Google and other search engines are the gateways to your business, and getting high page ranks somewhere on the first page of listings, is essential for driving business to your site. There are companies out there that will promise you the moon, the stars, and, by the way, page rankings so high that you’ll cheerfully pay them hundreds of dollars every month for their services.

Finding tried and true ways to get organic traffic meaning being found during a regular search, not by pay per click ads as seen on the right column of the listing, is the best and most solid way to build your web site’s traffic long term. We know of a successful SEO in San Diego  who also offers Bakersfield SEO services with a solid internet marketing strategy.

Here’s what search engine optimization boils down to:

1. Content, content, content. You need real content on your web; this is content that has real meaning to real people, not just stuffing a bunch of keywords that make no sense. Search engines use programs called web crawlers or web spiders that list websites. The one thing those web crawlers looks for is content. They figure out if a site has content by tracking keyword phrases. This is why search engine optimization usually starts by picking keywords and writing content around them; many website marketing experts advocate writing a high density of the same keywords, but doing too much of this can work against you.

2. Links back to your site from other’s sites provide validation. The more links mainly link that relate to your site’s content, the higher your page ranking will be. Methods to get link backs range from link exchanges with other websites in related topics to writing articles about the topic you’re dealing with, to social bookmarking sites and such.

3. Updated, and expanding content. You can’t just put a page up and expect to keep the same page ranks. Your site needs to have new material; this is important not just for web spiders, but for human visitors as well. If they can expect to see something new and exciting at least three times a week, they’ll keep coming back, and it takes an average of seven visits before someone decides to either post in a forum or buy something in a shopping cart.

4. Web layouts that make sense. Your website should have clear navigational links; your front page should have links to everything else on your site.

5. The text means everything in web content. Search engine crawlers ignore Javascript, they disregard graphics, and until recently, they couldn’t read the text in Flash animations. If the search engine spiders can’t read it, it doesn’t help your page rankings.

The real secret of long term success in search optimization is to make your website as usable as you can. Make it easy to navigate for real people, who want to read about your niche, and with content that makes them come back.