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A little website optimization can go a long way toward helping an entrepreneur get a site placed highly enough in search results to make a marked impact in the bottom line.

Creating a website may be a headache to some, but getting traffic and profiting from it will prove even more of a challenge than constructing the site. Many sites have turned to search engine optimization to help their chances of gaining a place in the top-of-fold first page organic search results.

The Wall Street Journal's Startup Journal acknowledged the importance of SEO, among other design issues, for new websites. It is not enough to have a better product. People have to be able to find out about it, and with so many turning to search and clicking on those highly-placed first page results, SEO matters.

The article illustrated the example of a pizza place in Maryland battling against a nationwide chain with a substantial marketing budget that includes television advertising. Professional site development and SEO helped level the playing field:

For example, the Web site for Pizza John's, a pizza restaurant in Essex, Md., gets the top ranking on Google or Yahoo for searches on "pizza johns." Crucially, it beats out the similarly named national chain Papa John's, which has many stores in the surrounding area. It also ranks at the top for searches on "pizza Essex Maryland."
Pizza John's does a few things SEO pros will recognize as key. The site's domain name and title text contain the keywords that match the query. The report said developer Web.com designed the site while avoiding the use of "certain types of graphics and frames that can be troublesome to search-engine spiders."

Startup Journal also advocated a quartet of marketing ideas to help extend the reach of a site. They recommended inviting users to write reviews of the business on sites like Yahoo Local; avoid overspending on a flashy site that won't attract search engines; design landing pages that will be useful to searchers querying for particular information; and track those results.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.