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In the ever changing landscape of organic search, it is becoming increasingly important to rank high in the search engines. Most businesses can't survive off of the traffic from medium and long tail keywords alone. This is why so many website owners are seeking that silver bullet to rank high. For many of these people, that silver bullet is known as search engine optimization. If you happen to visit most webmaster forums, you will find many individuals talking about performing SEO on their own sites. The vast majority of these people will tell you that all you need are a few high quality backlinks to rank high. Others will tell you that you should use social bookmarks, directory submissions and press releases as a way of gaining backlinks and the improved ranks that typically follow. While I will not discount the role these methods play in SEO, after all I do manage a reputable web directory, I will state that most people have lost their focus on quality. Instead of blindly submitting press releases, social bookmarks and directory submissions, most people would be better served by focusing on the upper tier of these link sources. Especially those websites with editorial integrity, your backlinks will carry much more weight over the long run. While I'm on the topic of discussions at webmaster forums, business owners need to realize that most of the people talking about gaining a few backlinks are simply trying to rank MFA websites. A MFA website, otherwise known as Made for AdSense or Made for Ads, typically requires minimal skill to rank. Simply backing the site up with enough backlinks will rank many of these sites because the competition in search is usually limited. For true business owners, which have a serious online or offline presence, a properly optimized website will require much more than an abundance of backlinks. It will require both strategy and skill, which is something that only a true SEO professional possesses. SEO is not a new concept by any means. But optimizing a website to rank well has certainly evolved. The evolution in search has moved more towards quality in both onsite and offsite optimization. Onsite factors such as spelling, site load time and detailed content are more important than ever. Site structure is also extremely important as it can propel your main keywords higher in the search engines if properly executed. There are many onsite factors in ranking a website that extends well beyond the aforementioned, such as social signals and brand equity. Is this something the typical business owner can handle themselves? Absolutely not. Each year there are hundreds of algorithm changes in the search engines. Only skilled SEO professionals can recognize these changes and how to embrace them in their overall optimizing techniques. Most SEO experts also receive training and coaching by other search engine optimization experts in their industry. For most, the skill of optimizing a website to rank well is earned over the course of years. This is why it is especially important for business owners to seek a professional SEO consultant right from the start. Otherwise, those businesses may fall victim to the same novice mistakes that may hurt their website's trust and ranks with the search engines. In my opinion, the services of a reputable SEO company are well justified by businesses of all sizes. Instead of looking at the initial outlay to pay for professional optimization services, such business owners need to understand how many leads and sales they are losing because their website's are not properly optimized. With a properly optimized website, the initial and ongoing expenses of a professional SEO consultant will pay for itself many times over. And as brand equity improves, the potential for exponential growth is an added bonus that separates those that perform SEO themselves versus those that hire skilled SEO professionals to get the job done.
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