SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Monday, January 17, 2011
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION: What Is Search Engine Optimization?
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION: What Is Search Engine Optimization?Sunday, January 16, 2011
Top 3 Myths on Search Engine Optimization Companies
You can almost think of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as a somewhat secretive industry. You see a lot of people claiming to be SEO experts, and some charge a lot of money for their SEO services. Some people guarantee results and some don’t. At the same time, almost nobody will tell you the exact methods he or she uses to improve your web site’s rankings, so you are left wondering: am I paying too much? Am I being too cheap? Am I hiring the right person? What should I look for when hiring a SEO company? Is it worth the investment?
If you think about it, there is a reason that the SEO industry is somewhat secretive. For one thing, search engines like Google do not like people tampering with their search results. If you are a dentist in Chicago and you realize that thousands of people type “Chicago dentist” into Google every week, imagine how much more business you would get if your web site comes up first in the search results! When I say search results, I mean the organic search results, not the paid advertisements, since 70% to 80% of people click on the natural search results instead of the paid advertisements.
This brings me to the second reason why search engine optimization companies are somewhat secretive. They take away Google’s revenues from paid advertisements! The more people hire SEO companies to improve their rankings on the natural search results, the less likely they are to use paid advertising with the search engines such as Google AdWords and pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements. For these reasons, search engines such as Google do not like search engine optimization companies, and the SEO experts have to be somewhat hush hush with their methods. As a result, there are a lot of myths and misconceptions when it comes to hiring SEO companies. However, this does not mean you need to be at a lost. You are likely to get better investment of your dollars with some SEO companies than others. With a little education and understanding of SEO companies, you will be better equipped to choose the right SEO company for you.
Here are the top 3 myths when it comes to search engine optimization…
1. The majority of the SEO work takes place on your web site. The logic behind this myth is that if you design a really search engine friendly web site, your web site would be ranked high by search engines such as Google. Yes, it may be true that having the right keywords and meta tags on your web site help your ranking, but if it were that easy, don’t you think everybody would be doing the same thing? The truth is – only a small percentage of the SEO work is done on your web site. The majority of the SEO work to improve your ranking should be done on other people’s web sites! Search engines tend to care a lot more about what other web sites think about yours rather than what you have on your own web site. This is the reason that a good web designer is not necessarily a good SEO expert, and vice versa. Web designers tend to focus almost all of their energy working on your web site. Good SEO experts, on the other hand, tend to focus their energy on other web sites in order to help improve your web site’s rankings.
2. Good SEO can be done cheaply. There is a saying that people tend to get what they pay for, and this saying applies to hiring SEO companies. However, you should not base your decision on price alone. What you should understand is why some SEO companies charge you so little (such as $49.95 per month). Some keywords are more competitive than others. For instance, let’s say you run a hair salon in Los Angeles called “BJ Hair Design”. Which keywords do you want to optimize? Do you want to optimize “BJ Hair Design”, or do you want to optimize “hair salon Los Angeles”? I can charge you very little to improve the ranking of the keyword “BJ Hair Design”, but potential customers searching for hair salons on the Internet don’t know your company name (which is why they are searching in the first place), so no one is going to type in “BJ Hair Design”. Chances are they will type in “hair salon Los Angeles”, and this is when you want your web site to come up first. It is much harder to get a high ranking on competitive keywords such as “hair salon Los Angeles”, which means it will cost you a little more to get high rankings on highly desirable keywords. So before you go with the cheapest SEO company, think about this… Which keywords are they helping you optimize?
3. SEO stops when your ranking is high. Another myth is that SEO is a one-time investment. If you have a very high ranking on Google, there are probably 9 other companies trying to compete with you. If everyone else is advancing but you, your ranking will eventually drop. That is why you should think of SEO as an ongoing investment for your business. By continuing to invest in your web site’s ranking, you will ensure a steady stream of new customers that will visit your web site and call you up.
If you think about it, there is a reason that the SEO industry is somewhat secretive. For one thing, search engines like Google do not like people tampering with their search results. If you are a dentist in Chicago and you realize that thousands of people type “Chicago dentist” into Google every week, imagine how much more business you would get if your web site comes up first in the search results! When I say search results, I mean the organic search results, not the paid advertisements, since 70% to 80% of people click on the natural search results instead of the paid advertisements.
