Where can you find the IT Club?
The Internet is large. Very large. The Internet is so big that some might describe it as a limitless pool of information subject only to the amount of information its users are willing and able to offer. When I first decided to attend CVTC for its IT Programmer/Analyst program I stopped by the campus itself and found out about the program through some written materials located at the front desk. I knew what I was searching for and I went right to the source to find it. If I were to equate this to online searching, it would be like wanting information on Microsoft and going to Microsoft.com to find it. This will oftentimes work for those people that know what they are looking for, but what if a person doesn't know exactly what it is that they want or where to find it?
If I didn't know where CVTC was located I would have to find it some place else. I would probably have to check in the phone book to find the address and then go from there. But what if I didn't even know about CVTC at all but I was still interested in attending such a school for a program such as the IT Programmer/Analyst program?
IT Programmer/Analyst. I don't know about you, but I was unaware that the title I would hold upon completing a computer science degree would be IT Programmer/Analyst. Instead of searching for "Eau Claire IT Programmer/Analyst programs", I'm sure that someone interested in computer science and computer programming would most likely search Google for "eau claire computer science programs." Interestingly enough if you do search for "eau claire it programmer/analyst programs" on Google you will find our program as the first result! But if you search for "eau claire computer science program", our program will not be found anywhere near the top 100 pages of Google results and will be found on page 72 in Yahoo! search results and page 49 in MSN. That's pretty far down the line for the phrase that most people would use for our program.
Where is this monologue going?
That's right, let's just get right to the point. The amount of information you can search through on search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN is huge. Sometimes you can get lucky and find exactly what you wanted to find on the first page. But other times you are going to find a lot of information and a multitude of websites that have nothing to do with what you thought you were looking for. So what are you going to do if you need to find information that is local? What do you do if you are a business that is local, but you want to market to customers worldwide? Or even better... you want to market to local customers, but those customers are unable to find you amongst the multitude of other sites indexed in search engines such as Google. Well that is when it is time for you, as a business, to begin optimizing your website for those phrases so that your customers can find you. For example, instead of throwing your hat in the ring with the hundreds and thousands of other sites that are optimizing for "small business loans"; if you are a local bank, start optimizing for "eau claire small business loans." That phrase is one that is much more likely to be added to the search bar by residents of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Optimize your website for the market that you are in.
When I first took on the project of creating and maintaining the Chippewa Valley Technical College Information Technology Club website, I didn't know anymore than the rest of you about search engine optimization and search engine results pages. But over time I was able to accumulate information about how we could get our website to the first few pages of Google and other search engines. If you were to search for "information technology club" on Google two years ago, you would have found our website floating between pages 4 and 10 on Google. If you search "information technology club" today, you will find that codinghaven.com is the #3 result on Google, right behind Central Washington University's and Penn State's IT Club websites, and right before Boston College's IT Club website. Not only that, but you will also find that we are #3 on MSN and #2 on Yahoo! The next step for me will be to optimize for the phrase "it club." This endeavor will be much more difficult, but it will be an enjoyable and rewarding learning experience whether it is successful or not!
In the meantime, start thinking about optimization and how you are going to promote yourself and your business in the future. The Internet is large. Very large. There are many needles in that haystack, how easy will it be to find yours?
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