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Next: A Three Cornered
Fight Search Engine Optimization FirmsHave you had one of those emails in your inbox claiming that they can make your Website No.1 for any keywords?
Getting a high ranking for a popular keyword in a major search engine can be extremely lucrative. This particular email isn't the most extreme example I've come across but two things (apart from the use of capital letters) stand out. They claim to submit the site to thousands of search engines and their techniques include doorway pages which may be considered as spam by some search engines and get the site banned. Even the promise to rank in the top 20 may be dubious if the chosen keywords are highly competitive. If you are a candidate for paid Search Engine Optimization you should be wary of promises. No-one can guarantee a number one or even a top ten spot for Google or any other search engine for that matter. Frequently client expectations are unrealistic or just plain naïve and unscrupulous SEO outfits will use black-hat techniques to ensure a high, but short term rankings. By the time you've realized your mistake, perhaps after a sudden drop in results or even a ban from the major search engines it is too late. There are good reasons for using an SEO firm, you may not have the time or detailed knowledge to work on your site and be looking for some outside help or you may want an SEO expert to work with and mentor your team during the design process. There are plenty of businesses that can help but before using the services of an SEO firm you should have a basic understanding of the issues especially, what constitutes black hat and search engine spam techniques. There is undoubtedly a lot of skill, experience and knowledge required to perform good Search Engine Optimization. The services an SEO firm or consultant provide may range from general advice about problems with your site to direct edits to your pages. The work may be a one off improvement to an existing site to a long term full-service contract. Hiring consultants to improve an existing site or work with your team during the building of a new site can have excellent paybacks. Selecting a good SEO firm may come from recommendation but check out the firm's own site to see how highly it ranks in the major search engines, bearing in mind that 'search engine optimization' are competitive keywords. If possible they should look beyond simple testimonials and ask for case studies and then talk to SEO experts and existing clients and see how their sites rank on the major search engines for their target keywords. It is worth checking in search engine related forums and Google groups to see if the firm has acquired a bad reputation. The SEO firm should be able to explain the general process they will use to optimize your site. There is a fear from some SEO consultants that they will be giving away trade secrets. It is understantable that they want to protect intellectual property and business processes. However if the firm is being engaged for a large contract, perhaps updating the contents and structure of the whole site, it is not unreasonable to explain the plan in general terms. Finally clients should remember that the aim of SEO is to improve visits and in the case of commercial sites, to increase profits. While specific rankings in search engines can't be guaranteed the SEO firm should be committed to improving current rankings for relevant search results agreed in advance with the client and to improve the number of qualified visitors to the site. Increasing traffic by bait and switch techniques such as jump pages will not result in more sales. How Many Search Engines Are There?Phil Bradley had identified around 140 general search engines and says that over 2000 search engines in 200 countries exist. So in theory you could submit your site to thousands of search engines. Whether the time spent submitting you site would be worthwhile is questionable: http://www.philb.com/webse.htm As an aside, I've never submitted a site I've created to any of these engines but a random check shows that all these sites are widely listed. This is the power of inbound-links as we will see later.
See Also
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