Search engine optimization or SEO is the act of placing keyword rich articles on a business’ website in order to attract the three major search engines – Yahoo!, MSN and Google – which send out their “feelers” in order to find the keywords or keyword phrases and then rank the websites according to a special formula.  Keywords or keyword phrases are the words that customers use in the search boxes on the search engine webpages in order to search for what they want or need.  Having a high ranking on the major search engines is beneficial for a business because all websites are ranked according to keywords and the special formula; therefore depending on the competition and their keyword usage, a business’ website could be ranked higher or lower on different days.  That’s why it is very important to continually place updated keyword rich articles on a business’ website.  One day an antique toys website could be ranked number three out of all antique toy websites on the search engine pages and then their competition comes along with more keyword rich articles. The next day this same antique toys website is now ranked at number 12.  The majority of people who visit search engines to look for what they need or want usually pick from the first few listings on the webpages rather than look through several hundred or thousands of listings for what they want.

Search engine optimization is only one way to increase a business’ income.  With an article exchange from one business to another, both businesses could increase their customer database in addition to continually ranking higher on the search engine webpages.  No matter where a keyword rich article is placed in conjunction with a website, it is ranked according to the special formula from the major search engines.

An office equipment company could engage in an article exchange with a specialty chair company, thereby increasing both companies customer database in addition to raising each of their search engine rankings.

In order to help their clients make more money, an SEO company or online marketing company needs to engage in several different marketing methods to bring in more targeted customers and expand the client’s customer database to include customers from other websites.  Marketing methods such as search engine optimization and article exchanges are just two of the many marketing methods that could be applied to a company to increase their business.