Search has been such a hot channel in the past couple of years, and with good reason. Content on the Web exponentially multiples every second, requiring Internet users to leverage search to find relevant content and companies to make sure they’re the first results users see.

So many companies pour money into PPC campaigns even though, according to Google’s Avinash Kaushik, only 14% of visitors click on paid vs. organic results. With the economic uncertainty putting pressure on businesses to scrutinize their marketing spend; more companies will and should shift their focus to a more cost-effective approach for reaching visitors: SEO.

If you’re currently leveraging a sophisticated WCM solution, congratulations, because most WCM solution can help you optimize your organic search. Discovering this is like finding extra money in your pocket that you didn’t know about it.

Why? Because you don’t have to dish out more money to improve online results. Instead, you can leverage your WCM solution to manage your sites AND improve search rankings. What you will have to do, is invest some time in implementing SEO tactics.

Here are just some SEO best practices that you can start implementing today:

Tagging content with key search terms will help search spiders read and rank your content higher (especially if your site has flash or image heavy content), make it easier to manage your content, and can be done within the user interface of WCM solutions.

Using your WCM solution to include keyword rich copy throughout your site will enable quick and easy publishing of keyword-rich content.

Keeping your content fresh and up-to-date can help you rank high in search results for content before your competition, replace outdated information with content that can improve SEO, and provide your visitors with more relevant information.

Creating intuitive navigation and organization of content not only makes your site more user friendly, but also helps search crawlers navigate your site better.

Creating search friendly URLs in replacement of long, meaningless URLs with your WCM solution is good for both visitors and spiders, especially if you can use the search keyword in the URL.