Aug 31
turtle girl asked:
I tried to put a ? in adverstising and marketing and it wouldn’t let me without putting into this search engine hooey…
Mail this post Mail this post Aug 30
Sally S asked:
I have a website, just want some pointers on how to get more traffic and show up in the search engines
Mail this post Aug 27
Optimizing your website so you will obtain a high search engine results position is what SEO Techniques are all about. It is reported that 65% of all websites visited start with a search from a search engine.
What is Organic Search Engine Optimization? Simply put, it is designing each page to not only be pleasing for the users to read but also pleasing for the spiders. Always keep in mind that a good measure of a site’s importance is the usefulness of the information to the users.
There is no need to go to some overpriced firm to get your site ranked well in the search engines as most of theses techniques can be accomplished by anyone with a basic knowledge of HTML. Organic Search Engine Optimization will help your page rank well and drive traffic to your site without the expense of using PPC programs or placing banners all over your site as well.
There are no tricks here, just a bit of work and some time. So let’s get started by reading the following list of Organic Search Engine Optimization Techniques!
1. Domain & File Names:
Choose your site domain name that contains words from your primary keyword phrase. Your domain name should also be easy to spell and easy to remember. You can also try to use your keyword or keyword phrase as the name for the actual filename of the page you are creating as well.
2. Keyword Phrases:
Use keywords that are being searched for. You can check your keyword phrases with either the Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool or the Overture Keyword Popularity Tool to find out how often they are being searched and then incorporate these phrases into your content. You can also look at Google AdWords Keyword Suggestions for suggestions for different keyword phrases.
3. Keyword Density:
Keyword density is a very important part of search engine optimization. Keyword density is the percent that your keyword or keyword phrase are of your web page text. You may want to look that your competition to see what keyword density they are using. Too high of a keyword density will be considered search engine spam and can get you blacklisted. A good measure of keyword density is between 3 and 7 percent. Your keywords should be toward the top of your page and your keyword phrase can be in either every paragraph or every second paragraph depending on your paragraph length.
4. Bad Techniques:
Bad search engine optimization techniques can get you blacklisted from a search engine. Some techniques that are considered spam are cloaking, invisible text, tiny text, identical pages, doorway pages, refresh tags, link farms, filling comment tags with keyword phrases only, keyword phrases in the author tag, keyword density to high, mirror pages and mirror sites.
5. Title & Meta Description Tag:
Construction of your title tag is one of the most important things you need to do. Each page should have a different title with 2 or 3 of your keyword phrases at the beginning. When search engine results are displayed the title is the first thing people see. Below the title is a description which will be either be taken from your meta name description content=”Description phrase” or from the first sentence on that page. Your description should also have 2 or 3 of your keyword phrases at the beginning as should your first sentence. You should have a different title, description and first sentence on each page. You many also what to try shorter titles with only one keyword or keyword phrase as this will raise you keyword relevance.
6. Meta Keywords Tag:
The meta keywords tag is not as relevant as it used to be and some say Google doesn’t ever look at it anymore, but put it in anyway.
7. Author & Robots Tags:
The Author Tag should contain the name of the company that owns the site. This tag will help you get a #1 position for your company’s name.
Use a generic Robots Tag on all pages that you want indexed. This instructs the robots to crawl the page. The following is the generic robots tag.
8. Quality Content:
Quality content will bring people back and as people always want to tell others about a good thing it will get you forward links from other sites. Your content should be written with your keyword phrases in mind
9. Quantity Content:
The more the better. Just remember your content will need to be both quantity and quality.
10. Changing Content:
You can do this by hand or with a script. For example you can have a php script that draws five paragraphs from a pool of twenty paragraphs when the content is different each time the php page is accessed. By creating dynamic pages with a script randomly drawing different content from a database, you can get several different home pages indexed by Google and optimize for several different keyword phrases.
11. Avoid Dynamic URLs:
Are your pages served via php, asp, or cf? Some search engines may have a problem indexing them. Try to create static pages whenever possible. Avoid symbols in your URLs like the “?” that you will often find in php, asp or cf pages.
