engines include the following:

• Creating high quality, unique content
• Placing popular search terms throughout the page
• Encouraging "links" to their page from other sites
• Structuring HTML to make it easy for search engine bots to scan the page

When done properly, search engine optimization enables marketers to move their content up on search engine results pages, making it easier for readers to find it.

Why Is SEO Expertise Important?

In the past, marketers have attempted — sometimes successfully — to game the system by use of unscrupulous or "black hat" techniques like keyword stuffing and link farming. Google and other search engines frown on these attempts and are constantly changing their search algorithms to provide users the best content rather than pages artificially groomed to appeal to search engines. Thus, SEO best practices must change with each algorithm update if you want your content to remain visible in the search engine results pages.

For expert assistance with search engine optimization, contact Fredrickson Communications in Mebane, NC. They've been helping businesses throughout Alamance County for more than 40 years with marketing services, IT consulting, and telecommunications. Visit their website or call (336) 512-0003 to schedule a consultation and improve your online presence and marketing efforts.