SEO is a marathon not a sprint

Many companies aspire to see their site listed on the first page "above the fold" on Google, Yahoo or MSN. Some of you maybe saying, so how can I get there? Well, you can but know that those companies you see there now didn't get there overnight and didn't get there cheaply.

There are 2 ways to get to the top of search engines:

Organic SEO - in which you constantly work on your site content, link exchange, keyword research, meta tags, title wording, networking, blog support (see Studio490.com), online marketing, promotions, email blasts, direct mail, web banners and more.

Pay-Per-Click - you pay to be listed above the fold when someone enters a certain keyword.

As a reference, the term "DSL" was selling for 3.05 in 2005 and is now up to 6.24. So if you were the highest bidder for "DSL"; every 100 people that clicked on your link would cost you 624.00. As you can see it wouldn't take much to blow your budget out of the water if you were going after a popular keyword. Some keywords are still very affordable.



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Successful SEO Needs Effort, Not Quick Fixes
By: Mark Nenadic

If you want to be successful with search engine optimization, you need to commit yourself to achieving long-term results. This does take patience, but is necessary if you want to come out on top. The following tips can help bring you closer to your high ranking goal:

Tip 1: Conduct thorough research for keyword phrases " use effective keyword programs such as KeywordDiscovery or WordTracker. The paid programs of their software will help you generate the best keyword phrases for your business.

Tip 2: Valuable web content " Dont create a website that is overrun by graphics. SEO spiders will crawl right over these graphics and pass you by. Your website needs a reasonable amount of web content that is pumped full of valuable information. It needs to be clear and concise, and should also convey your website message which needs to include the keywords youve selected to rank high for.

Tip 3: Relevancy " Ensure that all your link anchor text and title tags are relevant to one another, as well as to the web content that is presented on your site.

Tip 4: Patience is a virtue " It will take almost a year, or even longer, before you begin to see any traffic from the natural results of search engines. Try not to let this get you down. Take this time to continue to improve your site and give the competition a run for their money. Eventually, your persistence, patience and positive thinking will pay off.

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While not having a website at all is still worse than not doing any SEO (search engine optimization), it's not by much. If you plan on not doing any SEO to your site after launch or in production, keep your site lean with good content until you can afford to do some.

Studio490 can help you with your SEO development. We want to be there for you as you grow your online presence and take your company to the next level of business.

Tj Todd
CEO / Creative Director
Studio490