This brings me to the second reason why search engine optimization companies are somewhat secretive. They take away Google’s revenues from paid advertisements! The more people hire SEO companies to improve their rankings on the natural search results, the less likely they are to use paid advertising with the search engines such as Google AdWords and pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements. For these reasons, search engines such as Google do not like search engine optimization companies, and the SEO experts have to be somewhat hush hush with their methods. As a result, there are a lot of myths and misconceptions when it comes to hiring SEO companies. However, this does not mean you need to be at a lost. You are likely to get better investment of your dollars with some SEO companies than others. With a little education and understanding of SEO companies, you will be better equipped to choose the right SEO company for you.
Here are the top 3 myths when it comes to search engine optimization…
1. The majority of the SEO work takes place on your web site. The logic behind this myth is that if you design a really search engine friendly web site, your web site would be ranked high by search engines such as Google. Yes, it may be true that having the right keywords and meta tags on your web site help your ranking, but if it were that easy, don’t you think everybody would be doing the same thing? The truth is – only a small percentage of the SEO work is done on your web site. The majority of the SEO work to improve your ranking should be done on other people’s web sites! Search engines tend to care a lot more about what other web sites think about yours rather than what you have on your own web site. This is the reason that a good web designer is not necessarily a good SEO expert, and vice versa. Web designers tend to focus almost all of their energy working on your web site. Good SEO experts, on the other hand, tend to focus their energy on other web sites in order to help improve your web site’s rankings.
2. Good SEO can be done cheaply. There is a saying that people tend to get what they pay for, and this saying applies to hiring SEO companies. However, you should not base your decision on price alone. What you should understand is why some SEO companies charge you so little (such as $49.95 per month). Some keywords are more competitive than others. For instance, let’s say you run a hair salon in Los Angeles called “BJ Hair Design”. Which keywords do you want to optimize? Do you want to optimize “BJ Hair Design”, or do you want to optimize “hair salon Los Angeles”? I can charge you very little to improve the ranking of the keyword “BJ Hair Design”, but potential customers searching for hair salons on the Internet don’t know your company name (which is why they are searching in the first place), so no one is going to type in “BJ Hair Design”. Chances are they will type in “hair salon Los Angeles”, and this is when you want your web site to come up first. It is much harder to get a high ranking on competitive keywords such as “hair salon Los Angeles”, which means it will cost you a little more to get high rankings on highly desirable keywords. So before you go with the cheapest SEO company, think about this… Which keywords are they helping you optimize?
3. SEO stops when your ranking is high. Another myth is that SEO is a one-time investment. If you have a very high ranking on Google, there are probably 9 other companies trying to compete with you. If everyone else is advancing but you, your ranking will eventually drop. That is why you should think of SEO as an ongoing investment for your business. By continuing to invest in your web site’s ranking, you will ensure a steady stream of new customers that will visit your web site and call you up.
SEO - Do You Know The Top 7 Traits Of Legitimate Search Engine Optimization Companies
Did you know that nine out of ten people access online information through a search engine (SE)? And eight out ten do not go past the first page of the search results. If you want to benefit from your online presence then search engine optimization (SEO) is necessary for you. Well-placed, organic SE results can help your company to get noticed among the clutter of paid advertising and unrelated content. SEO stands out from other business strategies as it allows you to accurately measure performance and results.
Common Search Engine Optimization Strategies
SEO professionals use the following strategies to allow your company to make it to the first page of search results.
* They place links to your company on well-regarded Web sites.
* Improve the content on your website to ensure that it contains all the important keywords.
* They maintain compliance with search engine requirements and the best industry practices.
Seven Traits of Legitimate SEO companies
Before you hire SEO practitioners, you must learn to distinguish the professionals from illegitimate SEO practitioners who guarantee to place your company on the first page of results on major search engines. The illegitimate SEO professionals use various back door tricks to cheat SE rules. This often results in the client's web pages being banned from the search indexes after a short while. Thus, it is crucial to understand the difference between legitimate and illegitimate SEO providers before hiring SEO companies. Seven traits differentiate real experts in SEO from the illegitimate SEO providers.
