What is SEO?

If you are trying to look for a particular product or service in the internet, the most common way for you to do that it is to launch your favorite browser, go to either Google or Yahoo and type away the keywords and hit the search button.

In less than a minute you are presented with millions of results, all containing the keywords you looked for. Since there are no possible way to display all those results in a single user friendly way, Google or Yahoo ranks those results in terms of relevancy to your search and display them in accordance to their rankings.

Now, I don't know about you, but normally I just browse up to the second or third pages of the search results only. If you are like me then you spent time only at the most ranked search results and those other sites are lost in oblivion.

So what does this have to do with SEO? Apparently, a lot!

If you are a web site owner, a web developer or even a blogger (...remember my wife?), you would like to have your site displayed in the first three pages of the search results. Why? because having your website land in these precious pages can drive traffic.

And SEO or Search Engine Optimization is all about driving Traffic to a website. Because what's the use of a website if there are no people visiting them--get the point?

SEO includes a diverse set of activities that you can perform to increase the amount of targeted traffic that comes to your website from search engines. This activities may include things that you do to your site itself, such as optimizing its code and text or it may include communicating directly with the search engine, or other web developer to pursue listings and reciprocal links.

SEO is a long and process and requires a lot of patience. This is not simple task that one can achieve in one sitting. As I journey in my learnings with SEO , I will be posting some snippets of SEO techniques that anybody--even non-developers can do, so watch out!

Blogged with Flock

Should we flock towards a new browser?

I came across a new browser.

Flock.

It's supposed to be a new browser geared towards social networking. Curious to see as to what it has to offer differently from my current fave Firefox, I downloaded (you can download it here) its 10MB file installer and installed it. In fact I am now writing this post using Flock.

My initial impression..looks promising..

The first feature I used is the "Open Blog Editor" in the tool bar...nice.

I'll test drive it more in a couple of days and post my experience from its use. Meanwhile, here's a quote of what Flock's website say about it:

Flock is built on the Mozilla Firefox open-source browser, so it has all the features you've come to expect in a high-quality web browser, like intuitive buttons and menus, personal customizability, reliable security, enhanced privacy protections, and automated updating. However, Flock is much more than that! The Flock Social Web Browser has been fully integrated with a wide range of social networking websites and popular blogging tools. So with Flock, you can now keep in touch and share text, links, pictures, video and more with friends, family and co-workers across the entire internet with unparalleled speed and seamless ease.

Until then...

Blogged with Flock

Does my business really need a website?

When asked about such question I always answer: of course! Even if your business is not into selling products or services online, having a web site will not hurt. What most people don't realize is that the internet is always available, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 4 weeks a month, get the picture?...it never sleeps!

Taking away online shopping services, let me list down a few features why your business will need one:

1. Provides 24 hours marketing tool. It can act as an online brochure, a catalog, a promotional media for an event or activity. Published it and its always there (Ok..that depends on the reliability of your web host provider). Plan and created properly, your website can reduce cost on your marketing budget. And as they say in business: a penny saved is a penny earned.
   
2. Widen the reach of your market. The internet knows no boundaries. Once its published, your web site can be seen and accessed around the world. Now, who wouldn't like that?
   
3. Promotes modern image of your company or business. A properly designed site can boost your corporate identity. In addition, placing information regarding your business' achievements, awards, or a link to a press release in your site can enhance your image as an industry leader in your field.
   
4. Enhances customer support. Aside from providing contact information, your site can place support information regarding a product or service. This can be an online manual, user guides, etc. It can contain a service bulletin board or forum where other users can interact and provide tips, reviews, etc.
   
5. It can gather contacts and build leads. Your site can also collect information about your visitors. You can ask for their email address or let them subscribe to an online newsletter where you can further market information regarding your products or services.

As you can see, having a web presence can surely benefit your business. However, having one doesn't necessarily translate to business success. You still have to work hard on many aspects to get it done. That's the way it is.

So does YOUR BUSINESS NEED a website?