To really compete in the marketplace today, companies need to have an extremely strong web presence. That means having a good website but on an even more basic level, they must get that website to appear in the first few results when someone does a search on a topic related to the business. When people search the web using Google or some other search engine 70 or 80 percent of them will pay no attention to results that are sponsored and decide to click on results that pop up naturally instead.

This means that for companies looking to improve their search engine rankings, using a search engine optimization service is a great way to get results quickly. SEO is the way that websites help improve their rankings and it is known to be 61 percent cheaper than outbound leads such as cold calling. This is a good return on investment and there are easy metrics available that can help determine just how much SEO is helping a certain website get more hits or gain traction. This kind of monitoring is important because it allows companies to see exactly how effective their investment is.

Internet users are very savvy and while they might not think about Google rankings or the fact that Google cofounder Larry Page lends his name to the “PageRank” algorithm when they are using the internet, they do indeed use the internet and quite often. In fact, more than 88 percent of internet users in America over the age of 14 will search for and research products online in 2012. About 40 percent of those individuals then follow up with friends on social media, requesting additional info before deciding on a purchase.

This trend will only increase as it becomes even easier to search the internet. By 2014, desktop computers will be overtaken by mobile internet devices such as smartphones and tablets. Already when people have a question about nearly anything when they are out and about they turn to their phones for answers. People have also taken to shopping on their phones any time they have some down time. As this trend continues, there are more and more apps out there that make shopping and accessing certain sites easier.

To find an SEO company, simply do a web search for a list of hundreds of companies. The great thing is that these companies do not even have to be local, as they are able to do all their work remotely. This means that the field is quite competitive, and it should be easy to get a good deal.