1. No Junk Email
Legitimate SEO providers always refrain from sending spam mail for advertising. If you receive spam mail from SEO providers promising top rankings at low prices, be sure to check their track record on search engines.
2. Reduce your dependence on Advertising
Effective SE optimization focuses on a smart Web strategy to highlight your company's reputation. This leads to significant reductions of up to 80 percent in your advertising budget. Professional SEO companies will never ask you to purchase a lot of paid ads.
3. You can find Legitimate SEO Companies in the Search Engines
Professional SEO companies comply with SE algorithms. This allows you to see their long-term track record on search engines and assess their suitability for your website and business. On the other hand, illegitimate SEO services request customers to keep faith and provide short-term beneficial results. However, due to their lack of compliance with the rules, SE administrators remove all the traces of their clients from search indexes.
4. No secrets. You need Business Strategy and Tactics
Legitimate SEO companies will always share their strategies with you prior to implementation. Some companies promote their strategies online while others share them in the boardroom sessions. Conversely, illegitimate SEO providers keep their methods hidden from clients as they violate SE algorithms.
5. They have endorsements from trade associations
Customers of traditional retailers and service providers check endorsements from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) or from trade associations before entering a store or an office. SEO practitioners are no different. Peer groups emphasize a shared code of ethics and a transparent approach to demystify the SEO practice. Some SEO companies are also enrolled with the BBB's online programs that verify ethical behavior and customer satisfaction.
6. Targeted SEO Gets Local, Not Obscure
Professional SEO companies use area names to provide you with high rankings in localized search. This enables you to attract potential customers to your products and services, in your targeted locations. Be wary of SEO providers that promise you the "number one ranking on Google" within weeks. They do so by associating you website with an unusual search term that has a very limited audience.
7. The Best SEO Companies do not ask for links to their site
Legitimate SEO services will never ask you to insert suspicious links into their web pages. Illegitimate SEO companies may ask you to post links to yourself and other clients in conspicuous places on their websites. These links enable them to improve their websites' ranking in search engines.
With increasing competition on the internet, it is becoming increasingly hard to get websites noticed. As a result, more and more businesses are turning to SEO companies for increasing the value of their websites. Some businesses have even received improvements of over 300 percent in their SE rankings. Now that you have all the knowledge required to select the right SEO company for your business, wait no more and reap the benefits of search engine optimization.
paul Anie www.smartmoneyweb.com
Common Search Engine Optimization Strategies
SEO professionals use the following strategies to allow your company to make it to the first page of search results.
* They place links to your company on well-regarded Web sites.
* Improve the content on your website to ensure that it contains all the important keywords.
* They maintain compliance with search engine requirements and the best industry practices.
Seven Traits of Legitimate SEO companies
Before you hire SEO practitioners, you must learn to distinguish the professionals from illegitimate SEO practitioners who guarantee to place your company on the first page of results on major search engines. The illegitimate SEO professionals use various back door tricks to cheat SE rules. This often results in the client's web pages being banned from the search indexes after a short while. Thus, it is crucial to understand the difference between legitimate and illegitimate SEO providers before hiring SEO companies. Seven traits differentiate real experts in SEO from the illegitimate SEO providers.
1. No Junk Email
Legitimate SEO providers always refrain from sending spam mail for advertising. If you receive spam mail from SEO providers promising top rankings at low prices, be sure to check their track record on search engines.
2. Reduce your dependence on Advertising
Effective SE optimization focuses on a smart Web strategy to highlight your company's reputation. This leads to significant reductions of up to 80 percent in your advertising budget. Professional SEO companies will never ask you to purchase a lot of paid ads.
3. You can find Legitimate SEO Companies in the Search Engines
Professional SEO companies comply with SE algorithms. This allows you to see their long-term track record on search engines and assess their suitability for your website and business. On the other hand, illegitimate SEO services request customers to keep faith and provide short-term beneficial results. However, due to their lack of compliance with the rules, SE administrators remove all the traces of their clients from search indexes.
