Search engine optimization (SEO) is a technique for improving the amount, as well as the quality of visitors to a website or a web page (such as a blog). This is accomplished through search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.), through "natural" or "organic" (un-paid) search results instead of search engine marketing (SEM) which may involve PPC (Pay Per Click).

The concept is the higher a website appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of searches, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific search. SEO is a way of giving a website what is known as a "web presence."

SEO is crucial if you are trying to sell a product online or promote your business online. If you are not showing up on the first page of Google for a particular keyword, then your website will not be found by people who are searching. If your keyword is very competitive, it's going to be quite difficult to get on the "first page" much less the top spot. At ThisOnlineThing.com we counsel with clients about what keywords they should be targeting and how competitive they might be.

Want your site to be RED hot?

This is a Cornell University Eye-Tracking Analysis of Search Engine Users’ Behavior heatmap of Google. It shows what areas of the screen that people focused on the most. It shows not only where they looked but also where they actually clicked. The first three search results definitely get the majority of the attention and traffic. People's attention dropped off rapidly when it came to the search results ranging from #4 through #10.

Ranking is everything!

How beneficial is it to achieve a certain ranking? Ranking #1 for a keyword is the ideal outcome of SEO. Why should you get the #1 ranking? The #1 spot receives the majority of the search traffic for that particular keyword. 56.36% of the people clicked the #1 spot. The #2 through #10 spots drop off rapidly. 13.45% and less click the #2 through #10 spots.

Have you ever received one of these spam emails from an individual or a company stating that they "guarantee" you a #1 ranking on Google? There are no guarantees in SEO and if anyone ever uses the word guarantee when talking to you aboutSEO, RUN Forrest RUN! What they don't tell you is that there are two types of SEO - "white hat" and "black hat." Most of these spammers are using black hat techniques. And black hat techniques will cause your site to be removed from the index or in other words, BANNED! If your site is removed from the index, then it will not show up in search engine results. Houston... we have a problem!

At ThisOnlineThing.com we are long time advocators of white hat SEO. Black hat involves deception, white hat involves honesty and a lot of hard work and there is no need to use black hat deceptive techniques to get your website ranked.