Search engine optimization (“SEO”) is performing certain tasks to cause a web site to rank highly for specific search phrases. For example, if you are a personal injury attorney in Nashville, Tennessee, it would be very advantageous for your web site to appear near the top of the search engine rankings for a search like “Nashville Tennessee personal injury attorney”. This not only gives you free exposure and the possibility of a free click-through to your site from a targeted prospect, it is also a strong branding opportunity because people view sites seen high in search engine rankings as authorities in their fields.

Search Engine Optimization falls into two major categories: “on-page” and “off-page”. We use a combination of the two to give our clients’ web properties maximum exposure.

On-page optimization is achieved by tweaking the code and content of a web page to emphasize specific keywords. We examine our clients’ sites for criteria such as keyword density (the number of times a keyword is used relative to the total number of words) and keyword proximity (how close to the beginning the keyword appears). By comparing these criteria to those of sites that are already highly ranked, we have benchmarks to aim for that will result in higher rankings, all else being equal.

Off-page optimization is concerned with the number and quality of outbound links pointing to a web page. Given the extreme competitiveness of most industries in garnering search engine rankings, it is critical that the Client’s site be both heavily optimized for on-page factors and have many high quality links pointing to it.

SEO is a symbiotic process involving a lot of different things. And it’s also a lot of work that has to be done on a month-by-month basis. Consistency and aggressiveness is the key. If you don’t have the time or resources to employ a full-time person to promote your site, hiring a professional search engine marketing firm makes a lot of sense.