4. No secrets. You need Business Strategy and Tactics
Legitimate SEO companies will always share their strategies with you prior to implementation. Some companies promote their strategies online while others share them in the boardroom sessions. Conversely, illegitimate SEO providers keep their methods hidden from clients as they violate SE algorithms.
5. They have endorsements from trade associations
Customers of traditional retailers and service providers check endorsements from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) or from trade associations before entering a store or an office. SEO practitioners are no different. Peer groups emphasize a shared code of ethics and a transparent approach to demystify the SEO practice. Some SEO companies are also enrolled with the BBB's online programs that verify ethical behavior and customer satisfaction.
6. Targeted SEO Gets Local, Not Obscure
Professional SEO companies use area names to provide you with high rankings in localized search. This enables you to attract potential customers to your products and services, in your targeted locations. Be wary of SEO providers that promise you the "number one ranking on Google" within weeks. They do so by associating you website with an unusual search term that has a very limited audience.
7. The Best SEO Companies do not ask for links to their site
Legitimate SEO services will never ask you to insert suspicious links into their web pages. Illegitimate SEO companies may ask you to post links to yourself and other clients in conspicuous places on their websites. These links enable them to improve their websites' ranking in search engines.
With increasing competition on the internet, it is becoming increasingly hard to get websites noticed. As a result, more and more businesses are turning to SEO companies for increasing the value of their websites. Some businesses have even received improvements of over 300 percent in their SE rankings. Now that you have all the knowledge required to select the right SEO company for your business, wait no more and reap the benefits of search engine optimization.
paul Anie www.smartmoneyweb.com
Improve Search Engine Rank
By Kevin RaadA search engine ranking improvement for a site is not accomplished immediately. It takes its own time as the optimization process is quite complex for bigger sites. However, if you want to improve search engine rank for your site you can do it quite drastically by simply concentrating on the basics of the site's lay out and content.
Sites keep changing with time and it's important that they get redesigned from time to time to keep the content new and to have a modern design. But if a site that is well listed on the engines and directories is going to be redesigned or even just a single page deleted or files names changed, it is important to realize that it will impact on the site's rankings and traffic. Nevertheless this never means that alterations should not be made. It means that special importance needs to be given to sites that are showing up well before any alterations are made. If you want to improve search engine rank, consult with the SEO expert upfront and you will be able to limit or avoid any negative impact the change may have had. Not everything has to be complicated and there are most likely very simple ways of ensuring that any proposed changes do not harm the site's rankings. The crucial thing is to consult with the SEO expert before any changes are made to make sure no rankings or traffic is lost and the required workarounds are put in place. Indeed modification of pages can be advantageous as spiders see pages that are frequently updated as a good thing.
An active link building campaign should be part of every site's SEO strategy. You don't necessarily need to continue searching for sites to request links from forever but you must spend some time on it as soon as the site is finished. It is just as important as submitting your site to the engines and maybe more as the engines will find you if you're well linked to but may reject your submission if you're not.
Don't consider trying to check your site's ranking for at least three weeks after the initial submission unless you have paid for inclusion. You can start checking the relevant engines within one or two weeks if you have paid for inclusion. In the first few months after you optimize and submit your site it is important to monitor its progress to ensure that all the important pages have been indexed. It is also important to see whether they're holding high positions for your keywords or not. For search engine ranking improvement it is important to review your web logs. While your search engine rankings tell you whether or not the search engines like your site your logs tell you whether or your site visitors like it.
When optimizing your pages for search engines, consider each page's focus separately, because search engines do. To achieve top rankings, create content-rich information pages with an arrow focus on one or two topics and use those topics as your keywords or phrases. A common mistake is to try to optimize a single page for every keyword that's relevant to your business. All this reduces the relevancy. Create separate content-rich information pages utilizing your other keywords; this will attract highly targeted traffic to your site and improve search engine rank.
Sites keep changing with time and it's important that they get redesigned from time to time to keep the content new and to have a modern design. But if a site that is well listed on the engines and directories is going to be redesigned or even just a single page deleted or files names changed, it is important to realize that it will impact on the site's rankings and traffic. Nevertheless this never means that alterations should not be made. It means that special importance needs to be given to sites that are showing up well before any alterations are made. If you want to improve search engine rank, consult with the SEO expert upfront and you will be able to limit or avoid any negative impact the change may have had. Not everything has to be complicated and there are most likely very simple ways of ensuring that any proposed changes do not harm the site's rankings. The crucial thing is to consult with the SEO expert before any changes are made to make sure no rankings or traffic is lost and the required workarounds are put in place. Indeed modification of pages can be advantageous as spiders see pages that are frequently updated as a good thing.
