What's the best way to optimize your site for the search engines? Should you be focused on building back links or should you be working on onsite SEO instead? Should you work on making your site more usable to your visitors or reworking it to have a higher keyword density?

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Follow only your SEO expert’s advice, and you’ll spend all your time researching keyword phrases and looking for possible backlinks. Follow your web designer and you’ll be immersed in building the right image for your site. Ignore everyone but your programmer and your site’s code will be a thing of beauty. But no one will ever see it.

While each of these experts have a point  -- after all, your site must be optimized for search engines, have a professional image and be coded properly – they’re all missing one key element in the equation: Content.

Why is content so important?

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You've heard plenty about search engine optimization and other methods for bringing in more customers to your website. In all of the excitement over SEO, many people lose sight of the most important thing of all: their customers. If you're not making a positive user experience a priority, then you can implement all the SEO techniques in the world and still fail to attract a loyal customer base.

How can you tell if you've lost sight of your customers' needs? These are all indicators that you're paying too much attention to search engine optimization and not enough to your customers:
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One thing any successful online business owner will gladly tell you is that you shouldn't go with the first SEO consultant or firm that tells you that they can get your site into the #1 spot in the Google search results. For that matter, you shouldn't hire anyone who makes these kinds of promises - SEO just doesn't work that way.

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If you've spent any time on SEO or internet business forums, you've probably seen people talking about the pros and cons of submitting your site to search engines. If you're new to inline business, you may not even know what it's all about. Submitting your site to a search engine is a simple process; you visit the website of the search engine and give them your site's URL and your most relevant keywords.

For help in this area, check out Andrea's website SEO services.

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If you're building a new site or fine tuning an old one, there are a lot of things to think about. You might be occupied with things like a logo, color schemes, finding a web designer, a developer or a writer to create content for your site, among other things. Each of the people you work with will have their own ideas about what's best for your site. For example, designers will tell you that your graphics and color scheme are the most important thing. A developer will tell you that the site needs to be have a solid code base under the hood. The writer will say that it's content and content alone that matters.

Tip: If you would like some help, Andrea offers website SEO services.

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For experienced internet marketers, the value of SEO is well-known and almost unquestionable. Most marketers know how valuable a top search spot can be, and many invest thousands of hours into trying to rank their websites right at the top for their desired search terms.

However, while webmasters and internet marketers know how valuable a well-ranked website can be, most local business owners do not. Lead generation and customer acquisition for most local businesses is focused on short-term offline solutions, and the idea that search results could bring any valuable leads is almost completely foreign.

Small businesses, online or offline, can benefit from SEO. If you are an SEO consultant looking to contact small businesses for a campaign, or just a small business owner looking to increase your client or customer count, these search engine strategies could be the best way for you to expand your business, market yourself, and increase your income.

1) Appear in local search listings.

Local search is becoming the next big search marketing movement, with a range of companies picking up millions of dollars worth of extra business simply through appearing in local search results. By targeting the right search terms, your business could be able to increase client or customer count without directly increasing marketing efforts.

2) Become a lead generator for your area.

If you control the local search rankings, you also control the potential for other businesses to expand. Once you have built a favorable search position, get in touch with local businesses and offer them the chance to have leads driven directly to them, all for a small monthly fee. Then, fire up your local websites and aim promotional materials straight at them, generating huge amounts of instant business.

3) Create a local information and marketing network.

Most communities are dying for an inspiring local business network, and with some basic SEO that wish could become a reality. Rather than charging for leads, offer businesses a presence on your top-ranked local information and directory website.

4) Control your reputation.

If you desire an inexpensive and powerful PR asset, a well-ranked website can be one of the best tools available to you. By controlling the search engine rankings, you also control your searchable PR and marketing efforts, and can use that power to create positive buzz about your business.

5) Sell directly online.

Why sell from an outlet when you can do so directly online? If your business is product-based, setting up an eCommerce website and offering your products online can save you time and money, all the while increasing your total revenue. A range of free, SEO-friendly online shopping systems are available, giving even the most technically inept business owner the ability to create an online store.

6) Expand within your city.

If your business wants to grow, SEO can be the best way to bring it up to size. By ranking high for more search terms, you dramatically increase your visibility to clients and customers. Generate enough buzz and business online and your company could gain enough cash-flow, power, and online influence to expand within your city.