BKO Bookstore: Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is perhaps the most important, but least understood, aspect of your online business. You may have spent lot of your energy and/or money on designing and building a great website. You're so excited to finally get it launched only to see a few visitors coming to your doorstep. You then start considering Internet advertising like Google AdWords or Yahoo Search Marketing with very little capital left in your budget.

While you contemplate the paid advertisement, you should consider boosting your page ranks or gaining visibility in "organic" search results. The "organic" search results refer to the portion of the search result page returned by the search engine instead of the paid advertising or the sponsored links. More significantly, the "organic" search results constitute about 70% or 80% of the result page. If you can fine-tune your website following the SEO principles, your website would be more likely to move up its position in the search results, or even in the first result page. A well optimized website will magnify the effectiveness of your paid marketing campaigns.

Many of the SEO techniques are easy to implement and don't require a webmaster. Some of those techniques are also applicable to bloggers or shopkeepers who don't have their own website, but use third-party blogging or merchant services, such as, Blogger.com and CafePress.com. If you're not as familiar with HTML or web technologies, you may hire an SEO consultant or outsource the entire job to an SEO company. There are many experts out there doing SEO for living. Keep in mind that SEO takes time and patience, because the search engines crawl your website only once a while. An SEO expert can cut down lot of time and avoid try-and-error type of cycles.

Even if you plan to let others handle SEO, it's still a good idea to familiarize yourself with certain SEO concepts. That will allow you to have a more effective communication with your SEO consultants or website designers. I've read quite a few SEO books and found one that I really like. The book "Search Engine Optimization - Your visual blueprint for effective Internet marketing" by Kristopher B. Jones is very well organized and easy to read. What makes it outstanding is the included screen-shots and pictures, which makes it so easy to follow the instructions or steps for the task.

To make it easier for you to find the book, I've included the link for your reference and purchase at Amazon. There are several other books worth your reading as well. I've included them in the Search Engine Optimization category of the BKO Bookstore for your convenience. Check it out today.