We all have heard that search engines are the number one resource for
consumers to research and buy products or services online. In fact,
marketing studies have shown that over 70% of web surfers use search
engines to locate online merchants. The ramification of this statistic
is simple: if you want to reach the members of your target market you
need to make sure that your business web site appears in popular search
engines.



Search engine optimization (SEO) can help you achieve this. SEO is a
crucial online marketing technique. It helps you to get your web site
to appear in search engine result pages (SERPs) for keywords that that
are relevant to your business. For example, if you are a business
coach, and someone is searching for "business coach", it would be great
for your business if your web site appears in the first 10 results.



So what exactly is search engine optimization? SEO includes selecting
the best keywords for the body of the page as well as other page
elements (the title tag, keyword and description meta tags, etc.)
Carefully chosen keywords provide "hints" that search engines use to
classify your site and to determine whether your site should appear for
certain search keywords. On-page keyword optimization by itself will
help your rankings. However, holistic search engine optimization is
required to achieve optimal results. For the best placement, focus on
SEO as a whole, rather than concentrate on a particular technique.



Here are a few important elements of holistic search engine optimization:



- Have good content. After all, content is king (or queen, whichever
the case may be). Without content there isn't much of a site. The
content must walk a fine line between providing useful content and
including sufficient and relevant keywords for search engines.



Often it is difficult to optimize your product or service pages for
search engines, since the main goal of these items is to showcase the
benefits of your offer. On the other hand, it is easier to optimize
blog posts and articles. In fact, you can create entire articles and
blog posts around keywords that are popular with your target market.



- Have consistent navigation. Both your web site visitors and search
engine spiders navigate your web site through links that connect
different pages. Consistent navigation ensures that your visitors can
reach every page on your web site from every other page. On top of
that, you will you get the most out of your search engine optimization
efforts.



- Get links to your site. Links to your web site play a very important
role in holistic search engine optimization. Many popular search
engines evaluate your web site's popularity based on counting the
number of links that point to your site. The more popular your web site
is, the better rankings it gets on search engines. The best links are
links from reputable, quality web site that have complimentary or
related content.



You can get links to your web site by using a variety of techniques,
such as writing articles, participating in link exchanges, and
participating in online networking.



Take a holistic approach to web site optimization. Apply SEO to your
web site as a whole, and always evaluate the overall impact of your
marketing efforts.



Biana Babinsky shows you how to drive thousands of targeted visitors to
your web site in her Step by Step Search Engine Optimization Special
Report. Learn more about the report at
http://avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/zseo