With more and more people and organizations being present in the internet,
it becomes more and more important to be found.
If you don't take care to SEM / SEO, two bad things can happen:
1) You will hardly be found by people looking for your services or content
if your web page is placed on page 27 of Google's search for the relevant
keywords!
-> You want to be found, and to help it, you usually - depending on the
nature of your business - want to be placed on a prominent place in
Search-Engine results.
2) Your web page may be in a good position for a few keywords, but still the
people that are driven to your site don't really do what you'd like them to
do. Which could be reading your content, making an enquiry, recommending your
page to others, buying from you etc.
-> You don't want to attract anyone in the world, but people to whom your
page is relevant, who are likely to do what you want them to do.
To conclude:
If...
you are on the web - then - you want to be found by people looking for
services and information you provide.
you want to be found by many people - then - you wish to appear
among the first results on the most important search engines.
To get a prominent place in relevant searches , thus many relevant visitors (visitors who are guided to your web site because they are looking for information services they can find on your page),
you have to know what is relevant to search engines and what can even endanger your rating/ranking.
Here, SEO comes into play.
Get more information an tips on SEO at:
Wikipedia Article on Search Engine Optimisation
Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide
Download free SEO tools:
http://www.seobook.com - Their free Rank Checker lets you see on which Search Engine pages you are placed with your keywords.
http://www.webceo.com - They have a nice free SEO suite
http://www.seo-profesional.cz - They have a nice toolbar for firefox
Hire an SEO consultant:
http://www.instantpage.co.uk - Affordable Web Design - Web Development London
Article written by "soundfonts" in january 2010 - send your comment to soundfots at free dot fr