Why Do I Need SEO
© 2005 JERPAT Virtual Assistants

You've gone through the steps of setting up your business, getting all your licenses and insurance in place and you've designed your site or hired someone to design it for you.... Now, how do you get people to your site or to choose your site over one of the millions of others out there?

An effective working website is the most cost-effective advertising, marketing, informational and promotional medium available to businesses of any size. It's imperative, especially as a small business competing with larger businesses, to optimize your site for search engines using keywords or keyword phrases. Most people don't look past (at most!) the third page of search engine results when they're searching for something online. Using search engine optimization is the best way to get your site noticed by the search engines.

By using good search engine optimization techniques for your website, you can boost your rankings on search engines. There are many steps to optimizing your site:

1. Knowing your online competition
2. Picking out targeted keywords and phrases
3. Submitting your site to search engines
4. Rewriting and revising your content to make it the best it can be and using your keywords and phrases in it
5. Making sure you don't have any "unethical" SEO items on your site that may "blackball" your site from the search engines
6. Using meta tags properly
7. Making sure your site is properly designed and looking good
8. Keeping on top of your site rankings and freshening your content to bump your ratings even more

Now, you've researched where you want to be on search engines like Google and Yahoo, but you still have no idea where to start? Look into hiring an SEO guru to help you through the steps or do this part for you. Most SEO gurus will ask for a list of keywords that they will then optimize with keyword tools or help you research to make sure that those are the best keywords for you to use.

Working with someone to achieve higher search engine rankings may take up to several months. The initial part of the project will come in the form of search engine submissions and meta tag keywords, plus they will work with you for keyword-rich content on your sites. Then, over the next few weeks/months, they should help you to track your placement on the search engines and suggest other changes to bump your ratings higher.

Search engine optimization is not a quick project... It takes research and work. If your first try doesn't reap the benefits you were looking for, keep trying to redefine your niche/target keywords and phrases. But, optimizing your site does work and is worth it in the end.
Patty Benton is the owner of JERPAT Virtual Assistants and JERPAT Web Design, www.moretime4u.org, which provides affordable administrative and web design support to coaches, small businesses, religious organizations, and realtors. Additionally, Patty is a coach for new entrepreneurs interested in venturing into the virtual assistance industry that is affordable to all, and she has also written an e-book that takes virtual assistants through the process of setting up their business. Visit her coaching site at www.virtualvacoach.com for program details and great business resources. She has also partnered to establish the ministry Acknowledging Christ Together at Work www.actatwork.com. If you would like to receive Patty's articles and other tips in your mailbox every month, you can sign up at www.mortime4u.org/home.html.
© 2005 JERPAT

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