In part 1 of this series, Website Traffic and Search Engines, I cited recent estimates that 14 billion searches are being conducted each day and stated the almost obvious: the higher up within the results that a site is found, the more likely it will get some traffic from search engines.

Part 2, Website Traffic and Search Engine Marketing, provided an overview of organic and paid search results and how both pay-per-click advertising (PPC) and organic search engine optimization (SEO) – the two main practices of search marketing – can be used alone or in combination to build website traffic.

In this post, I’ll take a closer look at SEO and the process of optimizing websites for better placement within organic search results.

What Exactly Is SEO?

SEO is a practice that uses a collection of techniques to achieve the following goals:

• Get as many of the site’s pages included in the search engines’ index as possible.
• Get those pages ranked as high in the organic area of the search results as possible.
• Keep those pages that are ranking well at the top of the search results.

Since search engines list individual web pages in search results, not just home pages, each page that ranks well for a given search becomes a potential point of entry for website traffic.

Because the overarching goal of any search engine is to return those pages it believes most relevant to the keywords used in a search, the aim of any SEO campaign is to make the individual pages within a website highly relevant for specific keywords and phrases.

What Factors do Search Engines Consider?

Search engines are very secretive about which factors count for strong rankings. Both what’s important and the weight of each ranking factor change frequently – without notice. Plus, differences exist on what’s important and what isn’t among the big three search engines – Google, Yahoo! and Bing.

Despite all this secrecy and constant change, since relevancy is the primary goal of any search engine, making your pages seem relevant from a search engine’s point of view should include at least these basics:

• Make sure the content of the page is relevant to the keywords you are targeting.
• Make sure certain items within the code of the page reinforce that keyword relevance.
• Secure links to the page – both from within your own website and from other websites, blogs, social networks, etc. – to further reinforce that relevance.

Other key factors search engines look at include the age of the website and even the depth of its content (number of pages) on the subject and related subjects.

Search results have become more and more personalized, to the extent that two searchers using the same keywords in the same search engine may see different results.

All of this seems very intimidating doesn’t it? However, if you keep relevancy in mind, make sure your site or blog doesn’t contain barriers that make it difficult for search engines to index, continue to build your content and secure quality incoming links, you’ll be on a path to success.

The SEO Process

Optimizing a site for search involves several steps that fall into two phases:

1. Initial site review, strategy development and optimization
2. Ongoing maintenance and continued improvements

First Phase SEO Steps

The first phase of SEO involves the largest investment of time and money over the shortest period.

Steps in the initial phase of the SEO process include:

• An evaluation of the website and its competitors to identify search engine challenges and opportunities.
• Comprehensive keyword research to find the best keywords – both for the site as a whole and for individual pages within the site.
• Developing an SEO strategy with an action plan that addresses how to overcome the site’s shortcomings that may exist in indexation, competition, site architecture, navigation, content, coding and link popularity.
• Implementing the SEO action plan.

The Second SEO Phase

The second phase of SEO is an ongoing process that meets the site’s needs and the budget limitations of its owner. This SEO phase includes:

• Monitoring results and making adjustments to adapt to changes in the business, changes in what the competition is doing, changes in search engine methodology, and – longer-term – changes in keyword popularity.
• Building the site’s content on a steady basis by continuing to focus on targeted keywords and by optimizing new content as it is developed.
• Continually improving the site’s search engine visibility, through promotion on social networks and blogs, for example, and through continued link building.

In all cases, a regularly scheduled review period is necessary – usually monthly – to measure results and monitor any significant rankings and traffic changes.

Search rankings change constantly – usually within a relatively narrow range – so checking rankings daily or weekly is pointless. What’s more important is measuring and monitoring website traffic.

If your website ranks first in the search engines for a keyword phrase but that ranking doesn’t translate into traffic, its number one ranking is irrelevant.

SEO results take time to bear fruit, but unlike PPC, SEO can have a long-lasting payoff in building targeted website traffic.

Have you tried search engine optimization (SEO) in the past? What kind of results did you see, and what do you find worked and/or didn’t work for you?

In part 1 of this series, Website Traffic and Search Engines, I revealed that recent estimates were that 14 billion searches are conducted each day.

