That you have to get a good ranking for your chosen keywords to get hits on your website is a given. If you want to get noitced in the web, you should have your desired landing page linked to keywords with search engines, preferrably on the first page.

And, not just the first page, but the top half (or first fold). Mind you, I have had an enquiry, which turned the contactor into a client, while my search engine ranking was on page two. But, this is more an exception that the rule, after all do you click through from searches found on page two or further?

Before going into generic links, I must note that you can get into the first page of a keyword search by paying for a sponsored link. By this I mean something like (Google's Adwords).

For the cost of a few cents to a few dollars, your site gets a link for paid keywords on the sponsored link section of each search. This is usually located on the top and/or the right hand side of the page.

Do note that these sponsored (paid for) links are also located not just on the first page of such searches, but on the second and succeeding pages. Search engines have a system of spreading your links in their own  sites, as well as related sites and portals, which is governed by their policy and practices and the amount you pay for the sponsored link.

I'll cover sponsored links in another post. Let's talk about improved search engine rankings in the generic (naturally generated) search pages.

I approach my clients with a service of improving search engine rankings using blogs, but must let you know that there are other means. SEO (search engine optimisation) can be achieved using other means, including using the services practitioners of this arm of web consulting, the use of Web 2.0 social media, article marketing and so on.

SEO practitioners will do job of creating links back to your website, special landing pages and so on. Search engines in running the web robots (or crawlers) looking for content establish a relevance for your website and its different pages, by counting the number of links back to your site. And, not just counting the links but establishing a relevance and apportioning a ranking based on the perceived importance of the links to the keyword/s concerned.

Do note that I don't know exactly how this is done and am not privy to the workings of the logarithms used to rank such keywords. But, have learned how this works through studying their use in the web and practising the the principles learned myself and for my clients. 

And, how does a blog do this?

Simply put, your blog sets out keywords in the text, which gives a certain ranking for the same by search engines. Then you set-up links in your blog back to your site. The use of these keywords and the backlinks help improve your search engine rankings.

The likes of Google look at the words and links and give you a higher relevance, after compaing to other websites, blogs and the like in the web. I proceed on the basis of the more keywords and links the better.

A recent blog I did for a client is a good example. After setting up a new website for the client, he commented that the new website had no ranking in search engines.

I explained that it was new site and I did not bother registring with search engines  as they appear not to work from such effort.

I suggested a blog. And, using his name as a dot net (the dot com was already taken) set up the blog.

With each new post, I notified the search engines. (Yes, they do like this sort of thing and some even thank  you for doing so.)

As a result his blog is now indexed and ranking in the first page of Google and more importantly his website has been indexed. Consequently, his website is now ranking in the first page of a number of keyords we have targetted.

This is something you can do yourself. Or, we can help you do this. And, this is an extremely cost-effective means of marketing communication, when compared to more traditional media.