Search Engine Optimization 101

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Google is a search engine. “Search is the connectivity that links everyone and everything on the Internet” (Winfiled, 2008). Technically, a search engine is a database of web pages (called an index) and the search engine is a method for finding Web pages and indexing them within the database (Melage, 2007, p. 69). Additionally, spiders are software that follow hyperlinks to find new web pages to index to keep web pages up to date (Melage, 2007, p. 69). Half of all purchases in the business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce category are proceeded by a web search (Melage, 2007, p. 69). A search engine results page (SERP) can make or break a business. Lager Marshall describes search engine optimization as “a barley understood sorcery that involves researching the numerous tubes and portholes of the internet so that searches lead to your page first (Lager, 2007). Search engine optimization (SEO) is the method used to get a business web site at its highest placement on popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Today there will be millions of searches performed on the Internet, many of them looking for exactly what you are selling” (SEO.com, 2009). SEO has proven to be one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing available. Organic search engine optimization and pay-per-click (PPC) search engine optimization can increase online business.

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