1.   What is Search Engine Optimization?
2.   What is Organic or "Natural" search?
3.   What is PPC or Pay Per Click?
4.   What are the advantages and disadvantages of Organic and Pay Per Click search?
5.   What is a Search Engine?
6.   What do you mean by Search Engine Friendly?
7.    Is there a simple solution to top placement?
8.   How long does it take to see results?
9.   Why might I need to have extra elements added to my website?
10.   If these elements are so important, why didn't they get added when my site was originally designed?

     Search engine optimization (SEO), a subset of Internet (Online) Marketing, is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. SEO can also target specialized searches such as image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

     World Wide Web users who find websites through the unpaid search engine listings are using organic search. The pay per click advertisement listings are displayed above and to the right of the organic search results.

     Pay per click (PPC) is an advertising technique used on websites, advertising networks, and search engines. Advertisers bid on "keywords" that they anticipate their target market would search for when seeking their product or service.

For example, if an advertiser sells red widgets, he/she would bid on the keyword "red widgets"so that a user who searched "red widget" would click on his ad and purchase the product. These ads are known as "sponsored links" or "sponsored ads" and appear to the right of and sometimes above the natural or organic results on the page. The advertiser pays only when the user clicks on the ad, and the ad remains until the budget is spent on clicks.

     This chart illustrates the pros and cons of Organic and Pay Per Click searching.

     A search engine is an online database of websites that allows Internet users to search for website information contained in a keyword database. Keywords are words that Internet searches are likely to use when looking for information on a specific topic. Search Engine Optimization involves getting a business ranked high on search engines for the particular keyword terms of that industry.

     Search Engine Friendly is the term to describe a website with added or modified components. These specific elements attract and please search engine spiders or live directory editors. The search engine spider then communicates this information to the search engine by indexing your website and deeming your content highly relevant to that keyword search.

     There is no simple solution that obtains any specific search engine ranking. No SEO company should promise top ranking because how the search engines index websites is not public knowledge. Search engine optimization is difficult work that requires strong knowledge of how the Internet and search engines operate. A quality SEO company can successfully anticipate how the search engine will work in order to achieve top placement.

     It can take between 4 - 12 weeks to see results, depending on each search engine. BeSprout starts tracking your website's performance as soon as your website is submitted to the various search engines. We will then analyze the progress and report this data back to our clients.

     A search engine spider is an automated program that electronically probes every URL submitted to its database. Since the spider is a computer program, it is designed to look for and rank items on each page it probes. If those particular elements are present, the spider computes a higher ranking otherwise would.

     Most website designers have not learned the importance of search engine friendly design. In almost every case we've encountered, the site designer is a highly skilled and creative person whose job is to put your ideas on the web. More often than not, the designers have not received any training in search engine optimization and do not think about it while pursuing a modern and functional website design.

Furthermore, search engines constantly change their ranking criteria to prevent gross manipulation of search tools. Often, website designers are not fully up-to-date with these search engine trends. At BeSprout, we spend time studying how search engines work in order to understand how any sudden change might affect our clients. We have the ability to respond quickly and keep up with these ever changing dynamics. SEO is an ongoing process that ultimately keeps your website highly visible and most effective at capturing and converting your target market.