Successful site owners who take their search engine optimization work seriously all started at the same point. That is, they were all once nowhere to be found. Luck had very little to do with it.

       They took basics steps to get where they wanted to be, learned a few things along the way, and maybe even spent some money in ways that were less than rewarding.

       But, for most all of them, as they did the right things, they began to see incremental changes in the way the search engines treated their sites. Their site began to rank better in search results for some of their terms, which then began to bring incremental increases in site traffic. Then more terms came into play for them, and better rankings for those terms, until the flow of traffic from free search results was the primary method of people finding their site. It does not happen overnight. This may take months, or years.

       That scenario has taken place time and again for sites that have seriously applied themselves to this work.

       Site owners should be reviewing their site statistics reports to see which sites are referring traffic, how much, and for what search terms. Your hosting service more than likely provides detailed traffic stats for your site, and your Webmaster should be able to assist with this. Contact them, if you are not yet reviewing that material. Tracking your site stats is the equivalent of gauging the effectiveness of your print ads, or your other marketing investments.

       The only real way to gauge this work is by reviewing your site stats, at least monthly. You will see trends and patterns emerge.

       Of course, getting traffic is one thing. Your site should also convert it into leads, or business. That's where effective copy writing and content presentation come into play. Develop ways to track your actual leads that come from your site.