12. Frames:
Many search engines can’t follow frame links. Make sure you provide an alternative method for the search engines to enter and index your site.
13. Site Map:
A good menu system is really a site map. A well constructed menu system that is on each page and contains a link to every page on the website is all you need.
14. Site Themes:
All of the top 3 search engines look for site themes or a common topic when they crawl a website. If your site is about one specific topic you will rank better than if you have more than one theme or topic on your site. By using similar keyword phrases in each page the search engines will detect a theme this will be to your advantage.
15. Site Design:
You may think, “what does site design have to do with organic search engine optimization”? Well if your website has a bad color scheme that is hard to read, is not organized, is a cheesy looking site, then all of your site optimization has been a waste of time. Make your site attractive to the viewer, make things easy to find, have you graphic header and menu bar the same place on each page. These things will keep your visitors on the site and bring them back. A well optimized site with a high search engine results position that is ugly and is hard find information on, will not keep the visitors your optimization has brought to the site. Use W3C Link Checker to make sure all your page links are good. If you have broken links on your site this can effect the ranking you are given. Put a proper doctype on each page. If you don’t have a proper doctype on each page Internet Explorer will go into quirks mode and display it different. Use The W3C Markup Validate Service to verify that your pages are Validate HTML or XHTML code. The W3C validation will verify that your HTML or XHTML is not broken. This validation shows you any broken code that could keep your webpages from displaying properly in all the different browsers and browser versions.
16. Separate Content & Presentation:
Put all your presentation code into Cascading Styles Sheets (CSS). This separates the presentation from the content and makes your html files up to 50% smaller. It is reported that the search engine bots prefer this and the more content you have compared to presentation in your file, the better you get rated. Read why tables for markup are stupid for an overview.
17. Robots.txt File:
While this file is not really required it should be included so that the search engine bots don’t get 404 errors when they look for it. Just include the following 2 lines and drop it in the root.
User-agent: *
Disallow:
For more help with Organic Search Engine Optimization, please visit Help My Pagerank
By: Michael Sweet
About the Author:
What is Organic Search Engine Optimization? Simply put, it is designing each page to not only be pleasing for the users to read but also pleasing for the spiders. Always keep in mind that a good measure of a site’s importance is the usefulness of the information to the users.
There is no need to go to some overpriced firm to get your site ranked well in the search engines as most of theses techniques can be accomplished by anyone with a basic knowledge of HTML. Organic Search Engine Optimization will help your page rank well and drive traffic to your site without the expense of using PPC programs or placing banners all over your site as well.
There are no tricks here, just a bit of work and some time. So let’s get started by reading the following list of Organic Search Engine Optimization Techniques!
1. Domain & File Names:
Choose your site domain name that contains words from your primary keyword phrase. Your domain name should also be easy to spell and easy to remember. You can also try to use your keyword or keyword phrase as the name for the actual filename of the page you are creating as well.
2. Keyword Phrases:
Use keywords that are being searched for. You can check your keyword phrases with either the Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool or the Overture Keyword Popularity Tool to find out how often they are being searched and then incorporate these phrases into your content. You can also look at Google AdWords Keyword Suggestions for suggestions for different keyword phrases.
3. Keyword Density:
Keyword density is a very important part of search engine optimization. Keyword density is the percent that your keyword or keyword phrase are of your web page text. You may want to look that your competition to see what keyword density they are using. Too high of a keyword density will be considered search engine spam and can get you blacklisted. A good measure of keyword density is between 3 and 7 percent. Your keywords should be toward the top of your page and your keyword phrase can be in either every paragraph or every second paragraph depending on your paragraph length.
4. Bad Techniques:
Bad search engine optimization techniques can get you blacklisted from a search engine. Some techniques that are considered spam are cloaking, invisible text, tiny text, identical pages, doorway pages, refresh tags, link farms, filling comment tags with keyword phrases only, keyword phrases in the author tag, keyword density to high, mirror pages and mirror sites.
