In the last decade stunning advances in digital technology have begun to force a change in the ways small companies do business. Successful companies are embracing the changes and profiting from them.

Traditional marketing media such as the Yellow Pages and newspapers are dying as new digital outlets take prominence. Younger customers use the Web almost exclusively to find businesses and services. Internet marketing is now an important part of any marketing program.

Today half of all small businesses don't have a Web site and most existing Web sites aren't very effective. Learning to work with the new Internet technologies will mean the difference between your company thriving or merely surviving, or even failing, in the next few years.

Large corporations with deep pockets are devoting significant resources to attract new customers through the Internet. But the beauty of the Internet is that it doesn't have to cost a fortune to stake your claim. No business technology in recent decades has been able to level the playing field for smaller businesses as much as the World Wide Web.

What exactly is Search Engine Optimization?

The first thing to think about in the design of your company's Web site is how are people going to find it. There are literally billions of Web sites in existence now, and there are probably dozens to millions of site that are competing with you in your line of business. Search engines, such as Google, are the most popular way that people find local products and services and to have your Web site get listed at the top of the search engine results pages is the goal of good Web site design.

The common name for making your Web site stand out above the rest of your competitors is Search Engine Optimization. There are several steps to Search Engine Optimization (or SEO as it is often referred to).

The first step is to find the best keywords, much like picking the right classifications for a Yellow Pages ad. An expert Web designer uses highly specialized software and online services to find which keyword phrases are right for your organization. The best ones aren't so common that you will be competing against millions of other Web sites, and aren't so unusual that no one ever searches on them.

Next you designer needs to modify the text copy on your Web site's pages to ensure that they have just the right density of your keyword phrases to appeal to the search engines. This process alone will often get a Web site to show up on the first couple of pages of a Google search.

Depending on your needs many other SEO steps will probably need to be performed to get your site found that might include:

- Submitting your site to hundreds of related online directories and search engines.

- Negotiating with many other Web sites to add a link to your site. These links makes your site seem more important to the search engines.

- Getting your business listed on popular local review sites, and getting your customer's positive testimonials added.

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