The Cost of Search Engine Optimization as a Post Launch Initiative

02/03/2009

Since the mid 1990s organizations have been concerning themselves with what is known as Search Engine Optimization or SEO. SEO has become such a science that marketers have questioned whether or not it is important for search engine optimization to be addressed during web development or after a website is up and running.

Understanding Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is the development of certain words and phrases that are designed to draw traffic to a web site from search engines such as Google or Yahoo through natural search results. For example if a person was looking for information on car insurance, they would type those words into the search engine. After doing this, pages of information on car insurance will then be displayed.

The main goal of search engine optimization is to have as many people visit a website as possible by having your website show up in the search engine results. For example, the more times the words car insurance are present on a website or the content on a website is relevant to car insurance, the higher the website will appear in search engine results.

The Cons of Post Launch SEO

Most site owners these days completely understand that search engine optimization is imperative, but some still consider it only after their website has made its debut. There are many websites that consider SEO as an after thought. Most industry experts have a staunch opinion about SEO considerations and placement being conducted during the web development process.

Experts in search engine optimization believe a post launch approach is much more costly in the long run as compared to concomitantly paying attention to SEO from the onset. Technical infrastructure, site content and web site design are all factors that control proper search engine optimization. It is contended that a site’s SEO should be a part of the building process from the beginning.

Why to Conduct Pre-Launch SEO

Ideally, a company should want their new website to hit the ground running and a press release or two is not enough to bring in the desirable hits and a high enough page ranking necessary for a successful website.

With post-launch SEO placement there are certain aspects that will have to be reworked that will involve direct costs. These major associated issues include URL structure, canonical URL, directory structure, code cleanliness and ordering with CSS, header and Meta tags, ALT tags and the use of JavaScript, Ajax or Flash and the design layout.

In addition to the direct costs involved in post launch search engine optimization, the lost opportunity costs can reach into the millions of dollars. The longer that SEO integration is postponed the longer it will take for the numerous hits and high page ranking necessary for online success.

Some SEO industry experts predict that the timeline for integrated search engine optimization is approximately 10 to 13 months for very competitive industries and keywords, while optimistic post launch optimization can be any where from 15 to 18 months, potentially costing a new website millions of dollars in lost revenue

Spidering, indexing and ranking take time and strong natural search engine performance is not achieved quickly and can take up to six months or longer. A new site with post launch optimization can take even longer. The conclusion is that without the proper search engine optimization integration, a great deal of opportunity and revenue is being missed.

For more insight visit Search Engine Optimization Services