5. Title & Meta Description Tag:
Construction of your title tag is one of the most important things you need to do. Each page should have a different title with 2 or 3 of your keyword phrases at the beginning. When search engine results are displayed the title is the first thing people see. Below the title is a description which will be either be taken from your meta name description content=”Description phrase” or from the first sentence on that page. Your description should also have 2 or 3 of your keyword phrases at the beginning as should your first sentence. You should have a different title, description and first sentence on each page. You many also what to try shorter titles with only one keyword or keyword phrase as this will raise you keyword relevance.
6. Meta Keywords Tag:
The meta keywords tag is not as relevant as it used to be and some say Google doesn’t ever look at it anymore, but put it in anyway.
7. Author & Robots Tags:
The Author Tag should contain the name of the company that owns the site. This tag will help you get a #1 position for your company’s name.
Use a generic Robots Tag on all pages that you want indexed. This instructs the robots to crawl the page. The following is the generic robots tag.
8. Quality Content:
Quality content will bring people back and as people always want to tell others about a good thing it will get you forward links from other sites. Your content should be written with your keyword phrases in mind
9. Quantity Content:
The more the better. Just remember your content will need to be both quantity and quality.
10. Changing Content:
You can do this by hand or with a script. For example you can have a php script that draws five paragraphs from a pool of twenty paragraphs when the content is different each time the php page is accessed. By creating dynamic pages with a script randomly drawing different content from a database, you can get several different home pages indexed by Google and optimize for several different keyword phrases.
11. Avoid Dynamic URLs:
Are your pages served via php, asp, or cf? Some search engines may have a problem indexing them. Try to create static pages whenever possible. Avoid symbols in your URLs like the “?” that you will often find in php, asp or cf pages.
12. Frames:
Many search engines can’t follow frame links. Make sure you provide an alternative method for the search engines to enter and index your site.
13. Site Map:
A good menu system is really a site map. A well constructed menu system that is on each page and contains a link to every page on the website is all you need.
14. Site Themes:
All of the top 3 search engines look for site themes or a common topic when they crawl a website. If your site is about one specific topic you will rank better than if you have more than one theme or topic on your site. By using similar keyword phrases in each page the search engines will detect a theme this will be to your advantage.
15. Site Design:
You may think, “what does site design have to do with organic search engine optimization”? Well if your website has a bad color scheme that is hard to read, is not organized, is a cheesy looking site, then all of your site optimization has been a waste of time. Make your site attractive to the viewer, make things easy to find, have you graphic header and menu bar the same place on each page. These things will keep your visitors on the site and bring them back. A well optimized site with a high search engine results position that is ugly and is hard find information on, will not keep the visitors your optimization has brought to the site. Use W3C Link Checker to make sure all your page links are good. If you have broken links on your site this can effect the ranking you are given. Put a proper doctype on each page. If you don’t have a proper doctype on each page Internet Explorer will go into quirks mode and display it different. Use The W3C Markup Validate Service to verify that your pages are Validate HTML or XHTML code. The W3C validation will verify that your HTML or XHTML is not broken. This validation shows you any broken code that could keep your webpages from displaying properly in all the different browsers and browser versions.
16. Separate Content & Presentation:
Put all your presentation code into Cascading Styles Sheets (CSS). This separates the presentation from the content and makes your html files up to 50% smaller. It is reported that the search engine bots prefer this and the more content you have compared to presentation in your file, the better you get rated. Read why tables for markup are stupid for an overview.
17. Robots.txt File:
While this file is not really required it should be included so that the search engine bots don’t get 404 errors when they look for it. Just include the following 2 lines and drop it in the root.
User-agent: *
Disallow:
For more help with Organic Search Engine Optimization, please visit Help My Pagerank
By: Michael Sweet
About the Author:
Michael Sweet owns and maintains Help My Pagerank.com
For more help with Organic Search Engine Optimization, please visit Help My Pagerank
Mail this post Aug 24
Brett J asked:
I just launched a search engine, top5pages.com, where you can pick the ranking for your website. And I want to get interviewed. I sent out a press release last night via PRWeb but I want to contact some shows directly too.
Mail this post Aug 24
anon in idaho asked:
Does anyone know of a website that is fast,reliable and will have your website up and running in the search engines(major) really fast? I’m not talking about weeks but hours if possible? Does such a website exist?
