SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization, is the process of optimizing one’s website to improve the position in which the website will appear within the search results obtained from a search engine based on specific keyword phrases.

To operate a business today without the benefit of an online presence is very difficult. The convenience and abundance of information available over the Internet has created an expectation that any serious business should have a website providing at minimum contact information and a basic description of the services and/or products they have available.

Today nearly every business regardless of size or field of business has some sort of web site or blog available online. For the consumer this is a fantastic resource, available 24 hours a day and in the privacy of the home as well.

For the business owner having a repository to post detailed information about the services one provides, business philosophy, product catalogues, pictures, videos, and detailed descriptions of products including prices, provides a fantastic marketing opportunity.

Herein lies the rub; every single competing business owner knows these same facts. Even for somewhat obscure business’ there can be literally thousands of (if not more) competing web sites, providing similar products or services, vying for the same top billing spots.

When the average consumer decides to look up a business on the Internet 69.5 percent of the time he or she will use Google to perform the search (according to research firm Hitwise for f.y.2008). Yahoo and Microsoft make up the majority of the remaining search queries with AOL coming in a distant 4th (although AOL actually uses Google’s results).

According to marketing research conducted by Chitika, a search based advertising network, the top ‘organic’ position in Google drove 34.35% of all traffic in the sample. This was almost equal to the combined traffic from positions 2 through 5, and was more than the combined total of positions 5 through 20. Organic spot number 1 is worth almost exactly double what organic spot number 2 is worth, and the drop is precipitous thereafter.  This is what I like to call the Google ‘Sweet Spot’.

Achieving that coveted number 1 organic spot on Google for a specific keyword phrase can double the amount of traffic a website can expect to receive over the second position. For an online business today, with margins as small as they are now, this could be the difference between business success and business failure.