The aim of Search Engine Optimisation is to let people find you through 'natural' searches on Google, msn, Yahoo, etc. The advantage of winning leads through natural searches is: a) it doesn't cost you anything, and b) if your SEO is right then your target market will arrive on your site.

Among internet marketers, we have two camps: one that thinks you must use Google Adwords or other Pay Per Click advertising to control just where your ad appears and monitor your marketing ROI, and the others think that you should work on your SEO so that people using natural searches are more inclined to find you. I believe you should get some of the basic SEO jobs done first, before you go spending a lot of moolah on PPC.

As an end user and Google addict, I prefer natural results, but if something really interesting to me pops up over on the right - ie. the sponsored ads - I'll give it a go. If all I get is a long sales page I will look at it briefly and usually click away. With most users who are also impatient, you have 5 or 10 seconds to make a good impression.

One SEO expert in my area is John Leach of High Search Engine Ranking (au). John says: "SEO requires the combination of content writing, marketing and website design that incorporates correct website building techniques".

Some of the marketing required is choosing to link to reputable websites that offer a good Page Rank. When others offer a hyperlink back to you (called a 'backlink'), also ensure that they have a good Page Rank commensurate with your own. If you link to websites that have a 0 score, your own ranking in the results hierarchy will be downgraded.

I have noticed that writing a lot of articles for a huge US-based article bank has not netted me any nobility in the page rank scores - I checked my Back Links, and whoah... the only back link (of 39) with a Page Rank over 1 was Hot Frog. Check site authenticity and count back links at ValidRank.com.

Go check your page rank position now, open Google and put in two or three keywords your target clients would search for. Do you appear on the first page? If you can find your home page, does the listing read well, with a clear title and description?

If you are not finding your site on Google, then log into your Google account and click on "Webmaster Tools". There you will be able to put in your site, and see if the bots are finding you. Then you will be able to access their information to improve your site's page ranking and accessibility.

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I hope that I was able to help you with the minefield of internet marketing. Please let me know if you would like me to write some keyword and sales driven copy for you.

Please email me today with your enquiry and I will get straight back to you.