A great website is a must have for every company but to be able to actually access your company’s website, your clients need to be able to find it.

How do people find your website?

Most often people make use of a search engines i.e. Google, Yahoo, and Ananzi…

Today I might need a locksmith so I enter Locksmith into the search engine’s search window and ta da! Tomorrow though my neighbor may need a locksmith and he enters door lock, he gets a somewhat different set of results as he has used a different keyword – I used "Locksmith" and he used "door lock" albeit the fact that we were both searching for the same thing and this brings us to the potential benefit of the use of SEO software.

SEO stands for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION and this type of software is a very effective tool for analyzing what you need to do to make your website more “visible: and or “searchable”.

SEO software gathers data from the web for you. It determines what keywords potential clients use to search for your particular product or service – do they use door locks or locksmiths, vehicle sales or car sales and once you are armed with this information you can make sure that keyword is used in your web content.

SEO also offers rank tracking software. This software helps you determine how high (or low) your site is currently ranked. Basically the search engine e.g. Google will take a look at all the sites for locksmiths , it will then analyses the quality of the contents offered , how many people visit your site (etc) and will then rank your site accordingly.

Higher ranked sites always some out tops – and I mean this literally – as in the top of the search results page.
To get to the top you need to know how far you are from the bottom and a ranking tool is the easiest way to find out.

Another tool in the SEO stable is a Link assistant. A link is basically a shortcut from someone else’s website to your own. Having lots of links to from other sites is great for your business as it just increases the chance of a potential client accessing your site – links are like odds – if it’s only you and the shark in the water – hey it was nice knowing you – however – if it’s you and 50 other bathers…we may just meet again.

Another sneaky SEO tool you could use comes in the form of a secret agent – your own personal 007 software. This software searches the web for other sites relating to yours – it basically spies on your competition and then comes back and tells you all there little secrets….what new article they have published on their site (content) what ranking they are currently at and we all know how important it is to study the enemy right ?

SEO software is a great marketing assistant – it’s basically a research tool and marketing without research is nothing more but a waste of money.