Suzanne Carter is the business development manager for website design and development company Limelight Online Ltd, and has 15 years website industry experience. For more information visit www.limelightonline.co.nz
If your website serves more as an online brochure to which you refer clients and potential clients, then doing well in the search engines such as Google may not be a priority for your business. However, for the vast majority of businesses it is critical to their success to be able to attract targeted traffic to their website. This in turn drives enquiries and new business.
Websites that are well positioned in Google are the ones that are likely to get more visitor traffic because they are visible to searchers.
For example, if you own a business that sells camera accessories and you are not appearing on the first page of Google results when users search for your product, then you are not very likely to get visitors to come to your website. This is because enquiry drops dramatically if your website is not on the first page or two of search results.
When users have so many websites to choose from in the search engine results, it is extremely important to optimise your site so that your website can be found easily and is the one that users click through to. If your competitors are positioned higher than your site in the search engines, then it may well be their site your potential client visits, instead of yours.
Regardless of industry, the online market is certainly very competitive and continues to become more so, which makes it harder for websites to rank highly. Just having a website does not guarantee success.
It doesn’t matter how fantastic your product or service is if no-one actually knows about it. Websites need all the help they can get which is why it is very important to start work on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
as soon as you can on your website, preferably even before commencing the design process. Unfortunately doing nothing is not an option — not if you are looking for new online business.
Search Engine Optimisation is a complex process which involves a number of techniques to improve the visibility of your website in search engines. And it doesn’t end there.
Once your website is optimised it is necessary to continue promoting your website in the search engines using Search Engine Marketing (SEM); the goal being to increase your website presence in the search engines. SEM assists with the promotion of your website in various ways including link building, pay per click campaigns and article marketing.
Social media marketing can also assist with building your websites online popularity. Social media involves building your networks on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn by regularly engaging with your fans, followers and connections.
Is ranking on Google really that important? Absolutely, if want to grow your business through your online presence.
