So much of our daily lives is driven by the Internet that it's easy to take its influencing power it for granted. The Internet has revolutionised the way we do business and the way we run our personal lives. Whether you are shopping online, or composing a business profile - it's important to build and maintain an online presence without taking the power of the Internet for granted. Most of us spend a grand total of 23 seconds contemplating search results to decide on which web address we are going to access. And the correct optimisation of a web page is just as important: no longer can a site survive below the fold on the second page. If a web page is not being displayed above the fold on the first page, searchers are likely to move on.

Many organisations rely on online forums for consumer research, product reviews and ultimately sales. Having a digital strategy is important as it helps businesses maximise sales opportunities and gain consumer trust through building a strong reputation. Yet despite the daily familiarity of the Internet, the digital world can be complicated and sometimes lacks a helping hand, knowing where to start can be a minefield.

To drive customers to your website, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is vital. SEO is the process of improving visibility of your website in search engines, such as Google or Bing, via natural or unpaid search results. SEO considers what terms people search for and optimises a website and its content to increase its relevance to the keywords that individuals are searching on most frequently. This allows browsers to find and rank such websites higher than millions of other sites in response to a specific search query.

A great way to boost SEO rankings is to closely match words on your website which mirror those a potential buyer will use when searching for a vehicle online. These words are known as keywords. Relevant keywords should be included in the title of your website as well as in your description tag (usually what a search engine displays when relevant words are typed in) as these are the first places the search engine will scan before indexing results and ranking them on its search pages. Keywords need to be specific and chosen carefully; if too many keywords are chosen you will dilute their significance and the impact on your search ranking.

There are multiple techniques for harnessing the power of SEO, and Microsoft Expression Web 4, has tools to help you improve the search-ranking of your site. Once you have mastered the searching techniques of Internet browsing, there are various methods of measuring how successful your Internet presence is. Personalisation, for example, is the presentation of different search results to a logged in searcher, based on their search and click behaviour.

Expression Web 4 SEO Checker Tool helps you to apply search engine best practices to get the highest possible search engine ranking. We know that SEO is a specialist skill and while there are steps you can take from using a SEO friendly CMS through to understanding what keywords you need to apply, the optimisation of titles, on-page text, linking structures, site architecture and related SEO elements are also important.

Expression Web SEO reporting includes tools to help get your site noticed. With Expression Web 4 you are given the information to improve your Web site's relevance in search results by recommending how to make the site content more search engine-friendly. SEO Tools add-in is available for Expression Web 4 and Expression Web 3. The SEO Tools for Microsoft Expression Web add-in helps you prepare your site and pages for Google, Bing, and other Internet search engines. Integrated with Expression Web, you'll have all the tools you need to help get your site and pages noticed.

Obviously web pages that implement effective search engine guidelines rank higher in search engine results. The Microsoft Expression Web 4 SEO Checker will evaluate your page structure and its content against 50 different rules to ensure the page is search-engine friendly. SEO Checker also generates reports, giving useful feedback on issues.

The Expression Web SEO functions also include a Run SEO Checker. When you run the SEO Checker, the SEO Panel opens up in the bottom of your Expression Web 4 workspace. The Checker will bring up a number of solutions including a Problem Summary, which describes any errors or the reason for incompatibility with the schema. This problem summary is also visible in the form of screen tip when you point at particular source of problem in the Code view. There's also a useful Help Topic that contains more information and suggestions to correct any issues. There are other hints and tips including a Page tool that lists the pages and their location that contain any comments; and a Line tool displays the line number in Code view, which contains an issue. Issue Type lists the type of issue, and states whether it is an error or warning. Now that's a really useful engine!