US e-Commerce is growing rapidly, and forecast to reach $14.8 Billion in the 1st Quarter of 2003.  That adds up to a lot of business that will be transacted over the Internet. So Who Is Doing All This Business - And How Do You Get A Slice Of The Action?

Current estimates put the Worldwide Online Population at 606 Million people, with the US Online Population at 183 million (72% of the eligible US Population). One study states that 56% of this US Online population intend to purchase using the Internet in 2003. Another study shows that all sectors of the demographic are taking part:

• There is rapid growth across the earnings range, especially for those earning $100,000 - $150,000 per year.
• There is participation and solid growth across the entire eligible age range, from young adults to the elderly.
• The Internet is Multi-Cultural and International.

You'd obviously like to encourage these purchasers to find your website, and then persuade them to do business with you. How can you do that?

85% of the US Internet population use the major search engines and directories to find web sites containing the information that they seek. According to Nielsen / NetRatings, the top 5 places used to conduct these keyphrase searches in October 2002 were Google (29.2% Audience Reach), Yahoo (28.5%), MSN (28.1%), AOL (19.7%), and Ask Jeeves (10.3%).

The search engines are the major source of Internet traffic for most businesses. They can potentially drive large volumes of highly targeted prospects to a website - typically at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing.

For most people Google is the best place to search. Lets try 'auto glass repair' as an illustrative example. My search engine results page (serp) just gave me 2 sponsored links and 10 sites that fit the query best - according to Google's very clever Algorithms. It also told me that there are about 325,000 sites that fit this keyphrase query - that is a lot of competition. The top rankings on this page go to people all over the US, and the second page of 20 results is similar. I need someone closer to home.

As an aside. The 'sponsored links' refer to websites that bought an advertising space at the top of the search page. These websites did not earn any ranking in the search engine index, and are very often difficult to use. Purchasing a space like this can be very dangerous and get expensive fast, unless your website can convert the traffic into profit. You are usually charged on a 'pay-per-click' basis. For a long-term Internet marketing campaign it is usually much more cost-effective to use Search Engine Optimization for targeted traffic.

Lets try another keyphrase like 'auto glass repair niagara falls'. Much better, a list of local businesses who can help me! These lucky business owners in the top 10 out of 2,250 matching sites get to have me peruse their websites so that I can decide if I want to do business with them. If I don't see anything I like I'll go to the next page for results 11-20. Some people will even go to the 3rd page, but most find what they need on the top 2 pages.

If only you could understand what keyphrases people where using to find a business like yours and then get your website ranked on the top 2 pages of the major search engines, wouldn't life be easy! Well it would at least be a good start. But how could you do that?

Unfortunately, most website design firms know absolutely nothing about how to get a website a high ranking in the search engines. The result of this is that the vast majority of business websites never get found by anyone, except those the business owner can steer to them by using traditional marketing efforts, like word of mouth and integrated advertising. If you want highly qualified targeted traffic to visit your website you should be considering Search Engine Optimization. This newly emerging field has grown, from a black art in the mid 90's, to a logical strategy for Internet marketing. SEO can get your website in front of the market that is using keyphrase search to find your products and services.

 If this stage is performed incorrectly your site will never receive as much traffic as it could.
Consider this 3 step process:

1. Compile A Keyphrase List
You need to know how your customers and clients are searching for your business. Be warned! - They typically use different keyphrases than you expect. Ask your clients for keyphrase suggestions and put together a list. Then add any other keyphrases that you think are important, and add variations such as plurals, derivatives and common mis-spellings.

2. Evaluate The Keyphrases
You need to evaluate and filter the list in order to get the maximum amount of quality traffic to your website. We need to consider 3 aspects for each keyphrase:

• Keyphrase Popularity - Is easy to judge and available from proprietary software like WordTracker. The popularity data is derived from real web searches over the previous month. A higher number means more traffic, but usually also means more competition for the keyphrase.
• Keyphrase Specificity - 'auto glass repair' is less specific than 'auto glass repair niagara falls'. The geographic specifier allows the searcher to usefully narrow-down their search to their locality, and the amount of competing sites also decreases. Your keyphrases need to be specific, both to be useful to the searcher, and to allow you to compete successfully.
• Searcher Motivation - This is an abstract concept that is very important to your traffic flow. Consider 'buffalo real estate listings' and 'buffalo real estate agents'. These keyphrases have similar popularity numbers and are specific. However, the second phrase might be used by a searcher looking for a real estate agent, maybe they have finished browsing and are ready to buy. Such differences can have large implications for the quality of the traffic you attract to your website.

3. Evaluate Keyphrase Performance
Referrer log traffic analysis can help you understand how many visitors come to your site from each keyphrase. You can also track visitor behavior within the website, and analyze which keyphrases are used by the most valuable visitors - those who transact business with you. You can use this analysis to refine your SEO strategy.

e-Commerce is growing at the expense of traditional commerce. If your business is going to compete successfully you need to bring qualified traffic to your site, and convert it to profit. If you don't your competitor will!

Keyphrase compilation, evaluation, and performance are only a few components of an SEO strategy to give you an EFFECTIVE website. You also need to DEPLOY the keyphrases correctly, and DESIGN your navigation system and website content to CONVERT the traffic flow into your bottom line.

A combination of Search Engine Optimization and Web Site Design with understanding of consumer psychology, can differentiate your EFFECTIVE e-Business from an INEFFECTIVE Rival.