NECESSITY OF SEO FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

The first part of the 21^st Century has proven to be precarious times for small businesses, especially those in their nascent stage. More than half of those new companies fail in their first year. For an enlightening explanation concerning this phenomenon and other perils confronting small businesses, visit: http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/smallbusiness/a/whybusfail.htm  

A new threat to the average entrepreneur comes in the form of a paradox surrounding the use of the internet. More and more people hire a small business by searching online. This can produce beneficial results for some while proving to be a disaster for others. At the present time the overwhelming majority of people use Google as their primary search engine. More critically, some surveys indicate over 90% of users do not even look at page two of the results before making up their minds. The obvious conclusion is that a small business must have excellent Google search rankings if they want to succeed.

Merely developing a well written and attractive, relevant website is not sufficient for good rankings. In fact, any experienced SEO (Search Engine Optimization) consultant will testify to finding poorly written and unattractive websites on page one while an eloquently written and superbly crafted web page of a competitor will be listed on page five. There are diverse opinions among SEO experts as to why this happens, but no one is absolutely certain.

Google constantly reviews the internet with “crawlers” or “spiders” which are programmed with constantly evolving algorithms that rank a website on factors ranging from relevancy to use of keywords, to the strength of other sites that refer to the website, and many other factors. The techniques used by different SEO companies vary. What works in spectacular fashion one year can prove to be a flop the next year with the result that a page one website will suddenly appear on page eight or even the total disappearance of the site without any explanation provided by Google.

SEO GURU

Ralph Marcus Maupin Jr is a nationally respected SEO Guru who has developed an advanced form of SEO called Online Business Optimization (OBO), a term he coined. He is often consulted by other SEO experts and speaks at many conferences and seminars. He may be reached at 248-939-6232