SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is one concept that every business leader needs to become familiar with. To understand SEO, a person has to understand the way that customers find information on the Internet. While a few customers already have an idea of which business or Internet address they are looking for when they sit down at their computer, most do not. They use one of the popular Internet search engines (such as Google or Yahoo) to search for a specific item online. For example, a customer in Dubai who is looking for super market may type in something like “Dubai super stores.”
The search engine looks through internet pages and comes up with the most relevant results. The way this is done is through spiders - small programs that troll the internet all the time, looking for specific keywords. The more relevant a web page looks to these spiders, the higher a ranking that web page will have in search results.
SEO simply refers to the process of making web pages as attractive as possible for search engines. This is key, since a properly optimized web page will show up in the top of a search engine search result. Most studies show that customers only look at the first few search results, so having a web page that is properly optimized is key. When a business uses SEO properly, their web page shows up where customers see it. Returning to the pet store example, for instance, the pet store with the SEO web page will show up first or second among search results the customer finds. The customer will be more likely to call that pet store and the store will generate more business. The pet store that has not bothered with SEO will be buried on the tenth or twentieth page of search engine results and will likely not even be seen by the customer. |
