You don't need much to start reaping the rewards of Internet marketing, but you do need a website.  Driving traffic to your website and turning prospects into customers is the #1 objective for small businesses and the best way to stay at the top of potential customers search lists is through Search Engine Optimization or SEO.  One of the most innovative and successful SEO firms in Southern California is Search Optimizers.  Search Optimizers and CMS are strategically aligned business partners and our track record for driving the right traffic to the right websites throughout the small business community speaks for itself.

Below, you'll find the first in a series of eight articles written by Search Optimizer's President, Steve Kinney.The series will be a main feature in the CMS monthly newsletters & blog and covers everything from the basics to a behind the scenes peek at insider SEO secrets for small business success; Here's the first in the eight part series:

What is SEO - Search Engine Optimization?

Written by: Steve Kinney - President & Founder, Search Optimizers

80% of Internet users find what they want to buy using a search engine. But how do the search engines know how to order the websites for each organic search? They use complicated, proprietary algorithms to rank websites according to their relevance to the search query.

Below is a diagram of a search engine results page (SERP). In the circled area of the graphic, you can see there are often millions of websites competing for position on a search query. Since most people don’t search past the first three pages, it will be difficult to beat out all those website competitors. That’s where an SEO strategy comes in. Search engine optimization (SEO) uses tools and techniques to get your website ranked high so it’s visible to online shoppers.

SEO affects rankings for only the organic search results. Those are the non-paid links in the SERP diagram above (see rectangle). Arrows point to the sponsored links which must be purchased from the search engine through an auction-based system. The highest-ranked sponsored links go to the highest bidders who pay-per-click (PPC).

If you can purchase that ad space on the first page, why would you want to pursue top organic rankings? Here are a few reasons:

· Organic results receive the overwhelming majority of clicks

· Searchers view organic results as more trustworthy

· 90% of Internet users do not search past the first 30 results

· Organic rankings are not subject to the rising costs of an auction system (PPC)

Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines are popular precisely because they deliver relevant, unbiased organic results to online searchers. If you can’t afford to buy that space on page one, how can you get ranked high organically in order to drive traffic to your website? One option is to hire a turnkey SEO service. They know the tricks of the trade, have automated tools to save time, and can track ranking changes for multiple customers to discover what the latest algorithm changes are. For most small businesses, this is by far the most cost-effective option.

In our next post we will explore what are the best use cases to employ SEO and PPC.

"At Search Optimizers we are very focused on organic SEO and prefer to refer best of class partners when web development, marketing strategy and social media needs are revealed to us by our customers. In our efforts to vet out high quality partners we have interviewed literally hundreds and found that Creative Marketing Services (CMS) worked at a very high level, delivering superior results and service to our clients upon referral. Our vision is to provide clients a holistic marketing solution, but organic search is only one piece of the puzzle. CMS provides a significant complement of services that, when employed with SEO, creates a powerful marketing platform to launch a business into the 21st century and beyond." - Steve Kinney

Steve Kinney is the President and founder of Search Optimizers. For 14 years Steve and his team have been performing search engine optimization (SEO), currently serving over 100 companies. Steve focuses on continually automating the process of SEO in order to increase value add to clients year over year. He is a co-instructor of the Search Engine Marketing class for the University California, Irvine Extension Department and serves on their advisory committee for the Internet Marketing Program. He is also frequent guest speaker at various other MBA programs and business conferences.