Online sales are the lifeblood of many companies, and the importance of these sales continues to increase. Almost two thirds of people who own smart phones use them to shop. This doesn’t take into account the number of people using other devices such as tablets, laptops, and desktops to shop online. When shopping online or researching a product, most Internet search engine users say that they avoid paid advertisements. The statistics show that seventy percent of links that search engine users click are organic, which may seem disheartening to some entrepreneurs who have had little success with gaining internet visibility. One of the first steps many businesses take in their attempts to increase internet visibility and online sales is to create a social media presence with sites like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs, as nine out of ten adults who are online use social media. However, most companies only respond to less than one third of their fans’ or followers’ feedback.
Before you turn your business and life upside down to accommodate internet applications such as social media outlets and taking out banner ads, look to other internet marketing resources that you have. There are a number of options that can be used when one is looking to increase online sales and interest in your product, and the most utilized of these tools is search engine optimization. Also known as SEO, this method of online marketing is proven to increase your ranking on various search engines, as well as improve the management of your social media outlets and the aesthetics and convenience of your website. SEO companies contract with search engines and receive consistent data regarding the most searched keywords and other important criteria that must be considered when revamping a website. This data that they receive will be used to choose the best keywords that simultaneously describe your product while pulling you up in the rankings. Most SEO companies will “grade” your website before they begin their work to see where your vulnerabilities are, and they will continue to grade it on a regular basis to monitor the results of their work. After contracting an SEO company, almost all of their clients see an increase in online sales and regular traffic.