Mail this post Aug 23
Ron C asked:
I want to drive more traffic to my website which is purely informational. I need to do it cheaply. Any ideas?
I was really hoping for something specific about how to drive traffic to a website for a local business. I could care less if someone in South Dakota visits my website. My business is in southern California. Until they are a patient needing physical therapy living near one of my offices in Orange County, they do not count because they will not come into my office three days a week for four weeks to get physical therapy.
Maybe I don’t get it, but much of what I have read so far does not seem to fit my situation. Does anyone have any specific answers?
Mail this post Aug 23
Sarah J asked:
I work for a small company and our web site is ranked very low in the search engines. The problem is that we are in the very competitive software business. I was wondering if anyone knew any sites to get me started on Search Engine Optimization. I know the basics, and could use a lot of help. Thanks so much.
Mail this post Aug 22
The internet has allowed a number of individuals to start their own businesses. Internet businesses are a fun way for individuals or groups to make a profit online. There are number of ways to increase the profits of a website; however, search engine optimization is likely the most profitable one.
Search engine optimization, commonly referred to as SEO, is a collection of tools or methods used to improve the search engine ranking of a website. Say an individual is searching for stomachache relief for toddlers, they will key that phrase in a search engine website that will provide them with a list of numerous websites containing information on stomachache relief for toddlers. Most internet users will likely click on the websites that appear in the top ten and many times they don’t even get past the third page of the search results. For this reason, proper search engine optimization is important in moving a website up the ranking scale.
A large number of techniques are used to increase a websites ranking. One of the most common ways to do this is by using SEO articles. Search engine articles are also commonly referred to as keyword or keyword phrase articles. These articles will contain information relevant to the website that they are on. The number of keywords used will often help to improve the website’s search engine ranking. Although producing keyword articles may seem like fairly simple task, they are time consuming and additional searching engine optimization techniques also may need to be used. For this reason many website owners hire outside individuals or companies to increase their search engine rankings
Finding affordable search engine optimization is possible. There are a large number of individuals or groups who advertise their services on the internet. One of the best ways to find a quality, yet affordable search engine optimization company is by using an internet search engine! One of the most common mistakes made by individuals who may be seeking affordable search engine optimization over the internet is not fully examining a wide number of individuals or companies. Just as if you were shopping for any other type of merchandise, you should fully inspect the services offered by each search engine optimization company and determine if their fees are affordable.
Affordable search engine optimization is available for individuals who need assistance in improving the ranking og their company website. Each affordable search engine optimization company will have their own pricing guidelines; however, many tend to accomplish the same goal. The goal of increasing website ranking is an effective way to increase profits, especially if a website is selling a product or service. In addition to individuals who use their online website to sell, affordable search engine optimization is also used by individuals who run a private or personal website. Many internet users or bloggers use keyword articles and other effective search engine optimization techniques to improve their rankings. Although they may not be selling a product or service, they may make a profit from affiliate linking.
Affordable search engine optimization help is out there, you just need to find the right one to successfully improve your website.
By: anonymous
About the Author:
Search engine optimization, commonly referred to as SEO, is a collection of tools or methods used to improve the search engine ranking of a website. Say an individual is searching for stomachache relief for toddlers, they will key that phrase in a search engine website that will provide them with a list of numerous websites containing information on stomachache relief for toddlers. Most internet users will likely click on the websites that appear in the top ten and many times they don’t even get past the third page of the search results. For this reason, proper search engine optimization is important in moving a website up the ranking scale.
A large number of techniques are used to increase a websites ranking. One of the most common ways to do this is by using SEO articles. Search engine articles are also commonly referred to as keyword or keyword phrase articles. These articles will contain information relevant to the website that they are on. The number of keywords used will often help to improve the website’s search engine ranking. Although producing keyword articles may seem like fairly simple task, they are time consuming and additional searching engine optimization techniques also may need to be used. For this reason many website owners hire outside individuals or companies to increase their search engine rankings
Finding affordable search engine optimization is possible. There are a large number of individuals or groups who advertise their services on the internet. One of the best ways to find a quality, yet affordable search engine optimization company is by using an internet search engine! One of the most common mistakes made by individuals who may be seeking affordable search engine optimization over the internet is not fully examining a wide number of individuals or companies. Just as if you were shopping for any other type of merchandise, you should fully inspect the services offered by each search engine optimization company and determine if their fees are affordable.
