by Gene Patterson

Created on: August 17, 2010   Last Updated: December 14, 2011

Let’s play a game.  It is a word association game; surely you remember them from your SAT’s (or from studying for an upcoming SAT if you are young), here goes: 

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is to an Online Store Like  wheels are to a:

A. Cat

B. Television

C. Giraffe

D  Car.

Obviously the answer is D. Car.  There is more to this lesson than enjoying an image of a giraffe with wheels.  Just like a car goes nowhere without wheels, you online business will go nowhere without utilizing SEO.  There is a lot of information that goes into really good SEO.  I am just going to hit the high points here.

What is the point of SEO.  The point is to have good search engine results.  For most of us this means one thing: Google.  The #1 entry on Google for a keyword receives over 40% of all traffic for that phrase.  Anywhere on the first page of return results will get you a percentage of traffic.  After the first page though, traffic drops off precipitously.  For any store to succeed online or offline, you need traffic, which is just another word for customers.

Here are the concepts of SEO that you will need to take advantage of to succeed in your online business:

On page optimization:

Everything here is up to you.  Unlike off page optimization, where there is a certain amount of “luck” and “hardwork” involved; this is much more a case of do it correctly or do no and suffer.

The things that you need to concern yourself with are: Page titles, internal links, keywords, product descriptions, content to interest a browser and SOE for images and descriptions for images.  If you do all this it is a solid start.

Off page optimization:

Back-links:  Links from other websites, blogs and engines.  The more the better and if they come from pages with higher Page Rank and Authority even better.

What you can do:  write articles with links to your page, bookmark your page, social network your page.  Try to get other people to link to your page.  (likely because you have Great Content)  .edu and .gov are considered by Google to be great sites to have links from, carrying a lot of authority.  Likewise sites that themselves carry great authority (like Nieman Marcus if your business is clothing) can pass on a little to you also.

If you make an attempt at all of these SEO practices that will be a good start for your online business.  There is more and each of these topics goes much further in depth, but that is for a different article.

There is no need to be scared of SEO, to a certain extent the import this is to get started right away and you can refine your technique as time goes on.  Learn to follow the guidelines and you will see a major impact on your online business.  After all, it is hard to make your online store go with no wheels.

Learn more about this author, Gene Patterson.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.