Finding the Right SEO Company

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Finding the Right SEO Company


I often talk to people who have lost faith in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) firms because of bad experiences. Either they saw no results, felt that they were tricked into subscribing to a service that could not work, or that they wasted money on a firm that did them no good. Although I agree that there are bad SEO firms out there, I know that there are also many good ones. Its your job to make sure you find an SEO firm that will work for you.

Search engines are the basis of Internet existence and survival. Recent studies have concluded that over 90 percent of all web surfers use search engines to find what they are looking for. Thus, in order to be successful on the Internet, your website must be search engine friendly. If people who search the Internet for your products or services are not finding your Web site, you need search engine optimization (SEO).

Now some of you may take on the task of optimizing your own sites. For those people, there are plenty of how to articles on the Internet that can help you. If you need more help, drop me an email and Ill give you some ideas. However, many webmasters decide instead to let an SEO company handle their marketing. Search Engine Optimization is a full time job, and many companies need to hire someone to do it for them. If this is your intent, you should know what to look for, and what to watch for, when selecting the right SEO company.

1. Make Sure They, and Their Clients, are Successful and Well Optimized

If your SEO company does not rank high on most major search engines under their specific services, then they probably wont have the ability to get you high ranking on yours. For example, if youre located in Boston, your SEO company should at least rank on the first page in Google, Yahoo, and MSN under such search terms as Boston SEO, Boston Internet Marketing, Boston Web Marketing, or even Boston Web Design. If you found them through pay-per-click or sponsored listings, this only means that they do not have the ability to optimize their own websites and are forced to pay for their clientele.

In addition, it is a good idea to check the success of their clients. All SEO companies have a client listing, if for no other reason than to offer front page links to their big spenders. Take a good look at these clients sites. Check for quality of content and keywords. View the source and see how well the meta tags are structured and how well they apply to the content given. And most importantly, go to the major search engines and find where these clients land on the search terms they are targeting. If the SEO company has created a successful marketing campaign for each of its clients, chances are youre looking at a good SEO firm. However, if neither the SEO company or its listed clients have high rankings, I would recommend you find a firm that does.

2. Make Sure Someone Answers the Phone or Responds to Email

Although this may sound funny, I cant stress how important it is to find a SEO company that will be there when you need them. Before choosing an SEO company, call them. If they pick up, youre in good shape. If they dont pick up, but call back within 2 hours, youre still looking pretty good. If it takes you a handful of phone calls and emails, or a number of days to get a response, you might be in bad shape.

Say youve just received a new product that you would like to market. Say that product is seasonal, only for the holiday season, and your ability to sell it relies on the timeliness with which you can get it seen on the search engines. You need a company that you can contact to put immediate marketing efforts to your new pages and products. If it takes 3 to 4 weeks for your SEO firm to make changes and improvements, you might want to look for a company that can keep up with your fast-paced business and demanding customers.

3. Make Sure They Understand How Search Engines Work

Keeping a website at the top of the search engines has become a science. The best search engines frequently modify the way their databases list Web sites, and constantly change the search criteria used to find and present web pages.

To understand the quality of a companys search engine optimization services, you must first understand how search engines work. Search engines list websites in two distinct manners: pay per click listings and organically optimized listings.

Pay per click listings are the listings that appear on the top or right side of most search engines under the heading Sponsored Links, or some related term. This type of listing is paid for. Web sites that wish to get top search engine placement without optimization can pay a certain cost that is charged to their search engine accounts every time their sponsored link is clicked on by a prospective client. Cost per click rates range anywhere between $0.10 and $10.00 per search. Some bigger-budget eCommerce businesses can spend up to $50,000 a month on pay per click marketing.

Organically optimized listings are the listings that appear at the top of search engine pages without having to pay for these listings. This type of listing is free. However, your website must be properly optimized to appear at the top of all search engines using organic optimization. Search engines use unique programs which send agents referred to as spiders and robots to your Web site to collect data. Your website must be structured properly to aid these robots in their search for information.

A quality SEO firm will know how to properly structure your website for top organic optimization and, ultimately, top search engine placement. Watch out for SEO firms that take your money and invest in pay-per-click marketing. Although this will get you immediate results, it does nothing to optimize your site in the long run, will not be as profitable as an organic marketing campaign, and will keep you dependent on SEO companies for your success. And pay-per-click marketing is something you can easily do yourself; if thats the route you wish to take.

