If you are like most website owners, you developed your site to make money by selling products or providing information. Your end goal is to drive qualified, targeted and ready-to-buy visitors to your site and convert them into sales, am I right? Just 10 years ago, this was a pretty easy thing to do on the internet. Most keyword search terms were not saturated yet and most small businesses could compete with the fortune 500 companies because everyone was just becoming familiar with search engines and how they operate. Today, search engine marketing and e-commerce are billion dollar industries.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving natural or "organic" traffic that lands at your website via the search engines. By natural or organic, it means that you did not pay for sponsored / featured listings. It is not necessary to spend a ton of money to get fantastic results with the top 3 search engines (Google, Yahoo! & MSN) either. In lesson ##, I'll help you to understand the way your customers interact with the search engines and why paid listings are not always better. This complex art and science of e-marketing takes time, effort and tenacity, but the good news is that although a marketing budget is helpful, it is not required.

It is important to understand how the search engine algorithms work and how visitors are attracted to your website. You need to ask yourself what specific keyword phrases people are using to find your products and services, as well as what phrases they might be using to find information about the products and services they ultimately buy from your site.

Why are Search Engine Marketing and SEO so important? The major search engines are used most often to drive traffic to your website. Studies on internet marketing show that over 90% of users find their products or information via search engines and that if your site does not show up in the first 3 pages (first 10-30 results), you will likely not be found. 

You might be asking yourself what you are going to do now that your site is ranked 8745 for the search term: "weight loss", however, do not panic. Use this site to learn about SEO tools and tips to make changes to your website. Over time, you should see your site jump up the rankings. And if done right, it is an exciting and rewarding journey. 

One note of caution you should be aware of up front is that SEO is like the ocean. You know where to find it, but it is always a moving target. Search engines make regular changes to their algorithms. And as much as this may be frustrating for you as a website owner, you have a few choices -- either hire an SEO expert or keep up with the consistent updates.