Understanding Search Engine Optimization

There are many companies offering search engine optimization services. Before you hire someone, find out exactly how much you are really paying, what exactly they are doing for you, and how they are doing it. I visited many websites that offer search engine submission and optimization services, but recommend very few. Many are expensive, offer useless or even harmful services or resell services for which you could have paid less. Read this list and compare companies. You may be surprised at what they are really offering.

We will submit your website to 600 search engines for $69! This may sound like a deal to a novice, but any good search engine expert knows that there are only a few major search engines and directories worth paying for. Ask them for a list and they may give it to you. If you visit these sites, you may find search engines from foreign countries, free-for-all links (FFAs), or other barely used search engines. Foreign links may be okay for global business as long as your web site is written in English. FFAs are created by people who offer a free link in exchange for your email address, so they can send you junk mail. (It is not spam, since you agree to receive email in exchange for the link.) No one visits these web sites or clicks the links. Other minor search engines do nothing for you, if no one visits them or clicks your link. So know what search engines and/or directories in which your listings will appear.

We will provide ongoing website submissions automatically every month. Automatic submissions are not accepted by all search engines. Some search engines make you read a generated image code to make sure that a human is entering accurate information and at hopefully visiting the search engine website to read the rules. Automatic submissions sometimes place listings under incorrect categories. Manual submissions are recommended for best results. Once your website information is submitted, the search engine robot or human editor for some directories will review your site and decide if your website should be listed. Paid submissions are not paid inclusion, because your website is not guaranteed to be listed. Once your website is listed, it can only be removed by the person who submitted the website and/or the webmaster. There is no need to resubmit your site every month. The thing you should do every month is update your website itself, not resubmit. If you continuously resubmit your listing, this can be considered spam and your ip address can be banned.

We guarantee top ranking for selected keyword phrases. First, there are no guarantees with search engine ranking. Each search engine creates their own ranking based on their own formula for page rank. Second, what is top ranking? The top 10, 50, 100? Third, selected keyword phrases means the phrases the company chooses for you. These keyword phrases usually include your geographic location or a specific niche for your business. For example, I can guarantee ranking in the top 50 for "allentown web design" on the major search engines such as Google, MSN, and AOL. If you look, I am actually #1 on those search engines. So how much would this have cost? Well, it depends on who you hire. And I can say that I did not pay for listings, pay for pay-per-click or sponsor links or hire a company to do tricks to get that ranking. I follow the rules of each search engine and keep my website updated.

We can apply techniques without changing the contents of your website. This usually means they are using doorway pages, cloaking, mirroring or other techniques known as cheating or spamming the search engines. Doorway pages are a simple web page that is usually long and full of text that gets good search engine ranking. The doorway page would link to your website. Cloaking are hidden web pages that link to your website. Buying multiple domain names and web sites to creat a duplicate website is mirroring. Duplicating web pages on the same domain is also cheating. Yes, I have seen websites that have the same web page renamed to include several times. Any of these techniques can get you banned from search engines.

We can add code to your website, without changing the appearance of your website, to improve your search engine ranking. Well, if it is proper customized title and meta tags with descriptions and related keywords, then this is what you want. But, if they offer to repeat keywords in your title, meta tags alt tags, comment tags, and as hidden text, then you are in trouble. Many search engines ignore comment tags and some even ignore meta tags, opting to grab useful text from the page contents. Excessive use of keywords is known as keyword stuffing and is cheating. Hidden text is text that cannot be seen on the website, because it is the same color as the background color. Misuse of keywords is clearly explained by search engines as spamming and reason for banishment.

We will add popularly searched keywords to increase your listings or clicks. Using incorrect keywords in the alt tags, used to describe images for text browsers, to repeat desired keywords is considered cheating. Search engines want to give the most accurate results, so including incorrect keywords is useless. If you were looking for porn and you clicked on a link that directed you to a site that does not include porn, you would be disappointed and misled. The person will leave your site and certainly not buy from it. And if someone reports you to search engine abuse, your website will be banned.

What should you do? Read the rules of each search engine and follow them. Check your ranking every quarter or every month for the major search engines and see what needs improvement. Check Overture's Suggested Search Terms or Google's Adwords to know what search terms or keyword phrases the Internet users are typing. Check your webstats and see which websites are sending visitors to you and which keywords worked best for you. If your web host does not have webstats, try Webalizer for free. The best way to improve your ranking is to have a lot of related text contents and related links to and from your website. Now you understand search engine optimization.

Yvette Kuhns, Power Pages Web Design, May 29, 2003

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