The internet now has billions of pages of content and millions of people searching through millions of businesses who are, in turn, trying to connect with them. The sheer size of the amount of information to be sifted through requires the use of search engines to simplify the process. What search engine optimization does in that light is to make it easy for consumers to find your company by putting it in a position of prominence on the pages of search engines. Position on the pages of search engines is much like the old saying about the 3 most important things in real estate; location, location, and location. It’s well documented that when people search for anything on the web approximately ninety percent will look at only page one on the search engine for their keyword searches. Nine percent stop at page two. With that in mind, a website must be search engine optimized and search engine marketed to be in the top ten spots (page one) for relevant keyword searches.

 

Placement on page one in organic search also carries the benefit of third party validation in the minds of people searching the web. Whether subconscious or not, the validation comes from the fact that the website has made the “top ten” out of all the competitors in the field and therefore must be worthy of consideration. This is especially helpful for businesses that are not yet household names.

 

The practice of search engine optimization also means that the website will be optimized for the user experience as well. A visitor will decide whether to stay on a website or go elsewhere within the first three to seven seconds on the site. Optimization of the site can very quickly let that visitor know that the site has what they are looking for, that navigating to what they are searching for is fast and simple, and that they can trust your offerings enough to make a purchase or leave behind their contact information for future communication.  

 

Search engine optimization delivers benefits that pre-internet business owners could only dream of. The idea that products and services can be shopped for and purchased by a consumer without any kind of interaction with employees would have been pure fantasy at that time. Search engine optimization can now deliver an unlimited number of qualified visitors and consumers to a company’s website at a time when a good portion of the sales work is done. These visitors often arrive at the site having already done their research and have made the decision to buy. For business owners it doesn’t get any better than that.