Search Engine Optimization or better known today as SEO is a big decision for Chiropractors today that can potentially improve your websites ranking in search results thereby saving you time and money, but you can also run the risk of damaging your websites online reputation resulting in your website being completely removed from any web search results. Before deciding on an SEO firm be sure to research the potential advantages that a good SEO firm can provide as well as the potential damage that an irresponsible SEO firm can do to your site.

So what exactly is SEO and how does it help me?

SEO is the process of improving the volume and/or quality of traffic/visitors to a website via search engines through what is known as "natural", "organic", "algorithmic" or un-paid search results as compared to search engine marketing also known as SEM, which primarily deals with paid advertising often seen as “Sponsored Links” in the Google search results. Typically, the higher a site appears in the “organic search results”, the more free visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO firms will often target multiple types of search results to maximize their effectiveness, including image search, local search, video search and vertical search or industry specific results. This gives a website what is known as a web presence meaning the ability to be found in multiple ways and thereby increases the “importance” of the website in the eyes or the search engines. Google refers to this a “Page Rank”.

In terms of strategy, internet marketing companies and SEO firms must first consider how the various search engines work (with a primary emphasis on Google as Google is the dominant search engine today with over 90% of search traffic) and of course taking into consideration what people search are searching for when you want them to find your site. Optimizing a website primarily involves focusing the content and coding to increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove any barriers to it getting properly indexed for these keywords by the search engines.

Many SEO firms offer their service as a stand-alone product while others package their service together with a broader marketing campaign. Ultimately for SEO to be maximally effective it require changes to the HTML source code of a site and therefore the best SEO strategies are incorporated into the web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" is often used to describe a web sites design, referring to it’s menus, content management systems, images, videos, shopping carts, and other elements that have been optimized for the purpose of search engine performance. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the website has been “optimized”. Many sites are search engine friendly and their content from one page to the next looks different and unique, however the metatags of the site, which the search engines uses to index the content are identical causing the search engines to think that all of the pages are duplicates. This is disastrous if you want your site to be found for more than a couple keywords. In the image to the right (click to expand) you can see an example of a website that is suffering from duplicate metatags. To see what your site looks like to the search engines > open a Google search page > enter “site:yourdomainname.com” (without the quotes) and you will see a search result the displays all of the pages of your website. Do many or all of the pages Title (the blue link) or Description (black text under the link) look identical? If so, then your site is not “optimized”! Ensuring that all of the pages of a site have properly formatted metatags with a title, description, and keywords that specifically relates to the actual page content is how to truly “optimize” a website for the best search engine results.

If you are looking for a Search Engine Optimization Company that specializes in Chiropractic and that is committed to only using the highest in industry standards for predictable long term success we can highly recommend Promotional Chiropractic Websites. They will get your website to the top of the search engines and help to keep you there! If you would like to learn more read our other articles on Search Engine Optimization.

Here are some other Definitions of Search Engine Optimization or SEO on the Web:

• Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural ...
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization
• The process of optimizing one’s website to get better results in search engines.
  webmastersedge.net/home/2008/defining-advertising-terms-and-acronyms-part-two/
• The act of altering a web site so that it does well in the organic, crawler-based listings of search engines. In the past, has also been used as a term for any type of search engine marketing activity, though now the term search engine marketing is more commonly used as an umbrella term.
  www.anvilmediainc.com/search-engine-marketing-glossary.html
• The process of making a site and its content highly relevant for both search engines and searchers. SEO includes technical tasks to make it easier for search engines to find and index a site for the appropriate keywords, as well as marketing-focused tasks to make a site more appealing to users. ...
  searchenginewatch.com/define
• the process of choosing targeted keyword phrases related to a site, and ensuring that the site places well when those keyword phrases are part of a Web search.
  keywordmktg.com/Glossary.aspx
• The practice of designing web pages so that they rank as high as possible in search results from search engines. ...
  newsletter.blizzardinternet.com/tech-glossary/
• The refinement of website content, the development of inbound links to the website, and publicity about the website aimed at raising the position of the website in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Some companies offer search engine optimization services, some of dubious value.
  www.writerswebsiteplanner.com/resources/glossary.html
• SEO seeks to increase a site’s visibility in search engines and enhance its value to visitors through topical page design, consistent HTML ...
  imperialsoftwaresystems.com/solutions/glossary.php
• Search Engine Optimization, also known by the acronym SEO, is a division of the larger Search Engine Marketing. SEO is a strategy that aims at increasing the Website’s performance on the search engines in organic, natural means.
  www.dottraffic.com/glossary/
• Creating and improving a website so that it will rank high in the search engines and help potential customers or clients find the website.
  www.legalinternetmarketing.com/seo-glossary.html
• techniques that enable your site to appear higher in a list of search engine results
  www.llamawerx.com/webterms.html
• Catch all term for techniques used to improve a Web pages position in a search engines results page. Generally involves modifying the Web pages code and written copy.
  www.awsp.com/search-engine-glossary.html
• Type of search engine marketing in which a site is created or modified specifically to improve its ranking among unpaid search engine listings.
  multichannelmerchant.com/crosschannel/marketing/crosschannel_marketing_glossary/
• Designing a website so that it ranks highly in the search engines when someone searches for specific phrases related to the site.
  totheweb.com/learning_center/seo_glossary.html