I also explained that it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that the higher up within the results that a site is placed, the more likely it is to get some of that traffic. I ended part one with the statement that search engine marketing is used to improve a website’s (or blog’s) position in the search rankings.

In this post, I’ll discuss search engine marketing and its potential for building website traffic.

Paid Search, Organic Search and Search Engine Marketing

Search results pages include both paid ads and “organic” or “natural” search results. Here’s an example of a Google search results page:

Therefore, the practice of search engine marketing includes both:

• Paid search advertising
• Organic search engine optimization (SEO)

Either (or both) of these elements of search marketing can be used to get your site at the top of the search results. And the following rule of thumb is true for both:

The higher the position within the search results, the greater the likelihood of getting a click.

Having both a paid and an organic listing at the top of the search results can further increase the likelihood of a click – both on the ad and on the organic result. Think of it as positive reinforcement.

• The primary goal of search engine marketing is to get the site’s pages (or ads) to appear as high up within the first few pages of search results, through organic SEO, PPC or a combination of both.
• The primary goal of the search engines is to return the sites they consider most relevant to the keywords used. In the case of paid search, an additional advantage is given to the highest bidder.

Search engines do not inherently rank websites: they rank web pages. Otherwise, every search result would point to a site’s home page. Therefore, each page that ends up in the search results becomes a point of entry to your website.

The greater the number of pages listed in the organic search results, the more available points of entry and the greater the traffic potential.

Search Engine Marketing and Paid Advertising – PPC

With pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, outbidding your competitors on keywords and having landing pages and ads that are highly relevant to those keywords will get your site on the first page of the search results.

• PPC allows you to start and stop displaying your ads whenever you like. Once you pause or stop a PPC campaign, your pages drop completely out of the paid area of the search results pages.
• Using PPC is an excellent, if not somewhat expensive, way to get your site to the first page of the search results.

Paid search is an excellent way for newer websites to appear within the first pages of search results until they begin ranking well within the organic results.

Search Engine Marketing and Organic Search

Getting your site on the first page of the organic results takes more time and effort. To do so, your site needs to be considered among the most relevant sites for the keywords used in a search. That’s where your content, the age of your site and the search engine optimization (SEO) aspect of search marketing come into play.

Unlike paid search, the SEO aspect of search marketing has no on-off switch:

• Engaging in SEO activities will not get your site on the first page of results overnight.
• Likewise, stopping SEO activities will not get your site removed from the search results overnight.
• When search engines change their minds on what’s important for strong organic rankings, they won’t tell you. With paid search, they’ll usually give you tips on how to improve the positioning of your ads. In many cases, they’ll provide suggestions throughout your campaign.

But what is SEO, what’s involved and how can it improve website traffic?

Next up: Part 3 in this series – Website Traffic and SEO

The ultimate goal for nearly anyone with a website is to attract more visitors. Because search engines can account for as many as 80% of those visiting a website (and sometimes even more), taking proactive steps to get your website found in the search engines is a no-brainer if you want more traffic.

Some Quick Search Statistics

• The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) estimates that 14 billion searches are conducted around the world during the average day.
• As the chart shows, Hitwise estimates that for the four-week period ending December 4, 2009, Google handled 72% of all U.S. search volume. Just three search engines – Google, Yahoo! and Bing – accounted for 96% of all U.S. search activity.

Position Matters

It stands to reason, and studies have confirmed:

The higher a website ranks within the search results, the more likely it is to draw traffic from searchers.

Again, a no-brainer.

The default setting for Google, Yahoo! and Bing is to return just 10 results per page. However, most searchers don’t realize they can set their preferences to return as many as 100 results per page (50 in Bing), and some of those who do know figure that returning more results will just take more time. And who has the time?

Like any average consumer in today’s high-tech society, attention spans and patience levels are at a minimum with those who use search. They really don’t want to leaf through 60 or 70 pages of search results to find what they want.

• If searchers find what they’re looking for on the first page – great!
• If searchers find a result that looks like what they want without even having to scroll down the page – awesome!

So what does that suggest?

To get the most traffic from search engines, pages from your site need to rank as high on the page as possible. Ideally on the first page, but at least within the first three.

But how do you do that? Two words: search marketing.

Next up: Part Two – Website Traffic and Search Engine Marketing
Part Three – Website Traffic and SEO

Have you taken steps with the search engines to get your website or blog found? What were the results?