The internet age is in full swing. Millions of people consult the web to find out information about products, services, their favorite sports teams, or just to check the weather. And the first place they head to is a search engine. Google has understood this trend, and has adeptly taken its place as the number one search engine in the world. This is why they dominate the search engine market share, receiving about 65 percent of it. From its inception, Google has tried to set itself apart from the rest of the world, so much so that their lawn is fully mowed by goats that are rented from a grazing company.

Since its humble beginnings, Google has gone to great extents to secure itself as the leader in providing quality information for users. They took their time developing the PageRank algorithm, and even used LEGO bricks to house the 4-GB hard drives they were using to first test these calculations. The algorithm that was created now dictates the popularity of websites, and how well a website ranks on Google’s search engine. This is an important part of the marketing strategy for many different companies. A higher search engine ranking puts a website on the first of a search engine results page (SERP) on Google. Since about three-quarters of internet users never look past the first page of a SERP, a low ranking could push a company out of sight.

The good news is that search engine optimization has provided companies with a way to increase their Google rankings. SEO aims at producing organic ways to increase rankings, without the use of paid advertisements. SEO marketing companies utilize the words users type into search engines, and create content that contains these words. The content is high quality, and weaves the keywords into the writing organically, making them more appealing to users. As more users click on these keywords, which are usually backlinks to a client’s website, the site gains more traffic. This, in turn, increases a site’s search engine ranking. Consequently, SEO leads have a close rate of almost 15 percent, whereas outbound leads, such as direct mail advertisements, have a rate of only 1.7 percent.

SEO marketing companies are a great way for a business to stay on top of internet marketing. With almost 90 percent of users using the internet to browse or research products online in 2012, and many of them following up on social media sites to evaluate a product’s worth, companies have to step up their marketing game to keep up with consumer demands. By outsourcing to an SEO marketing company, businesses can focus on creating quality products, while the SEO experts work on increasing their site’ visibility on Google, and other search engines. A high ranking could lead to greater profits, and cement your company’s success.