Let’s take a look at the three major ways in which people find websites on the internet.

1. Direct:  This means the person knows the exact address of your website and types it directly into the browser.
2. Referral: This means the person followed a link from somewhere else on the internet to get to your site.
3. Search: This means the person found your site through a search engine like Google, Bing or Yahoo

The percentage of overall traffic coming from search is different for every website, but most sites report 40% – 75% of their traffic is search based. Search is also the traffic source with the highest ceiling, barring getting a link from a major, worldwide website. Additionally, ranking well for a relevant keyword is a long term source of traffic whereas a link from a major website will only result in a short term boost.

Search Engine Optimization vs. Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Optimization is a subset of a Search Engine Marketing category. SEO specifically refers to the improvement of organic (non-paid) search engine ranking. SEM also includes paid placement and contextual advertising. Paid Placement means that an advertiser is paying either per click or per impression to show up in search rankings in a specific, paid-only area. On Google, these results show up at the very top with a light yellow background and to the right of the normal organic search results. Contextual advertising refers to banner ads, pop-ups and other similar types of advertising online.

Why spend money on SEO when you can pay for results with Paid Placement? Think about your own browsing/searching habits for a second.  How often do you actually click on the paid listings on Google? Since these listings are separate from the organic results, people tend to ignore them just like any other form of blatant advertising.

The Importance of Placement

Every Google search returns thousands of results. That means it’s very easy to rank somewhere, but very difficult to rank near the top. The closer to the top of the rankings your site displays, the more traffic you will see. In fact, the increase in traffic as you move up the rankings is more exponential than linear. Let’s take a look at the stats for “click through rate” or “CTR” which simply means, “What percentage of people who searched for this term actually clicked to go to my site?”

# 1 Ranking:  42.1% CTR
# 2 Ranking:  11.9% CTR
# 3 Ranking:  8.5% CTR
# 4 Ranking:  6.1% CTR
# 5 Ranking:  4.9% CTR
# 6 Ranking:  4.1% CTR
# 7 Ranking:  3.4% CTR
# 8 Ranking:  3.0% CTR
# 9 Ranking:  2.8% CTR
# 10 Ranking:  3.0% CTR
#11 – #1000: 11.3% CTR

Let’s say we’re targeting a term that has 1,000 searches per day. That means the site at the top of the rankings would average 421 hits. The second site would average 119, the third 85 and so on. Sites NOT on the front page would only receive virtually no traffic as the 113 hits would be split up among thousands of sites. As you can see, a high ranking is invaluable in getting results.

Alright, I get it. It’s important. Now, how do you move up in search results?

Placement within the search results is determined by a complex algorithm taking into account a wide array of factors. Each search engine has their own system, but they are based on similar principles and produce comparable results. There are two major areas considered by these placement algorithms, on-site and off-site.

The biggest and most important factor for on-site SEO will always be the quality and quantity of the content on the website.  Second to content, the quality and formatting of the code used to build the site also plays a large roll. Premier Creative utilizes a multi-point checklist throughout the development process to make sure that each and every aspect of your website is fully optimized.

Off-site factors in the quality and quantity of links pointing to your website. Basically, you want as many sites linking to you as possible. Links from important, well known sites are worth much more.

SEO services offered by Premier Creative

Premier builds in basic on-site SEO on all of our web projects.  This is HUGE when it comes to added value that you won’t get from competitors. Off-site SEO packages are available for additional fees.

Premier also has SEO packages for existing websites. These packages include on-site and off-site optimization. These packages generally begin with a meeting to determine the focus of the campaign. The first thing we always have to determine is 1-5 main keywords to focus on. We’ll help you determine which keywords would be the most effective by comparing your current placement for these words with the average search volume.  From there, we’ll set up realistic goals your keywords (ie: rank top 5 for the keyword “Dentists in Gainesville” by July 20^th) and set up a timeline in which to accomplish these goals. We’ll also take an in-depth look at your website to determine where there is room for improvement in regards to SEO.

When leveraged correctly, SEO can be the most important tool for driving traffic to your website. If you’re interested in how Premier Creative can help bolster your web traffic, contact us! You can also email me directly at artwork@creative.premiercorporations.com. I look forward to working with you!

-Scott Shelton
Scott is a Web Designer and SEO specialist from Gainesville, FL.

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