Affordable search engine optimization is available for individuals who need assistance in improving the ranking og their company website. Each affordable search engine optimization company will have their own pricing guidelines; however, many tend to accomplish the same goal. The goal of increasing website ranking is an effective way to increase profits, especially if a website is selling a product or service. In addition to individuals who use their online website to sell, affordable search engine optimization is also used by individuals who run a private or personal website. Many internet users or bloggers use keyword articles and other effective search engine optimization techniques to improve their rankings. Although they may not be selling a product or service, they may make a profit from affiliate linking.
Affordable search engine optimization help is out there, you just need to find the right one to successfully improve your website.
By: anonymous
About the Author:
Charlie Preston is President of Click Response a website design/Marketing firm specializing in helping small businesses achieve a higher ROI from their websites. They also provide affordable search engine optimization that works.
Mail this post Aug 21
A search engine optimization company can be an invaluable asset in your Internet Marketing campaign. They specialize in knowing how to raise your search engine positions, monitoring those positions on the regular basis, and adjusting their strategies to account for undesirable results in any given month. Since this takes a lot of time, effort, and specialized knowledge, it can be in your best interest to go to an outside source rather than try to maintain high search engine positions on your own.
However, like every business, there are good companies and there are lemons. Knowing the right questions to ask and the criteria to look for will help you in choosing an affordable, effective search engine optimization company.
When looking at different companies, begin by considering the approach they employ to raise your search engine positions. Steer clear of companies that use cloaked, doorway, or bridge pages to raise your positions. These techniques violate most search engine policy, and in the worst case scenario, will only get your website severely penalized, if not removed entirely from a search engine’s index.
A cloaked page is a page that is created which is invisible to the regular visitor to your website. The cloaked page is coded to detect a search engine spider and divert them to this special page, which is set-up to artificially boost your search engine position. Doorway or bridge pages utilize the same concept, but often reside on an entirely different server. Google, one of the largest and most important search engine on the Internet, will remove your website from their index if they detect you have cloaked pages. Never, never employ any company that uses this technique!
Another important element is to get a guarantee that the company you hire will not work with your competitors while they are working for you. Obviously, this would seriously compromise the effectiveness of the search engine optimization campaign. Be aware that some companies will use the success they achieve for your website to sell their services to your competitors. So get your guarantee in writing, and make sure it is legally binding.
Of course, one of the most important factors you want to check out is the company’s track record of results. However, don’t take the company’s word for it. They will undoubtedly be slanting their results in order to sell their services to you. To go beyond their simple statement of success, ask them a few pertinent questions, and verify their answers.
Ask them which engines they have achieved the best results on. The ones that are important are the most popular engines, and these are the ones you want to see good results on. Since the popularity of search engines can change with the landscape of the overall Internet, check out the Nielsen NetRatings page at Search Engine Watch.
Next, find out what keywords and phrases they are claiming great results with. It’s easy to get high rankings with unpopular words. For instance, the keyword “cat leashes” will get high popularity ranking because no one else would think of using it. What you are looking for is good results using popular keywords. Check out the software Wordtracker, available at www.wordtracker.com. You can order a free trial, or a subscription ranging from 1 day to 1 year. This software rates the popularity of keywords and phrases based on actual search engine use.
Next, look for good results over an entire site that the company claims to have successfully worked for. You want to see a wide range of positions over a number of different search engines using different keywords or phrases for the entire site. Request a report for any client the company claims to have done well for. This report should show good positions on a number of the most popular search engines for a variety of different, popular keywords and phrases.
When you are checking out search engine optimization companies, make sure they have actually done the work they are claiming to have done. Some companies will use other company’s results in order to get you to sign on with them. If you are in doubt, call the company they are showing you results for, and ask for the name of their search engine optimization company.
