The Web is growing at an exponential rate. ComScore Networks reported that in January 2007 there was a whapping 747 million active Internet users, a 10 percent increase versus January 2006.

Every day, individuals on the Web use major search engines to launch over 400 million queries for products, services and information. Can they find your Web site? Successful online marketers recognize the potential of this enormous online market, and have developed comprehensive Web site positioning strategies for capturing their share of this immense market.

Search engines are the most popular vehicle to connect users to Web sites. Search engines and directories provide the first step in the online communications link. Search engine results are the bridge between potential consumers and your Web site. It is crucial that your Web site possess search engine visibility and that it is listed prominently (the top 30 results) within search results for relevant key phrases.

Search Engines: Permission Marketing

The Internet is an interactive medium where we can be "in touch" with interested parties 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Potential customers use search engines and directories to locate content and discover new Web sites every day, and a typical search query will often result in over a million search matches. If you have not considered a Web site positioning strategy, you are probably losing valuable business.

Over 80% of Internet users use search engines and directories to find Web sites, according to Forrester Research.

Online shopping continues to grow at a healthy clip. It reached a total of $65 billion last year, jumping 26 percent higher than the previous year.

Internet spending for 2006 totaled $102 billion, an increase of 24% from the previous year.

The first 10 results for any search have click-thru rates of 65% according to a study by Berrier & Associates.

A study conducted by IMT Strategies found that search engines are the #1 way people find Web sites. Random surfing and word-of-mouth ranked second.

Traffic from search engines is the most valuable kind of internet traffic because it is comprised of people actively looking for a specific product, service, information or solution.

Search engine users make four separate and distinct choices:

• They don't usually go beyond the first 30 search listings.

• They choose to use the Internet to research an issue or solve a problem.

• They choose one of the 8-18 major search engines to launch their search.

• They choose a particular keyword or phrase as the basis of their search.

These are highly qualified targeted visitors. They are very close to reaching a buying decision. This is the visitor you want to attract. These are buyers, not window shoppers.

Search Engine Optimization - Is it worthwhile?

After spending thousands, even millions, of dollars developing a Web site, businesses often discover that the site is invisible in the major search engines. Failing to take your Web site's search engine and directory visibility into consideration when making site development decisions, is an untimely and expensive mistake.

Businesses must either reinvest in a post-launch redesign of their site, or accept the extremely limited results that they will achieve with their site. Recognizing the importance and the need of search engine optimization in the development of your Web site is very important in your online success.

Creating customer satisfaction and loyalty?

Users of Internet search engines are on a mission to solve a problem. How quickly they are able to find an answer to their problem is directly related to customer satisfaction. How quickly they are able to find your Web site, if they are searching for you by name, is directly related to their opinion of your brand. A lifetime relationship with your brand is at stake every time someone conducts a query via a search engine.

Only one of two outcomes is possible each time a member of your potential audience, or an existing customer, performs a search in a major engine:

• They will find your Web site or a competitor's Web site.

Your online success is very dependent upon the quality and success of your Web site positioning campaign. A search engine optimization strategy must be created and implemented so that your Web site can be found in the major search engines and directories when someone performs a keyword or phrase query relevant to your site's product or service offering.

There is a lot at stake every hour of every day that you do not have a comprehensive Web site positioning strategy in place. You are losing critical revenue with every passing minute.