Fact vs. Fiction - by: Pat Dollar
If you are like me, you receive a daily onslaught of email and
invariably you will receive such email from "so-called Search
Engine Optimization services", making claims to "guarantee"
you top placement in some or even all of the major SE's.
Information taken from Google's SEO guidelines:
Be wary of SEO firms that send you email out of the blue.
Amazingly, we get these spam emails too: "Dear google.com, I
visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of
the major search engines and directories..." Reserve the same
skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for
"burn fat at night" diet pills or requests to help transfer
funds from deposed dictators.
Read the entire text at: http://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html
What they neglect to mention is that their guarantee is valid for
some obscure term that would most likely never be used.
For example, let's say that your company creates custom jewelry. You
use both precious and semi-precious stones, and you are located in
Birmingham, AL. You would hope to be found when someone does a search
for "custom jewelry" or perhaps "jewelry
semi-precious" or even "jewelers Birmingham".
But after 3 to 6 months of paying sometimes exorbitant fees, a search
using these terms sends you clicking through 20 or more pages of
listings in Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL or any other Search Engine or Directory.
You are upset and rightfully so! What now?
You call or email the SEO and request a refund based on their Guarantee.
Here is a likely response:
"Dear Sir/Madam,
Xyz co., Inc., has fulfilled our obligation to your company and your
site can be found on page 1, listing #1 in Google, Yahoo, and AOL for
the following search terms:
"Custom jewelry with precious and semi-precious stones - Birmingham"
"Semi-precious stone custom jewelry - Birmingham, AL"
We therefore are under no obligation to grant a refund.
Another tactic is "bulk submission software".
Here is what DMOZ has to say: "Auto-submission
software is (and always has been) a violation of this procedure.
Sites submitted automatically are flagged and deleted after the
submission is accepted, without notification to you. Persistent
automatic submission may force us to ban you from the dmoz site, so
we can provide resources to real human beings."
This text can be found at: http://dmoz.org/add.html
And who obtains information from dmoz? Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN etc.
What is Search Engine Optimization?
Search Engine Optimization is much more than throwing a few keywords
into your meta tags. It involves a lot of effort and you cannot
expect immediate results.
The following is what should be done at a minimum to insure that you
are found in the major search engines and directories:
It involves researching your industry and locating the current top
ten competing sites, then analyzing those sites for a number of items:
It further involves:
In conclusion, choose your SEO wisely. Begin by doing a search in
Google, Yahoo or your favorite search engine using the search term
"website optimization". Contact the firms you find in the
top ten. After all, if they can't get their own firm listed in the
top ten, how much hope do you think you have? Next, see if they
reference sites that they have optimized. Are the search terms
something that would readily be searched or something that you doubt
would be used often or at all? Get a clear understanding of their
fees and what they intend to do for you. What guarantees if any do
they offer? There are billions of web pages on the Internet with
thousands more being added on a daily basis. In order for your
Internet business to be successful, you need to be found.
Choose your SEO and your marketing strategies carefully!
Pat Dollar
To learn more about search engine optimization and website design
visit http://www.sitemaven-design.com
You are more than welcome to reprint this article as long as the
credits and links stay 100% intact.
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