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Unfortunately, not many Search
Engine Optimization companies know what this involves. You
may see a "one size fits all" package, link
popularity development in the form of submitting to link
farms, or even the dreaded "Submit Your Site to
1000's of Search Engines" scam. While the basic
premise of each of these ideas is true, the execution of
them is extremely important.
First of all, your web site
needs human attention. A real person should thoroughly
analyze your site before any work is done. Get them on the
phone and ask them questions. There should be a clear
process that the Search Engine Optimization company uses
and tailors to each client. The SEO company should also
have a clear idea of what your goals are for your web
site.
The first step in any work
that is done should be keyword research. Like any kind of
advertising, you need to know where your target market
goes and how they find businesses like yours. The keywords
chosen should apply to the theme of the web site. High
rankings for these keywords should also be obtainable
given your budget. If you are a computer repair shop with
one or two locations in a city and can not service
computers outside your area, then targeting a term such as
"computer repair" is overkill. The cost for
obtaining high rankings for a term such as that will be
far greater than what you will make from the exposure, as
much of your web site traffic will not be targeted enough.
Once keywords have been
chosen for the web site, the content should be updated to
reflect them. This may include subtle changes to the meta
tags, page titles and text headings; or it could involve
adding additional sections to the site, rewriting content
and reorganizing the web site's structure. It all depends
on the specific requirements of the site and market.
Once the on-page content
optimization is complete, link popularity development
needs to be done. A link development campaign should be
done to acquire quality incoming links to the web site.
This phase of search engine optimization should take place
as soon as possible and can be continued as needed.
Reciprocal linking is fine as long as some caution is
used. There are many sketchy services out there that use
huge networks of gambling and pharmacy sites with no
unique content. Always make sure that each incoming link
can be interpreted by the search engines as a 'vote' by
that site for yours. It is worthless and possibly
dangerous if the site links out to link farms and
Free-For-All sites (FFA's). Writing articles with a link
to your web site, getting people to post on forums and
message boards, and advertising or getting links to drive
targeted traffic to your site are great methods to use in
improving your link popularity.
For the most part, you get
what you pay for with Search Engine Optimization. A quick
fix will rarely works, and if it seems too good to be true
it probably is. Talk to the search engine optimization
company about your concerns and make sure they understand
your goals. Read their site and make sure they seem
legitimate. Ask for results they've obtained for previous
clients. Methods that not effective and have a chance to
get a site banned include hiding text or links,
participating in link farms, keyword stuffing, repeat
search engine submissions, and copying web sites to
multiple domains.
Proper SEO does not involve
tricks. Web sites that have well written and well focused
content, have been advertised in one way or another
(including link popularity development), and overall are a
good informational resource will get traffic from the
search engines. Search engines are constantly updating
ways to weed out the spamming and illegal SEO methods, so
think long term with any search engine optimization
campaign.
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About
The Author
John
Metzler is the co-creator of Abalone
Designs, Inc. www.abalone.ca,
a Search Engine Optimization company in
Vancouver, Canada. He has been involved in
web design and web marketing since 1999
and has helped turn Abalone Designs into
one of the top SEO companies in the world. |
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