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Business Managers: What you need to know about SEO

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the activity of making online content Search Engine friendly. The holy grail of SEO is to achieve page one listings in the free, organic results of a search engine for a given keyword or phrase. SEO falls under the broader discipline of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) involved with paid keyword advertising campaigns.

It's not rocket science

SEO is not rocket science. Generally speaking, what's good for attracting visitors ie: current and relevant content is also good for the search engine robots that collect the data used to rank your web site.

That said, SEO not something that you can dabble with and expect results. There are factors which influence ranking more than others and questionable practices (known as "Black Hat SEO" ) which can get you thrown-off a Search Engine completely. Unless you have a lot of time to research and experiment with the wealth of free tips and techniques available on the internet, it is better left to a knowledgable and experienced practitioner.

It's not an add-on

If you want real results with SEO, you can't simply add it to your web site like icing on a cake. SEO is part of the recipe. The way a web site is structured, how content is broken-down into manageable 'chunks' and how these are linked together directly effects the breadth and depth of your listings.

There are no quick fixes

Rome was not built in a day as they say and nor are productive search engine listings. You can expect anything from a few weeks to six months or more to get a listing and longer for the fine tuning required to push you up in the rankings.