E-commerce is a cut throat business. You have to arm yourself with the proper know-how and the tools to make your site a cut above the rest. Each day, more and more sites are clambering to optimize their rankings in search engines and if you let your guard down, you may just get trampled on and be left in the abyss filled with so many failed e-commerce sites.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a term widely used today by many e-commerce sites.  For the past few years and the next ten years or so, search engines would be the most widely used internet tool to find the sites that they need to go to or the product or information they need.

Most people that use search engines use only the ten top search results in the first page. Making it to the first page, more so to the top three is a barometer of a sites success in search engine optimization. You will get a higher ratio of probability in being clicked on when you rank high. The more traffic to your site, the more business you rake in.

But, it is essential to grab a hold of that spot and improve your ranking . As I aforementioned, each day is a new day for all e-commerce sites to make them selves rank higher using search engine optimization. It is imperative to make your site better and better everyday.

So just what is search engine optimization and do you have to use it? The answer to why you have to use it is an easy one. You need search engine optimization to be number one, or maybe at least make your site income generating.

With search engine optimization you can get the benefit of generating a high volume of traffic. Let�s just say you get only a turn out of successful sales with 10 to 20 percent of your traffic. If you get a hundred hits or more a day, you get a good turn out of sales already. If you get only ten to twenty hits a day, you only get one or two sales... if any at all.

So once again, what is search engine optimization? Search engine optimization is utilizing tools and methods in getting your site a top ranking in the SERPS (search engine results pages). Getting yourself on the first page and better yet in the top half of the page will ensure that your site will generate public awareness of your site�s existence and subsequently generate more traffic, traffic that could lead to potential income and business.

Search engine optimization requires a lot of work to be fully realized. There are many aspects you have to change in your site or add as well to get it search engine optimized. These will include getting lots of information about the keyword phrases that are popular in regards to your site's niche or theme.

You may also need to rewrite your site's content, so that you can get the right keyword phrases on your site without making it too commercial, but light and informative. There are certain rules and guidelines to be followed with making your site�s content applicable and conducive to search engine optimization.

You will also need to collaborate with many other sites so that you can get link exchanges and page transfers. The more inbound and outbound traffic generated by linked sites is one of the components search engines use to rank sites.

Try to search the internet for useful help. Many tips, guidelines and methods for search engine optimization are to be found a plenty. There are many articles you can read that can help you optimize your site in the search engine results. The more knowledge and information you gather the better. This will help you in getting all those high rankings and may require a little time and effort in your part, but the benefits will be astounding.

If you can part with some money, there are many sites on the internet that can help with your search engine optimization. There are many sites that help in tracking keyword phrases that can improve your site too. There are also some good content writers that have tons of experience in creating good keyword laden content for your site, so you'll have a good quality site that has value for it's visitors. *A word of caution, if you do spend money for SEO help... just get references and beware of inferior help - make sure you know what you're getting before you pay for it.

Act now and see the all benefits garnered with search engine optimization. All of this information will result in a better ranking, better quality traffic and more business for your site and company.

Bill Straub - Team24k