It’s important to keep in mind that a successful search engine optimization campaign will result in maximum exposure across a wide range of popular search engines using a variety of keywords and phrases. This is the formula for a successful campaign, and you should always keep at it in the forefront of your marketing strategy.
Ask the search engine optimization company you are considering for a report that shows you rankings across a number of popular search engines for a period of at least six months. Remember: search engine marketing is a process that is continual, and you need a company that not only understands this, but keeps constant tabs on your search engine positions. That company must also be able to adjust its strategy in the event that search engine rankings drop.
Since search engine marketing is an ongoing process, your positions must be constantly monitored. If you want your search engine optimization company to do this for you, request a sample of a monthly report. It is essential that this report should show rankings for the most popular search engines. Don’t be impressed by a report that only shows great results for a limited number of small search engines. These are fairly easy results to acquire. Also confirm that the popular search engine results they are showing you are indeed the popular search engines currently.
Be sure the sample report the company shows you is in a format that you can easily understand. For example, it could be in the form of a chart that covers a period of at least six months and presents data such as the top 50 positions broken down on a monthly basis or the top 5 pages each month. Then, ascertain that the company you are considering actually monitors these positions or pages every month, and that the sample report they show you includes findings and recommendations for the specific site. This insures that the company will actively monitor and make adjustments to their strategy on a continual basis rather than simply gather statistics on your positions. You need a company that is actively participant in your search engine marketing campaign, not just an information gatherer.
Obviously, your finances have to figure into your choice of company, but bear in mind that a search engine optimization company is crucial the success of your marketing campaign. It is not just a casual accessory. If you cannot afford a company that will do a thorough and reliable job for your website, you might consider waiting until you do have the finances in place.
If you have to find a company and can’t wait for your finances to catch up, you may be able to find an affordable company that will also be able to supply quality, reliable work, such as a fairly new company. Just remember that there are risks involved with using a company without a proven track record–and that risk is your money! Don’t take that leap unless the company can supply you with a least a few references.
References are the most reliable indicator of a good company. Don’t use a company that won’t show your references because of any reason, confidentiality included. Remember–even doctors will provide references! The firm you choose should provide you with a minimum of two references, one that is from the past, and one that is current.
When you contact these references, be prepared to ask precise, specific questions so that neither of your time is wasted. Ask them what their experience was like with the company, such as their availability to answer questions and deal with problems and their ability to meet deadlines. Ask the reference to rate the overall performance of the company.
Find out if the company requested that the reference make significant changes to their web pages that affected the visitors coming to their site. You are looking for a search engine optimization company that can balance the needs of both search engines and site visitors without compromising either.
The most essential question to ask is whether the work of the search engine optimization company resulted in higher profits for the reference. Without profits, it doesn’t matter whether your positions are at the top of the list or not.
By: Nelson Tan
About the Author:
However, like every business, there are good companies and there are lemons. Knowing the right questions to ask and the criteria to look for will help you in choosing an affordable, effective search engine optimization company.
When looking at different companies, begin by considering the approach they employ to raise your search engine positions. Steer clear of companies that use cloaked, doorway, or bridge pages to raise your positions. These techniques violate most search engine policy, and in the worst case scenario, will only get your website severely penalized, if not removed entirely from a search engine’s index.
A cloaked page is a page that is created which is invisible to the regular visitor to your website. The cloaked page is coded to detect a search engine spider and divert them to this special page, which is set-up to artificially boost your search engine position. Doorway or bridge pages utilize the same concept, but often reside on an entirely different server. Google, one of the largest and most important search engine on the Internet, will remove your website from their index if they detect you have cloaked pages. Never, never employ any company that uses this technique!
Another important element is to get a guarantee that the company you hire will not work with your competitors while they are working for you. Obviously, this would seriously compromise the effectiveness of the search engine optimization campaign. Be aware that some companies will use the success they achieve for your website to sell their services to your competitors. So get your guarantee in writing, and make sure it is legally binding.
Of course, one of the most important factors you want to check out is the company’s track record of results. However, don’t take the company’s word for it. They will undoubtedly be slanting their results in order to sell their services to you. To go beyond their simple statement of success, ask them a few pertinent questions, and verify their answers.
