It's been said that in the world of Internet marketing, you don't find the traffic, the traffic finds you. That's especially true when your site ranks high in search engine results position. While there is some truth to that adage, it's not enough to sit idly by and hope for the best. Simply putting up a web page with some loosely related content on offerings, then calling it a day, isn't going to do the trick. In fact, it's the Internet marketing equivalent of trying to hit a piñata while wearing a full-body cast.

For commercial web sites, just like their real world counterparts, in order to generate sales for a product there needs to be traffic. That's where search engine optimization(SEO)comes in: SEO is a type of web-based marketing. Simply put, a web page with a high SEO ranking will score higher on search engine searches that lead traffic to web pages. A page of results generated by search engines based on weighted elements in each engine's algorithm. Most major search engines use a type of search known as "organic," or unpaid, marketing to deliver their results. This means that search engine algorithms look at the content of web pages for their relevance to a search. Optimizing the content of a web page to match its offerings makes it search engine friendly. And search engines are in the business of matching people's searches to the query-friendliest websites.

The Human Factor in Content Writing

The quality of the writing does make a difference in the success of a web page, whether that's a blog about organic search marketing or a website about favorite suspense movies. Not only should a page be easy for search engines programs known as web spiders, crawlers and robots to find, it should engage the human reader. Web searchers most often want clear, concise answers to their queries. Most search engines are geared toward that end. Well-optimized content therefore should not have an inordinate occurrence of keywords, simply where they would occur naturally in context. Overall, search engine optimized content should not have the repetitive, cut and pasted feel of something slapped together strictly to gain the attention of a search engine rather than be of service to the researcher. For a literary example, written content should be closer to the austerity of Ernest Hemingway than the verbosity of Charles Dickens:  Text should have a logical organization and flow, and yet be to the point and engaging. In other words, a page of text should read more like a newspaper editorial than a high school English paper.  And above all, content should relate to the site's offerings -- no room for bait and switch here.

With careful consideration, the content should provide a pool of keywords or phrases from which search engines can draw. These combinations, sometimes known as long tail keywords, are more likely to be used by searchers looking for something specific. In terms of commercial traffic, that often means someone who has done most of their background research and is now honing in on a something specific.

Visual Considerations

Not all Internet-equipped computers are created equally, so it's important to optimize content for different levels of performance. That means paying attention not only to the content but to how it is presented. In some cases, this can take the form of having separate versions of the same page for computers with lower graphics capabilities and different types of monitors. Despite the capabilities for most computers to display some form of animated graphics, most people find the use of pop up boxes and the like distracting, even annoying. That's quite the opposite of what a good web site seeks to accomplish. Reading a web page should be a rewarding experience, not one that leaves the searcher with a sense of time wasted.