Every business person has heard of SEO, but what is it really? Companies know they should have it, but have no idea what it really is. They often hire some student or company that knows even less and just hope for the best. We suggest strongly that you look for a company that has strong skills and experience in SEO. Find someone that understands business and can explain in detail everything that needs to happen. To learn more, there are many SEO reports you can download online such as this SEO guide that can help you get started on the path to understanding.

What does SEO stand for?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. That basically means preparing your website to be the best it can be for the search engines to see it. SEO gets a bit confusing sometimes, as there are 2 parts to it, the first being called “on page” optimization and the second being logically called “off page” optimization. The “on page” basically means your website and what content you have on it. Always start with your website, as you have the most control over it.

Ranking is serious money!

The first and foremost reason you want to rank in Google is money. Let’s say, for example, that you are selling furniture, which has over a million searches according to Google. If you are in position one, the top position, you will get the most people coming to your site with about 30% of the searches. That’s over 300,000 new potential qualified customers coming to your site a month looking for a product you sell. The second link is half that at 150,000, the third link is half that again at 75,000, and basically keeps cutting that number in half each link down from the first. If you are at the top of the second page, which sounds great, you have fewer than 300 customers coming. While 300 is not a bad number, 300,000 is much better one. Can you see the money yet?

Why doesn’t my business rank in Google?

Well, that’s the big question we all ask. You see, Google has computers that try and figure out where your site stands or what people are looking for. We unfortunately don’t know all of the criteria as Google keeps it a secret, but we do know some of it. You also have thousands of competitors spending thousands more than you to be there, some even have their own internet marketing department or have hired top agencies. For you to rank in the money, you need to consult a reputable agency or spend a lot of time learning something that is nearly a college level degree of information.

Google wants to rank you.

The amazing thing is Google WANTS to rank you; they want your customers to find you. Look at what Google is, you probably use it every day to find things. You want to find air conditioning repair in your area, you search for it and there it is. Google’s job is to find you the most appropriate site for what you are looking for. It puts the best one it thinks in the first spot, and the lesser ones moving down the page. So to get to that coveted first spot, you need to be the kind of site that your customers are looking for when they search. A good SEO agency Bath can also help you with such things as links to your site, SSL certificates, being mobile friendly and other criteria that Google likes to see..

First and foremost, find a reputable company and have them explain each step they are going to do, and why, as well as how. If they won’t tell you or they make an excuse, drop them and move on to a real company. If you take a chance on someone that is not professional, you take a large chance of damaging your reputation with Google and possibly even being banned from the search engine. There are no secrets to SEO and there are no shortcuts, there is only knowledge and hard work. If you spend money on advertising and marketing and you are not spending the lions share on SEO and internet marketing, then you are missing out. Take it seriously, your bank account will thank you.