Your website is only valuable if it is visited by a steady stream of unique human traffic. Studies show that 90% of Internet users rely on search engines to find information on the Internet. Yes, visitors can also discover a new website by clicking on a link or entering the URL directly into the navigation bar, but the major of new traffic to most sites is directed from specific search engine queries. As such, ranking in the search engines for terms that pertain to your website is essential to developing a steady traffic stream for your site.
Unfortunately, simply showing up for a particular term will do you little good your site appears on the 10th, 20th, or 100th page or results. For that matter, ranking for a term will do you little good if you show up on page 3. Only 63% of search engine users will click past the first page of listings on any given Search Engine Results Page. If you rank on the second page, you instantly lose 63% of your audience – and the numbers only get smaller than there.
There is a way to improve your site's ranking within the search engines, without paying for a costly pay per click campaign. Through the practice of search engine optimization, a website's page rank can be improved and manipulated. After an extensive SEO campaign, a site that ranked 150th for a competitive term could appear on the first page.
Any website owner who desires a constant flow of traffic to the site can not afford to neglect SEO practices on the site. Without a solid page rank, your promoting site could end up as a ghost town.