An active link building campaign should be part of every site's SEO strategy. You don't necessarily need to continue searching for sites to request links from forever but you must spend some time on it as soon as the site is finished. It is just as important as submitting your site to the engines and maybe more as the engines will find you if you're well linked to but may reject your submission if you're not.
Don't consider trying to check your site's ranking for at least three weeks after the initial submission unless you have paid for inclusion. You can start checking the relevant engines within one or two weeks if you have paid for inclusion. In the first few months after you optimize and submit your site it is important to monitor its progress to ensure that all the important pages have been indexed. It is also important to see whether they're holding high positions for your keywords or not. For search engine ranking improvement it is important to review your web logs. While your search engine rankings tell you whether or not the search engines like your site your logs tell you whether or your site visitors like it.
When optimizing your pages for search engines, consider each page's focus separately, because search engines do. To achieve top rankings, create content-rich information pages with an arrow focus on one or two topics and use those topics as your keywords or phrases. A common mistake is to try to optimize a single page for every keyword that's relevant to your business. All this reduces the relevancy. Create separate content-rich information pages utilizing your other keywords; this will attract highly targeted traffic to your site and improve search engine rank.
Kevin Raad is a SEO expert. To read more tips to improve search engine rank of your site on your own, visit http://www.smartmoneyweb.com
Web Site Search Engine Ranking is the Only Thing You Need to Get Traffic
By Kevin Raad Search Engine Optimization positioning; referred to mainly as SEO positioning, is a growing concept that everyone using the internet as a marketing tool may need to understand even on the most basic level. Your site's SEO position is merely where it is placed on a search engine result list when a search is done for web content. This is basically your site's rank.
Web site search engine ranking might be all you need to drive traffic to your site but it is not as simple as it sounds. The concept of using web site search engine ranking to get persons to visit your page stems from the realization that most persons will choose the highest ranked links when they use the engines to find content for specific keywords or key phrases.
In fact it is believed that about 80% of the persons searching the web will select the top three options given. Even if internet users have no idea how they decide, they know that search engines will compile a list of sites found starting with what each engine sees as the most relevant. The further down the list you go the less important a site is deem to be by the SE being used.
Though this is not always accurate, persons still want to be able to access information easily and quickly so they will rely on the SE's judgments to save time. It therefore means that if you decide to stick to web site search engine ranking as your most powerful strategy you will want to make sure that your site ranks high at all times.
What this means is that you will have to do EVERYTHING necessary to ensure that your site lives up to what each search engine and directory used requires of it or you risk being bypassed in searches. The less hits you get, the lower your rank may be.
You will have to take everything about your page into consideration. Is it user-friendly? Is it SE friendly? Is the content good? Are you using anything that can get you penalized or barred by SE's and directories like overusing keywords, spamming, cloaking links or breaking any terms and conditions of the avenues being used?
The aim of this is to ensure that nothing done during the planning and implementation stages harm your chances of making it onto a search result list because by depending on web site search engine ranking to increase your site's popularity you are assuming that you will have the kind of visibility that this requires to work.
Being visible is possible only if your site can be accessed and evaluated by SE spiders. If after evaluating it the SE fails to see the relevance then you are in big trouble.
It may be all you need to get traffic but it is not to be taken lightly. The success behind web site search engine ranking depends on your site so, do it well.
Web site search engine ranking might be all you need to drive traffic to your site but it is not as simple as it sounds. The concept of using web site search engine ranking to get persons to visit your page stems from the realization that most persons will choose the highest ranked links when they use the engines to find content for specific keywords or key phrases.
In fact it is believed that about 80% of the persons searching the web will select the top three options given. Even if internet users have no idea how they decide, they know that search engines will compile a list of sites found starting with what each engine sees as the most relevant. The further down the list you go the less important a site is deem to be by the SE being used.
