Wednesday, August 17, 2011

SEO Toronto: What Is It?

By Miguel Pancardo


SEO is an acronym for "Search Engine Optimization." Search engine optimization is sort of a loose, general term referring to a set of techniques for increasing the visibility of a Toronto-themed or Toronto-based website. Think of it as a form of internet marketing or advertising for websites. Poor, fair, or good search engine optimization can make or break the success of a Toronto website.

How does SEO Toronto work?

As the name implies, all the SEO Toronto techniques focus on a Toronto website's search engine ranking. Why, you may ask, are search engines so crucial?

Because, if you don't optimize for search engines (search engine optimize) with your website, no one's going to be able to find you even if they would actually like to use the services or buy the products you offer. That's because they type in keywords to find what they're looking for, and you'll need to gear your site for search engine optimization so that people can find you when they type particular search terms into search engines like Google.

How Search Engines Work

Web surfers type a few words (known as "keywords") into a search engine that describes what they're looking for. The search engine then displays a search results page with links to various matching websites, listed in order of relevance. The web surfer clicks on one of the links, and is taken to one of those websites.

Ideally, you want to get your website to appear on the search result list so that potential customers can find and visit your site. Unfortunately, just getting on the search results list is not enough. Search engines usually return tens of thousands of websites that match the search term, displayed in a list that goes on for dozens of pages. The average web surfer will only look at the results on the very first page, or maybe the second and third page. If your website is listed further down than that, it might as well not be there at all, because web surfers will very rarely see it.

That's why you want your website to show up on search engine listings, so that potential customers can find you, visit your site, and potentially buy from you. However, it's not enough to get on search engine listing results. Search engines are very good at returning plenty of websites that will match the search term, but chances are most surfers are only going to look for results on the first or maybe second pages. If your website is ranked further down than that, chances are that no one's going to be able to see it, which effectively means it doesn't even exist as far as the Internet is concerned.

So let's say, for example, that your results ranked 50 out of 200,000 possible results. Now, being in the top 50 when there are 200,000 possible results might seem pretty good, but think again. Because you ranked 50th, the results are going to show up on the bottom of the fifth page or perhaps the top of the sixth page of search results -- which again basically means you don't even exist. Most web surfers are going to look at the results on the first one or two pages, find what they need from those, and never go any further back.

Why is SEO Toronto so helpful?

The goal of all the various SEO strategies is to determine exactly how the "Big Three" search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Bing) rank websites in search result lists, and then tailoring your Toronto website to rank as high as possible in those lists. If you can get your website onto the first page of results, you'll see an increase in web traffic to your site. If you can get your website to be a the very top of the first results page, you'll see a dramatic increase in traffic.

Search engine optimization techniques can help you drive traffic to your site, and therefore can help you increase sales. For that to happen, though, you're going to have to base your entire website around specific keywords that are relevant to the service or product you are selling. That means the content on your website will be very relevant to that particular keyword, which will help it get a boost in search engine rankings. Ideally, you are going to end up on the first page of results.

Remember, search engine optimization strategies are also commonly known, which means that competitors, too, are probably using them just as you are. Because Internet marketing is so competitive, if your traffic is still almost nonexistent with few sales, give a comprehensive SEO Toronto campaign a try. This could make the results much better.




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