An Introduction To SEO

Perhaps some of you are just getting started. You have heard the term SEO but you don't know what it means or if it applies to you in any way.

That's the position I found myself in not too long ago. I had been a Power Seller on eBay and things were really going well. I was making a living without even trying and was starting to experiment on expanding my product line. There were eager customers ready to hand over their money. All I had to do was run the ads. I considered it the opportunity of a lifetime and I was excited and loved eBay.

Then along came the new CEO John Donahoe with massive changes and price hikes, etc. This, combined with the downturn in the economy, increase in fuel (and everything else) costs made it necessary for me to think about moving off of eBay. Some of you may be experiencing the same situation.

One of the first things I discovered was that whether I chose to sell at one of the many other venues like Ioffer, Etsy, or My favorite: Main Street Mall Online (MSMO), or on my own website I quickly ran into a very serious problem. No Customers! Being on your own is lonely and difficult. I needed a solution. And fast!

Well, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is simply a way (some say it is the most important way) to bring customers to you. It is the process of optimizing your site to be best indexed by search engines.

Let's say a customer wants to buy a pair of running shoes. The customer types running shoes into the search bar and see many places where running shoes can be bought as well as articles on running shoes. The idea is that if you are selling running shoes you want your ad or your store to come up in that search. First page is the best, of course, but not always possible in some of the most popular categories.

So SEO is simply using various methods such as coding within your website (one of Steve and Lora's specialties -- Our Hutch Web Services), article writing (with links), linking with other sites etc. to give your product and/or business the very best (optimized) placement in various well chosen, popular searches which apply to what you are selling.

Some nuts and bolts ideas you will want to apply to your website, online store, or item listings, will come in future posts.

[Tim Scholnick, owner of Big PC Store is a successful online business person and content writer.]

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