Though this is not always accurate, persons still want to be able to access information easily and quickly so they will rely on the SE's judgments to save time. It therefore means that if you decide to stick to web site search engine ranking as your most powerful strategy you will want to make sure that your site ranks high at all times.
What this means is that you will have to do EVERYTHING necessary to ensure that your site lives up to what each search engine and directory used requires of it or you risk being bypassed in searches. The less hits you get, the lower your rank may be.
You will have to take everything about your page into consideration. Is it user-friendly? Is it SE friendly? Is the content good? Are you using anything that can get you penalized or barred by SE's and directories like overusing keywords, spamming, cloaking links or breaking any terms and conditions of the avenues being used?
The aim of this is to ensure that nothing done during the planning and implementation stages harm your chances of making it onto a search result list because by depending on web site search engine ranking to increase your site's popularity you are assuming that you will have the kind of visibility that this requires to work.
Being visible is possible only if your site can be accessed and evaluated by SE spiders. If after evaluating it the SE fails to see the relevance then you are in big trouble.
It may be all you need to get traffic but it is not to be taken lightly. The success behind web site search engine ranking depends on your site so, do it well.
paul Anie is a SEO expert. To discover more on why your web site search engine ranking will send the traffic you need, visit http://www.smartmoneyweb.com.com
Search Engine Optimization: Why Is SEO Web Promotion Important
Search engine optimization is a long term that confused many internet marketers so they usually dismiss it and focus on some other area of internet marketing or the newest fad whether it is blogging, My Space, or podcasting.
While it is good to diversity your marketing efforts and to pay attention to new methods, search engine marketing has been around for a long time and it is not going anywhere. The simple fact is that some estimates report 85 percent of internet users utilize search engines to find what they want on the internet. That is why you cannot ignore search engine optimization.
Search engine optimization gets your site and its contents noticed by the search engines then ranked well for the keywords your target audience uses to search. The more visitors then the higher your revenue. That is a pretty simple formula for success.
So what is search engine optimization? Also known as SEO, search engine optimization simply means including recommended design and content elements to your web site, blog, and/or RSS feed to make it more attractive to search engines.
While the exact formulas that the top search engines use to calculate rankings are usually a closely guarded secret, there are search engine optimization experts who can point out some easy ways to optimize your site. And in fact, this optimization will only take a few minutes of your time and can achieve dramatic results after the next search engine spiders your site.
However before you can really begin to work on SEO then you need to determine the most effective keywords for your target audience. Once you have those keywords then you can incorporate them into your page title, headlines, content, and alt tags.
Search engine optimization is important because it is free, it is easy, it is targeted marketing, and it keeps on working even when you do not. You do not need to constantly monitor or fund SEO campaigns as they are self-sustaining once you set them into motion.
While it is good to diversity your marketing efforts and to pay attention to new methods, search engine marketing has been around for a long time and it is not going anywhere. The simple fact is that some estimates report 85 percent of internet users utilize search engines to find what they want on the internet. That is why you cannot ignore search engine optimization.
Search engine optimization gets your site and its contents noticed by the search engines then ranked well for the keywords your target audience uses to search. The more visitors then the higher your revenue. That is a pretty simple formula for success.
So what is search engine optimization? Also known as SEO, search engine optimization simply means including recommended design and content elements to your web site, blog, and/or RSS feed to make it more attractive to search engines.
While the exact formulas that the top search engines use to calculate rankings are usually a closely guarded secret, there are search engine optimization experts who can point out some easy ways to optimize your site. And in fact, this optimization will only take a few minutes of your time and can achieve dramatic results after the next search engine spiders your site.
However before you can really begin to work on SEO then you need to determine the most effective keywords for your target audience. Once you have those keywords then you can incorporate them into your page title, headlines, content, and alt tags.
Search engine optimization is important because it is free, it is easy, it is targeted marketing, and it keeps on working even when you do not. You do not need to constantly monitor or fund SEO campaigns as they are self-sustaining once you set them into motion.
Deanna Mascle shares more Search Engine Optimization tips and a free ebook SEO Made Easy at http://establishyourepresence.info/searchengineoptimization.php