Saturday, November 13, 2010

Search Engine Optimization – A powerful tool usually unexplored !!!

Think of a person looking for a good pair of shoes who searches for the term, ‘best shoe brand’ in a search engine like Google, yahoo or msn in the process and the search result page is flooded with the web pages relating to a particular brand. Isn’t the person likely to opt for shoes of that brand rather than that of competitors?
 It’s not just about sales but  a  brand, product, service or business being visible in the search engine results also enhances its brand image and increases awareness .

But, How can a marketer or an advertiser to achieve top position in search engine results when there might be millions of similar web pages online? The key lies in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO involves the different techniques used to index a website or web pages high in search results when terms related to any brand, products, service or business are searched on search engines.

 Being one of the most inexpensive and affordable means of internet marketing, SEO can do wonders for any business. Studies reveal that a customer is 10 times more likely to purchase products and services after finding a website through a Search Engine rather than any other form of traditional advertising. Top search engine rankings can increase the web traffic up to 900% which could increase sales by 80%.

Speaking technically, SEO would involve on page and off page optimization techniques. On page optimization involves appropriate use of keyword in the code and using a SEO friendly content. Off page optimization would include link building, link exchanges and online directory submissions. Though SEO is a very inexpensive process, it is highly specialized one. Sadly, SEO is not being paid much attention in India despite its enormous potential as a marketing tool. We could probably see many businesses utilizing SEO in a few years but as of now this powerful tool remains usually unexplored!!!