Guest Blog by Benjamin Dowson

Every business owner with an online presence has undoubtedly wondered at one time or another how to increase their presence on the web. So they hop onto Google and do a quick search only to be immediately bombarded by more search results on the topic than stars in the universe!

SEO, SEM, PPC, PPA, Adwords, Solo Ads, Social Media, Backlinks, Keywords… And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

Encyclopedias can (and have) been written about all facets of online marketing. Today, I will be touching on the most well-known of them: SEO

SEO is an acronym that stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it refers to the activity of attempting to make your website appear higher on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. This is achieved by using a variety of techniques both on and off of your website.

But who cares? Well…you, the business owner, should!

Your website is like your own little piece of virtual real estate. And like all real estate, it’s all about location, location, location! What good is having the most attractive and informative website for your business if no one can even find it?

The first thing most people do when they want to look up a local product or service is Google it:

“Painters in Calgary”. ”Best Toronto Real Estate Agent”. “Wedding Photographers Vancouver”

That’s all well and good, but there is just one problem…The top 3 results in the search receive 90% of the traffic, while the millions of other results are fighting for the other 10% of the attention. In fact, 75% of people don’t even go past the first page of search results! In other words, if you are not at the top or even on the first page for anything then you are functionally invisible.

But fear not! The reverse is also true. Imagine the number visitors your website would receive if you were on the top of the search results. Visitors that would, hopefully, turn into clients for your business. It can potentially become a truly passive money maker for your business; what a pleasant thought, the stuff that dreams are made of really!

Great, but how do you go about actually “doing” SEO? That’s a topic for another day. Stay tuned for more!