Like many forms of modern advertising, Search Engines are extremely effective. One major difference is the ability to track your visitors and know exactly how effective your investment has been. Our sophisticated statistics show an amazing amount of detail to better help improve performance.

Many years ago, it was easy to be noticed but these days it is increasingly difficult to make yourself seen on the web. A lot of clients ask me if adding key words, or advertising on Goggle will help their business. The short answer is no. Search Engines and web users are more sophisticated and it takes a fair amount of work to see results. The process we adopted is recommended by top SEO experts and entails the following steps:

• Identify the market sector and the appropriate keywords, then search on them.
• Compare top competitor sites to yours. Determine what content is missing on your site that they have on theirs.
• Update your site frequently with content associated with the target keywords.
• Use pay-per-click advertising to help generate traffic.
• Track results in web statistics and logs to plug holes and generate business.
• Continue to monitor site standings in search engines, refine site content and improve usability for visitors

For the clients who participated in this process, the results have been fantastic. In 90 days or less they have seen spikes in their traffic which generated the desired additional eyeballs. However, this does not always translate into more leads, sales or clients. An increase in business only comes when you adjust your site to be more helpful for visitors looking for solutions. This is the complex part because it means that someone with a trained eyehas to look at your site, examine how it is being used, compare it to more successful competitors and then make changes to improve usability.

Some clients have been surprised at the amount of work involved. One key is content; the more relevant text you have on your site the more chances you have of being first in a search. For example, in the monthly keyword report from my site I can see that some keywords are performing better than others and this tells me the kind of content I need to add to my own site if I want to improve their visibility (example: technology & web do not perform as well as e-business/eBusiness.). Blogging is one way to periodically update your site and invite others to place comments on your site as well. Blogs that are updated frequently tend to get more traffic than the ones that do not change.

More difficult to swallow than coming up with new content is the news that your site needs to be changed to make it easier for visitors to locate what they are seeking. One customer got plenty of traffic after a pay per click campaign, but could not convert them into sales because the site is difficult to use. A change in their e-commerce package is not in the budget this fiscal year, but now they know what needs to be done.

Another question I get asked a lot is how much to pay for advertising in Google, MSN or Yahoo! Pay-per-click campaigns. The answer is that more is usually better, but only if you are sure your site has been laid out so that it will generate the business. Otherwise, it is a waste of money if they come to your site then promptly leave and go somewhere else.

Another very cost effective method is to have other sites that already have high ranking in the search engines link to your website. For example, a link from e-bay to your site will draw additional traffic.

In summary, SEO performance is the result of diligent work to make your site work the way people on the web want to use it.  This process takes time and careful analysis of usage logs and competitor sites to refine the content and navigation. The results, though hard won, are well worth the effort since unlike other forms of advertising, you can see precisely how every dollar spent generates more business.