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 What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Search Engine Optimization is the art of manipulating the pages within a Web site using a variety of techniques so they achieve higher organic rankings in the respective Search Engines and directories. <back to top>
Why do I need Search Engine Optimization?
In today's highly competitive markets, business Web sites that aren't optimized for the keyword phrases that are relative to their business, have little chance of being found by their potential customers. The goal of most business Web sites is to achieve one or more of the following:
- Sell Products
- Sell Services
- Build Brand
- Establish Credibility
Search Engine optimization can make your site visible to your potential customers and help you achieve these goals. Search engine optimization = Marketing your Business.
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Can I optimize and submit my site?
Yes. With a lot of time, effort and research, you can optimize and submit your site. However, with the time and effort you must expend, it would be more logical to let a professional search engine marketer complete this work. A poor job of optimization is hard undo and won't yield any results.
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Can I submit my site for free?
Yes. Inclusion to all the top search engine is now free.
We typically submit using an XML sitemap that contains information
on all the pages that you want indexed by the search engines.
Authenitcation code must be placed on your site/server bofore
indexing can take place. <back
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I found a company that guaranteed my site top placement in the search engines. They are also going to submit my site to 40,000 search engines for 29.95. Should I trust them?
Short answer. No. The Web is plagued by unscrupulous
SEO firms that will say anything to get your money.
The truth is, no one can guarantee you a specific position
in a non pay per click search engine. Period. Also,
There are only 4 search engines that will drive the majority
of the traffic to your site. They are powered by 4 databases.
For a better understanding of how they relate, see our Interactive Search Engine Relationship chart.
Below are some eye opening articles about Search Engine Position "Guarantees".
What are Keyword phrases and why are they important?
Keyword phrases are the terms or words that the user enters into the search engine to help them find what they are looking for on the web. Searchers usually enter specific terms to narrow down their search results. It's important to know what keyword phrases your potential customers are searching for so your site can be optimized properly.
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What is a "search engine friendly" design?
A search engine friendly design is a Web site designed with search engine marketing in mind from the inception. There are no barriers such as HTML frames, flash or dynamically generated pages that have obfuscated query strings to stop the spiders/robots. The design may also include elements that the search engines specifically look for and will help increase your keyword phrase relevancy when optimized properly.
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How much does it cost to participate in the PPC search engines?
Cost to participate in Pay Per Click search engines such as
Yahoo and Google Ad Words which provide sponsor results in
many search engines and directories is based on several factors.
We must determine the number of phrases you wish to promote,
the cost of the particular keyword you wish to promote, the
position you wish to maintain and the frequency of the clicks.
However, we can work within any budget you set. <back
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What is PageRank and why is it important?
PageRank is specific to the Google search engine. PageRank is another complex algorithm so we'll just touch on the basics here. Essentially, Google looks at all the sites that are linked to you. If those site are high ranking, high traffic, high relevancy sites you will in turn get a higher page rank. If you link to lower page ranking sites at the other end of the spectrum, in turn your page ranking could be lower and your position will therefore be lower in the rankings. This is only one of many measurements and tests Google performs on your site, many of which are closely guarded secrets of Google! For more information on PageRank see Google's PageRank page.
To determine the PageRank of your site and the site you want to get a link from, get the Google Toolbar.
What is Search Engine Spamming?
Search engine spamming is the act of deceiving or trying to deceive a search engine into giving your page a higher listing in the search engine results page. Some spamming or unethical techniques used are: invisible text on the page, site mirroring, gateway pages, link farming, tag based spam such as keyword loading, IP cloaking & IP delivery, redirects.
Anyone caught using these techniques can have their sites removed from the database or heavily penalized.
For more detailed information on search engine spamming see the following resources:
What is the difference between a search engine and a directory?
True search engines such as Google, Yahoo (Web results), MSN, Teoma, Ask Jeeves, use "spiders" or "bots" that crawl the web collecting information from Web sites. The bot is a program that is initiated by a particular search engine. The information is then written back to the search engine database. There is no human intervention involved.
A directory on the other hand is a human compiled list of sites that are categorized, typically in alphabetical order. Some top directories charge a fee for inclusion. (Yahoo, Business.com) However, DMOZ http://www.dmoz.org , A volunteer based directory, is still free.
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What is "Organic" Marketing or "Organic" Positioning?
Organic marketing is the ability to achieve natural positions in the search engine results pages. Natural or organic positions are links that are found by the search engine spider and included in the database index. The actual positioning of the organic listing is calculated by the search engines algorithm. These are free listings (not sponsor pay per click links). Organic listings are the most coveted links due to several reasons. You don't have to pay for each click (it's free) and trends show that these links are clicked first, before the sponsor (PPC) links.
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What is a "Meta" Search Engine?
A "Meta" search engine is not a true search engine in the traditional sense. It compiles results from from other existing search engines and returns those results. Examples of Meta search engines would be Metacrawler, Dogpile, and Mamma. MetaCrawler and Dogpile return pages of sponsor results before organic results are seen. However, Mamma limits it sponsor results and returns the best results of the Meta Search Engines.<back to top> |
