By using search engine optimization or SEO your online business (or website only) will be ranked high on the three major search engines, Yahoo!, Google and MSN.  You want to use search engine optimization which is using key words in articles written for content on your website in order to raise your ranking on these search engines.  This is because many more consumers are turning to the Internet to search for what they need then the phone book.  The phone seems outdated and the Internet is quicker and easier to use, however just like the phone book will only look to the first page for what they want so it is important that your website ranking is on the first page.

If your website sells fabric vertical blinds, then you’ll want to write articles or hire someone to write articles using the keyword fabric vertical blinds.  Then when people put in the search engine fabric vertical blinds your webpage will pop up among the first few listings.  You can write articles regarding each of the different window blinds your online store carries, that way if someone puts Roman shades into the search box, your website will be among the first to be shown.  Keywords are very important for search engine optimization.  

With search engine optimization, your keywords should not just be sprinkled here and there throughout the article; they should make sense because the search engine sends out “feelers” to gather information to help in the ranking of the websites.  Websites that have keywords that seemed to be in every other sentence may get marked as spam and therefore will not rank high on search engines.

There is also what’s known as local search optimization which is simply making sure that your website has the businesses name, full address, telephone number and website address listed on all articles and in all directories.  It may take some work on your part to get your business in all the online directories but it is cheaper than a phone book ad and will work much better to bring you more customers.