Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, is an essential core part of the online marketing strategy for most online businesses. Search engines have become the primary vehicle for finding information on the Internet. So, if you're serious about your business, it's time to get serious about search. Every day over 400 million searches are made on the world's leading engines such as Google, MSN and Yahoo! and every one of these is a potential customer looking for a specific product, service or topic.

ZD Net reports that "...the majority of people (around 60-65%) will select their information out of the top 10 matches on any given search engine. Another 20-25% will click on a site ranking between positions 11 through 20...Strategic and high search engine and directory placement serves as a major source of traffic to a web site."

First, to clear up a few myths, search engine optimisation (SEO) is not just about sticking in a few META tags. In modern competitive times a structured and long term approach is requried for effectively optimising your website

Organic Search Engine Optimization also known as Natural or Algorithmic Search Engine Optimization or Organic SEO - is a viable way to obtain search engine exposure without paying the recurring costs associated with pay-per-click advertising models. This method involves optimizing your Website content, design, architecture and linking strategy based on the relevancy algorithms search engines use to index and rank Web pages.

FutureNet Technologies combines proven skill sets and years of organic SEO experience to maximize your Web site's natural traffic potential. We begin by conducting a complete analysis of your Website to identify content, design, and structural issues that hinder optimal organic search engine indexing and ranking. Based on our findings, we develop a strategic report that highlights areas of needed improvement and recommended courses of action. We then provide recommendations on how to enhance the relevancy of your site based on search queries related to your offerings. The primary areas of importance include:

SITE CONTENT: Targeted Website Content Yields SEO Results
Most search engines use the relevancy of your Web site content as the primary criteria for ranking it in response to a query. Our team will optimize the quality and quantity of your Web site content, placing particular emphasis on keyword location, spacing, frequency, usage and density.

SITE DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE: Site Architecture is the foundation to SEO
Web sites that are database-driven or have poor internal linking structure or use technologies such as rich media, frames, and password-protected areas are less accessible to search engine "spiders" and tend to rank lower within search results. Our SEO specialists will carefully analyze the design and structure of your Web site and recommend ways to make less accessible areas more search engine "friendly".

META TAGS, TITLES & DESCRIPTIONS: Targeted Meta Tags Enhance Positioning
Although keyword-optimized meta-tags can help boost your site's search engine visibility, most engines now use meta-tags more as a flag for potential abuse. Meta-tags that are overly laden with keywords often receive a penalty. Our team will ensure that your meta-tags are keyword-optimized in accordance with search engine ethical standards. In addition, we will make recommendations on proper titles and meta-descriptions.

LINK POPULARITY: Link Popularity, Quality and Quantity Count
Many search engines assign ranking based on the quantity and quality of external links pointing to your site. Link popularity gives search engines a useful means of determining which pages are good for particular topics, and hence most relevant for specific keyword searches. FutureNet Technologies uses proprietary link analysis tools to identify the Web properties that will most enhance your site's link popularity. A strategy is then developed to increase the volume of quality inbound links to your site.

DIRECTORY SUBMISSIONS: Directory Submissions are Critical to Ensure Top Ranking
The three major directories - LookSmart, Yahoo and the Open Directory - have editorial teams that manually review your submissions to determine proper placement within select categories. The titles and descriptions you submit with each URL are used as the primary basis for judgment. Our team will select the most appropriate categories for each URL then handcraft keyword-optimized titles and descriptions that are in accordance with the editorial guidelines of each directory.

Most people using a search engine expect to find what they are looking for on the first page of results, says a US study. At most, people will go through three pages of results before giving up, found the survey by Jupiter Research and marketing firm iProspect. It also found that a third of users linked companies in the first page of results with top brands.

The study surveyed 2,369 people from a US online consumer panel. It also found 62% of those surveyed clicked on a result on the first page, up from 48% in 2002. Some 90% of consumers clicked on a link in these pages, up from 81% in 2002. And 41% of consumers changed search engines or their search term if they did not find what they were searching for on the first page.

Robert Murray, president of iProspect, said the study shows the "incresed mportance of being found in the first top search results". He added as search engine efficacy has improved, along with the searching skills of users, so have expectations. "They know what thay want, and thay want to find it immediately, and the majority want to find it on page one."

Thus Businesses need to take this nto account when they design and host their website. It should be clear that to be effective, marketers need to take action to ensure that their company is found in the top search results on a broad range of search terms and not just single word generic terms. It's time that companies that are refreshing, re-designing or launching a new website start with the end result in mind. If no one can find it, no one will use it.

Learn how LINK BAITING can increase traffic to your website?

Ever found it hard to get other bloggers to link to a new blog? Sure you have, it's not easy sometimes. Even established blogs need to expand their traffic and inflence on a regular basis, and link baiting is one way to do it. Eric Ward, also known as the Godfather of linking, describes it best: "Link Bait is more or less anything you create anywhere on the Web that inspires other people to link to it. They can link to it via a Web page, a blog, social bookmark site, tagging site, e-zine, newsletter, email or any other method that tells others about the bait." However link baiting is link building with a twist: Rather than hunting out links, you are bringing the links to you through unique and popular site content. In order to bait a link, you need a hook. Hooks come in variety of flavours, some of the more popular would include:

• Resource Hook: A resource hook is solely informational and leaves little to the imagination. Keep a comprehensive list of blogs in your niche - link out, and links will come in.
• News Hook: Learning and expanding what we know is what drives the perpetual exploration on the Internet. Make your site a reliable source for news-seekers. Gain name recognition, and provide an appreciated service to your neighbours at the same time. Make a compilation of news. It acts as both a resource as well as a news hook.
• Contrary Hook: The hook revolves around the contradiction of something done or said by someone else in your field. Don't be afraid to start a debate about a contested hot topic. Take what others in your field say and offer a different perspective. Be the only one in your niche to find something to not like about a story, or like about a story/product.
• Attack Hook: This works much the same way as the contrary hook, but takes the contradiction one steo further, and ultimately livesup to its name. Attacking your competition will garner you an entirely different reaction from your audience. It will undoubtedly gain you traffic, but the type of interest your site will generate may shock you so be prepared.
• Humour Hook: Humour is universal. Use humour as your vehicle of choice. Get the laughter flowing and watch the traffic topple in. Use humour to entice a crowd which, like many of us, have grown tired of daily routine and are actively looking for an outlet. You'll then find surfers coming back to your site often to see what innovative, wacky things they will find.