I can’t lie to you. When somebody mentions search engine optimization I tend to roll my eyes and look the other way. I want my creative freedom! I do not want to be chain ganged by stupid search engine rules. The fact of the mater though is it is something all of us who haven’t “made it” yet have to worry about. It doesn’t have to be that bad though! Just think of it as having to eat your vegetables. You don’t want to, but it is good for you. You want to grow up to be a big powerful Web site don’t you?

Adding to the intense thrill of web site ownership are keyword comparisons and bidding for good keyword positions in search engines. You might hire a search engine optimization specialist who can track elusive algorithm clues and is unfazed by page rank drama. Your programmers and designers insist they get along. The marketing department actually believes deadlines are met. The new bank account is waiting for fresh revenue. And oh yes, it’s assumed someone will come looking for your web site and wants to use it.

You did build it for them, right?

For every search result, there is the possibility that:

a.The engine will display a description that makes sense. Or not.

b.The page the search engine refers to does what the description said it would do and is about what the search engine said it would cover. Or not.

Your SEO/SEM, if you hired a good one, helped you write your title tag statement and Meta page description and structured it so it makes sense in SERPs (search engine results pages).

Your Usability professional, if you hired one, evaluated the page to make sure it would meet customer expectations and convince visitors there are other hot pages inside the web site to look at too. Without call to action prompts, well displayed, logically labeled navigation links and credible content, the chance of someone remaining on that page is pretty slim.

Says Gordon Hotchkiss, President and CEO of Enquiro Search Solutions, Inc., in a recent Search Day article written by Shari Thurow, called Creating Compelling Search Engine Ads and Landing Pages, “Once searchers arrive on your landing pages, you have 13.2 seconds to convince visitors that they are on the right site.”

You can read the rest of the article on surviving search engine optimization over at WebProNews.com. Just remember that some search engine optimization work might be a little hard at first, but it will be well worth it if you do it right.