Search engine optimization FAQ's answers! |
Q
|
Why do I need to submit my site to the search engines?
|
| A |
Submitting your site to the search engines is much like sending out invitations to a special event. If you don't send out invitations no one knows about your event and so they won't know to attend. If you don't submit your site to the search engines, they don't know that it exists, and will never send their robots to spider your site for eventual listing.
*request a proposal* |
|
Q
|
Why do I need search engine optimization?
|
| A |
Once your site has been submitted to the search engines their robots visit your site and spider all of the pages for which they find links. The search engines evaluate your pages based on their construction and content in an attempt to determine your pages relevance to all topics and keyword (search terms). This said, your pages should be constructed such that the result of the search engines evaluation - results in high ranking listings - for the topics and keywords (search terms) that you want your website to be found for, when searched by your potential internet visitors.
A few of the factors your website is evaluated for; keywords in title, keywords in inbound links, keywords in the text surrounding your inbound links, keywords in your header text, keywords in your meta description tag, keywords in your meta title tag, keywords in paragraph text, keyword density on web pages, keyword proximity to beginning of page, paragraph, end of page, website's link popularity, website's size, quality of outbound links, theme of outbound links, keywords prominence, website over optimization, keywords placed in the image alt text, internal website link prominence, keywords in related linked websites, page rank from inbound links, website file formats, length of website pages, website reliability (do the pages always serve up? In a timely manner?) and website update frequency. And these are just a few of the the more than 100 factors which the engines evaluate!
*request a proposal* |
|
Q
|
Where are the 1500 search engines other companies advertise?
|
| A |
While many companies have started search engines in an effort to be players in the internet world, very few have successfully found visitors, of any number, who will use their search engines. When you submit your site to 15,000 search engines you will be required to supply your email address. Well, after you submit, if you don't already know what spam email is, you will get a crash course! In excess of 1000 emails per day in the beginning!
Today, there are only a few companies who have managed to build successful search engines. Of those that have succeeded, you need to be concerned with those that have the highest potential of directing traffic to your site. Depending on which statistics you choose to believe Google represents between 50% and 90% of all searches done on the web. How can this be? Well Google feeds its web search results to a number of other search engines like AOL, IWON and Netscape. Watch the traffic on your site for any period of time and you'll see that a large percentage of your visitors arrive either directly from Google or from AOL, Netscape, Iwon or other Google partners. Yahoo and MSN are also big players in the search engine game, you will see a measurable percentage of traffic from Yahoo and MSN.
Other search engines meriting the effort of submission and optimization are: DMOZ, Excite, Teoma, Overture, Lycos, Hotbot, Look Smart, IWON, 7 Search, Ask Jeeves, E Pilot, Alta Vista, All the Web, Xupa, ICQ search, Find What, Kanoodle, Ah-Ha, Search Feed, Kanoodle, Epilot, Search Feed, Jade, Xuppa, Wisenut and about.com.
Some of these engines you may never have heard of! This list contains only 30 engines. If you don't know all of these engines, how many will you and more importantly your potential visitors be familiar with - and use of the other 14,970 engines?
*request a proposal* |
|
Q
|
What are keywords? Search terms?
|
| A |
Keywords (search terms) are the words or phrases your potential customers type in to the search engines when they are looking for a product or service.
*request a proposal* |
|
Q
|
How many keywords can I target?
|
| A |
You can target a maximum of three phrases or keywords per web page. If you have many products each product can be on a separate web page and that page can then be optimized for three search terms related to that product. This does not mean that your page will not be found by using other search terms but that it will rank higher for the selected keywords.
*request a proposal* |
|
Q
|
How do I choose keywords and search terms that really work?
|
| A |
This is tricky business! Of course you know what your product or service is but how many different ways will your potential visitors use to find you. fortunately there is help! Google, Word Tracker and Overture all offer suggestion tools that will show you terms searched and also related keywords and search terms. Overture and Word tracker also show how many times your selected keyword has been searched over the previous month.
