Search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN save and store the entire content of the “world wide web,” most on a daily basis. Everything (pages, images, files, etc.) is indexed or cataloged. When prospects do a search they are not searching the live web, rather, an organized database of information.

Each page of a website is indexed individually and stands on its own. A page is ranked against many factors including the keyword density (in the front-facing content and the code) and the cross-connection to other pages within a site as well as inbound links from other websites. Links from other sites relevant (keywords, content and links) to your website will increase its credibility.

SEO is the practice of designing, developing and updating a web site to improve its ranking in popular search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. This effort includes ongoing research and modification to the site to maintain the highest possible search rankings. Search engine algorithms evolve. To stay competitive Merrick Towle’s tactics evolve too. Our offering is the result of continued research; the search engine companies and industry experts actually recommend how to best utilize the available technologies.

Search engine traffic (organic or paid) is the perfect form of targeted marketing. Visitors find your site through search engines because they are actively seeking what you have to offer. Merrick Towle has employed SEO strategy on dozens of websites with the following results:

• Fully optimized property websites receive about 60% more daily visitors from search engines than comparable sites that are not optimized.
• We’ve seen a 3x increase in traffic to websites that have had the full SEO offering employed.
  • Furthermore, if the keywords are maintained and adjusted accordingly traffic numbers remain steady or even continue to increase as the site matures.
• The number of visitors to optimized sites that have been tracked to the Contact page from keywords is double that of non-optimized sites.

Organic, Paid (PPC) or both? A thorough upfront evaluation of goals and budget will help determine the best approach. A dual approach SEO and PPC is recommended when possible. Together the two will help search engines establish your relevancy for specific keywords thus resulting in a better ranking for your website.

by Jason Miller, Digital Associate Creative Director, jmiller@merricktowle.com