When a business opens up a new physical store, they do everything they can to encourage people to visit it and tell others about it. Brochures, business cards, newspaper and magazine advertising, word-of-mouth and radio advertising are some of the most common methods used to bring in foot traffic.

If your store is off the beaten track and isn’t clearly visible to passing traffic, then people won’t ever find you or become aware of you. However, if you market it effectively, you’ll attract quality levels of foot traffic and achieve success. How well you do it will determine the level of this success.

Launching a website is exactly the same in terms of marketing importance. Unfortunately however, what the majority of people aren’t aware of is just how common it is for a website to be invisible to those searching online. If you sell a product or service and you are not found on at least page 3 for the most highly searched and relevant keyword phrases that relate to your website, then you are quite simply not going to succeed online.

Search Engine Optimisation is an aspect of website development that gets overlooked far too often. The biggest reason for this is that there is a lack of web designers with experience of SEO and website owners are therefore uninformed of the need for such a service.

If you own a website that sells products and/or services, then chances are you’ll have several business websites competing in the same market. If you are ranked on page 2 of the Search Engine results page (SERP) and they are no. 2 on page 1, then they are likely going to get the traffic, enquiries and sales.

Search Engine Optimisation involves several factors that relate to what online users can see (on page) and what only Search Engine can see (off page). Having both of these catered for will ensure you get the best opportunities for online success. Once people can find you online, it will just be a matter of your website engaging your visitors, informing them and then enticing them to buy your products or acquire your services.

Depending on how competitive the market is that you are in, it might take as many as 12 months or more to optimise your website to the point where you are ranking no. 1 for the majority of the most popular and relevant keywords that relate to your services. Properly marketing your website through Search Engine Optimisation could make the difference between an average website and a highly successful one.