*request a proposal* |
|
Q
|
What search engine optimization plan is right for my site?
|
| A |
The search engine optimization plan that will work effectively for your site depends primarily on your competition and the market for which you want to be listed. If for example you have a restaurant and want searchers to find you in the greater area were you're located - probably a basic optimization plan will be all you will need. On the other hand if your product or service is applicable to an entire state, region, nation or the world, your needs will increase accordingly.
Once you have selected search terms, some research of the top ranked sites for those terms will give you an indication of how much you will have to do to be competitive. Are your competitors pages optimized properly? Do they have links pointing to their site?...
Another key factor is were you want your page to be ranked, top 5, top 10, top 20 or page one of results, page two and so on.
*request a proposal* |
|
Q
|
Why do I need links to my web site?
|
| A |
In many ways the search engines are like a democracy. If two website's are identical the website which has more external links pointing at it will rank higher in the search engines.
Search engines view links as a vote of confidence in your site by other sites. If another site is willing to direct traffic to your site, they in affect are saying that your site has content worth a visitors review. Many new comers to the internet prefer not to have links exchanged with other sites. They think that having a links page on their site will distract their visitors and worse yet, potentially send their potential customer to someone else to do their business.
The reality is that your links page will see very little traffic! Why, you ask? Why would you manually search someone's link pages for a source when the search engines are available to perform this function for you, both automatically and efficiently!
*request a proposal* |
|
Q
|
How long will it take for me to see the effects of search engine optimization?
|
| A |
You may see some results in as few as 2 weeks but the end results won't be realized for some months. Why is this? Because despite the high speed at which computers function the internet is huge!
The search engines may visit your site daily, weekly or monthly based on your instructions. Therefore in a short period they will recognize that your pages have changed and are now very relevant to your desired keywords and search terms and therefore prepare to rank them accordingly.
However due to size of the world wide web as a whole - it may take several months for the engines to visit every site on the internet and recognize that your site has grown in strength by having many other websites linking to yours.
*request a proposal* |
|
Q
|
How well will my site rank after optimization?
|
| A |
With the proper optimization plan, selected to make your site equal or better than the competition it should rank highly. you need only invest enough time, effort and money as needed to reach the rank you desire.
Simply being listed on the search engines results pages (SERP) costs very little. Achieving high rank for a local or regional search can also be achieved economically for most keywords. However ranking top 5 or ten for a competitive keyword in a national search could be more costly. Remember it all depends on the competition for your desired keywords! Little competition means lower cost.
*request a proposal* |
|
Q
|
Will my site maintain its rank once the search engine optimization is completed?
|
| A |
Each search engine has its own algorithm used to determine a web pages relevance to search terms. These algorithms are adjusted from time to time. Provided the engines do not substantially change their algorithm and your competition does not change, your rank will be maintained. This does not mean that if on Monday you rank number 4 for a given term that you will always rank at number 4. your listing may float up or down from day to day or even search to search based on the search engines algorithm.
Google results are notorious for this and they have been given a name in the industry "the Google dance" sites that rank highly one day disappear the next day only to rank highly again within a few days or weeks. In the end, the search engines themselves have final control over how your pages will rank and periodic adjustments in your search engine strategy may be required to maintain a high ranking page for a competitive keyword.
"No one can guarantee an exact ranking in any search engine -- final rank is completely at the discretion of the search engines and their algorithms!"
"If a SEO firm is promising you guaranteed results regarding ranking -- we suggest you read their fine print!"
*request a proposal* |
|
Q
|
Why should I optimize my site as opposed to purchasing PPC (Pay Per Click) services?
|
| A |
Do you click on the sponsored results when you use the search engines? Personally we do not, but some searchers do. Our experience tells us that companies with valid products or services will invest in optimization such that their website will be found in the organic results of the search engines web results!
This doesn't mean that you shouldn't consider PPC as a source for traffic. You will however pay for every searcher who clicks on your add - regardless of whether they eventually do business on your site or not! Allot depends on the cost per click and the eventual conversion ratio of visitors to customers of your site. PPC may be a cost effective way to generate traffic and sales based on the cost per click for your selected keywords.
We can help you determine if PPC is right for your products and website.
*request a proposal* |
|
