If you have spent any time at all developing your online business presence, you have heard of search engine optimization (SEO), chances are you have made some attempts to implement best practices of SEO. What you might not know is that some SEO tactics could kill your website before you effectively launch it if you are not aware of the pros and cons and how to capitalize on those in order to optimize your site in a way that the search engines will deem appropriate.
The whole reason for SEO is to make sure your website shows up as high on the ranks as possible for the major search engines. These main search engines include Google, Bing and Yahoo. The higher your website ranks in the search engines, the more of a valuable resource it is considered to be and the more people will trust your website as a viable place for them to get products, services and information.
The pros of SEO are the most valuable aspects in internet marketing. It is the best return on investment for your time, effort and budget if you outsource this to an SEO professional. Ranking high in the search engines due to SEO efforts will help you gain exponential credibility for your business and show your target market that you have superior products and services to offer them. Your overall marketing and advertising budget will become less expensive because you will not have to pay as much to have people come to your website when they are easily finding it at Google, Bing or Yahoo.
The cons of SEO is if it’s done poorly with techniques such as over-optimization or other black hat SEO tactics, you risk getting your website penalized or even blacklisted by the search engines. This will result in an invisible presence on the web and your site may as well not even exist. If you have a flash based website that is not SEO friendly, then SEO efforts may prove to be ineffective. Another con is that an SEO campaign can take six to eight weeks to be able to measure tangible results. While the six to eight week wait may be a big payoff, it is a con only due to the waiting time.
The best way for you to know if your website is following best practices for SEO, capitalizing on the pros and working around the cons is to hire an ethical SEO service. SEO professionals stay up to date with the latest tactics to appeal to the ever changing search engine algorithms. They can also advise you on the best analytics to review to make sure you are staying on top of search engine optimization for all your online activities.
