In developing helpful topics for the Inspired 2 Design™ Advertising Blog, we came up with the idea of a “Five Things” series. This series will give critical, but quick info on a selected subject pertaining to marketing your business.

The first post in this series (which may not run concurrently) is entitled “Five Things You Need to Know About SEO”, since search engine optimization is the next logical step in your internet marketing plan after designing a comprehensive, attractive and functional website.

Here are 5 Things You need to know about SEO:

1. SEO can be achieved without long-term contracts, expensive pay-per-click campaigns, or monthly committments. There are many set techniques and processes that a developer will perform on and in your website’s code and format which help spiders crawl the pages of your website, and rank your pages according to how you want to be ranked.

2. SEO needs to be real. Appropriate optimization brings visitors that area actually looking for what you offer. That is the goal, not just traffic for traffic sake. Bring the right target, convert the visitor, and make a sale!

3. SEO takes time and patience. Improved page ranking doesn’t happen overnight. You need to couple your onsite efforts with offsite search marketing strategies. Remember your site doesn’t exist in a bubble. There are millions of websites out there and they all affect each other in one way or another.

4. SEO success is based on content. Your website should have fresh, unique and relevant content that’s updated often, keyword rich, and actually useful to the visitor while convincing the target to take the next step: call, sign up, email or buy.

5. SEO is a must-have for every website, if you want your website to be found on the internet. If you don’t want to be found, then wait for our next post which may be Five Ideas for Your Life, After You Go Out of Business… because if you’re not online, and actively seeking visitors, most businesses today won’t survive.

Now that you know five things about search engine optimization, find out more by contacting Inspired 2 Design.