Ask them which engines they have achieved the best results on. The ones that are important are the most popular engines, and these are the ones you want to see good results on. Since the popularity of search engines can change with the landscape of the overall Internet, check out the Nielsen NetRatings page at Search Engine Watch.
Next, find out what keywords and phrases they are claiming great results with. It’s easy to get high rankings with unpopular words. For instance, the keyword “cat leashes” will get high popularity ranking because no one else would think of using it. What you are looking for is good results using popular keywords. Check out the software Wordtracker, available at www.wordtracker.com. You can order a free trial, or a subscription ranging from 1 day to 1 year. This software rates the popularity of keywords and phrases based on actual search engine use.
Next, look for good results over an entire site that the company claims to have successfully worked for. You want to see a wide range of positions over a number of different search engines using different keywords or phrases for the entire site. Request a report for any client the company claims to have done well for. This report should show good positions on a number of the most popular search engines for a variety of different, popular keywords and phrases.
When you are checking out search engine optimization companies, make sure they have actually done the work they are claiming to have done. Some companies will use other company’s results in order to get you to sign on with them. If you are in doubt, call the company they are showing you results for, and ask for the name of their search engine optimization company.
It’s important to keep in mind that a successful search engine optimization campaign will result in maximum exposure across a wide range of popular search engines using a variety of keywords and phrases. This is the formula for a successful campaign, and you should always keep at it in the forefront of your marketing strategy.
Ask the search engine optimization company you are considering for a report that shows you rankings across a number of popular search engines for a period of at least six months. Remember: search engine marketing is a process that is continual, and you need a company that not only understands this, but keeps constant tabs on your search engine positions. That company must also be able to adjust its strategy in the event that search engine rankings drop.
Since search engine marketing is an ongoing process, your positions must be constantly monitored. If you want your search engine optimization company to do this for you, request a sample of a monthly report. It is essential that this report should show rankings for the most popular search engines. Don’t be impressed by a report that only shows great results for a limited number of small search engines. These are fairly easy results to acquire. Also confirm that the popular search engine results they are showing you are indeed the popular search engines currently.
Be sure the sample report the company shows you is in a format that you can easily understand. For example, it could be in the form of a chart that covers a period of at least six months and presents data such as the top 50 positions broken down on a monthly basis or the top 5 pages each month. Then, ascertain that the company you are considering actually monitors these positions or pages every month, and that the sample report they show you includes findings and recommendations for the specific site. This insures that the company will actively monitor and make adjustments to their strategy on a continual basis rather than simply gather statistics on your positions. You need a company that is actively participant in your search engine marketing campaign, not just an information gatherer.
Obviously, your finances have to figure into your choice of company, but bear in mind that a search engine optimization company is crucial the success of your marketing campaign. It is not just a casual accessory. If you cannot afford a company that will do a thorough and reliable job for your website, you might consider waiting until you do have the finances in place.
If you have to find a company and can’t wait for your finances to catch up, you may be able to find an affordable company that will also be able to supply quality, reliable work, such as a fairly new company. Just remember that there are risks involved with using a company without a proven track record–and that risk is your money! Don’t take that leap unless the company can supply you with a least a few references.
References are the most reliable indicator of a good company. Don’t use a company that won’t show your references because of any reason, confidentiality included. Remember–even doctors will provide references! The firm you choose should provide you with a minimum of two references, one that is from the past, and one that is current.
When you contact these references, be prepared to ask precise, specific questions so that neither of your time is wasted. Ask them what their experience was like with the company, such as their availability to answer questions and deal with problems and their ability to meet deadlines. Ask the reference to rate the overall performance of the company.
Find out if the company requested that the reference make significant changes to their web pages that affected the visitors coming to their site. You are looking for a search engine optimization company that can balance the needs of both search engines and site visitors without compromising either.
The most essential question to ask is whether the work of the search engine optimization company resulted in higher profits for the reference. Without profits, it doesn’t matter whether your positions are at the top of the list or not.
By: Nelson Tan
About the Author:
Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts!
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