For most enterprises additional business will only arise from online sales when the business’s domain has managed to gain a page one search engine positioning with a search platform for at least one of its pages. Obtaining that good ranking is possible without using search engine optimisation strategies but unlikely. Equally unlikely is the probability of keeping the page one listing without continuing search optimization effort. Rivals will be employing similar strategies to improve their own position, and without sustained effort on your own behalf, your own listing could slide.

For a new organisation, or for one that has recently redesigned its website, a degree of trust needs to be developed with the search facilities before a better natural search engine positioning begins to happen. A good starting point is to ensure that your website is physically sound. All the internal backlinks to navigate between your own pages should be right, as these will make an initial contribution to the backlink score of your website. This can also be encouraged by providing a sitemap file to Google. As your website expands, it is useful to refresh the sitemap file, and to name your individual pages in such a way that older pages are still easily indexed by the search facilities and do not result in search failures.

It is useful to use all of the metatags that can be associated with a website that can make a difference. Many optimisation professionals will disagree with the significance of some, particularly keyword tags, but many still remain useful reminders of what is being done to the website even if making little difference to the ranking. Some metatags such as page descriptions and titles will assist in improving prominence on results listings, and are often forgotten by even the biggest of enterprises.

While these technical modifications can make a difference, particularly when your company is operating in a limited market, but generally some form of additional marketing is required, and this is the greater part of the search optimization effort. This is off-page optimisation, where your search engine optimisation consultant needs to build the reputation of your organisation in the wider world, usually through the writing of items that comment on matters related to your organisation. These items will probably not reference your company directly, but will include backlinks coupled with your website that add to the significance of your website with the search facilities. In time this could result in higher rankings for your pages, eventually reaching page one.

The off-page optimisation needs to continue after achieving a page one ranking but the volume of effort required should reduce eventually, because your visibility with the search facilities is high enough to need small reminders. It is very rare for a website to preserve its page one listing with no effort at all.

It can take a long time to develop the natural search engine positioning of your pages to the point where your organisation is noticed on page one of a search engine results page. You need to use search optimization strategies to achieve this, but you must continue to use search engine optimisation to preserve that ranking.