4. Make Sure They Follow-Up with Internet Research

In addition to knowing how to optimize correctly, an SEO firm should be constantly investigating the Internets most popular search engines in order to stay aware of the latest techniques for promoting a Web site on the Internet. If they are not giving you monthly reports on the status of your listings, the increasing quantity of your links, and the number of unique visitors to your site, you might not be working with the right SEO company. These reports should not only show where your site is ranked on each of the major search engines for each of the major terms you target, but also show you how you have improved from the previous month and where your competitors stand.

5. Make Sure You Constantly Know What Theyre Doing

The major problem most people have with internet marketing guys is that they dont see them everyday. Its not like these guys come into the office everyday, or even sit down with the boss for a daily conference call. Most of them work out of their homes, spending 12 hours a day on the computer. Now Im not saying that they will take your money and do nothing for you, but its good to keep your eyes on them like you would any employee. On the days that they work for you, have them send you day-end reports detailing the pages they optimized, the content they added, the keywords they marketed, and the links they added. This will allow you a better understanding of what they do on your clock, and allow you to keep your eye on their progress and effectiveness.

Overall, you can find a good SEO company. There are hundreds out there. But it is your responsibility to make sure you find the right one. Dont just pick the first firm you find, then complain when you see no results. Find your results before you hire any SEO company, and you will put your business on the right track for Internet success.

Nathaniel Long is an Internet marketing specialist for Allied Internet Productions, a Denver-based web design and marketing company specializing in graphic and flash design, internet marketing and search engine optimization. Visit their site at http://www.alliedinternetproductions.com, or call them toll free at 800-935-1820.

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Dont Make the Top 30 SEO Mistake

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Dont Make the Top 30 SEO Mistake


SEO consultants will tell you that you need to be in the Top 30 or you can pretty much give up any hope of getting a visitor to your web site.

Yes, there is truth in that Top 30 goal. Occasionally, a potential customer will make his or her way to the #30 position in search of a particular product or service. The odds just aren't that high.

Yet, industry research and ongoing search engine user behavior analysis shows that most people will focus on the first few results. Who can blame them? It takes a great deal of patience to wade through the rest of the options.

It's going to mean a great deal more if you can get that prized search term in the Top 10 (first screen) or even the Top 3 or Top 5 with the right SEO marketing strategies.

With so much competition, is that even possible? Yes - if you're realistic. Here's the key: don't spend an inordinate amount of time in the single keyword "cars" if you offer something more specific, such as "automotive accessories." You stand a much better chance of getting that coveted top spot with a more reasonable search phrase.

Don't ignore those single words if they really represent what you do. Generally, single words have a fighting chance if other SEO factors are rooting for you along the way, including pages with lots of content, options to include content up high, other pages featuring the same keyword, a domain name with the keyword, a page name with the keyword and plenty of link popularity built around the keyword. You just have to tie it all together.

Obviously, fewer people search for "automotive accessories" than "cars." But you'll be able to reach more search engine users - and prospective customers - if you frame most of your SEO strategy around specific search engine phrases that adequately reflect what you do. Join the Top 10 Club and reap the benefits.

Michael Murray is vice president of Fathom SEO, a Cleveland, Ohio-based search engine optimization firm. He authored the U.S. Manufacturers Resist Natural Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Online Sales Leads study and a white paper, "Search Engine Marketing: Get in the Game." michael@fathomseo.com

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Do It Yourself SEO


Internet surfers use search engines more than any other tool to find things online. Search engines rank their results using a complex formula that considers web page content, link popularity and other details. This is why you should Search Engine Optimization (SEO) your web site.

First before you start you need to identify your keywords. It is critical that you know and understand the search terms surfers will use to find your web site with. If your not sure yet try thinking of search terms you would use to find your site. After you find your keywords make a list of about 50 (If you can find that many) keywords and target them.

Next you need to identify your competition. Start searching with your site's targeted keywords and research the top ranked competing sites. Create a list of the top 10 to 15 sites and review each one of these web sites. While reviewing each of the competing sites look at the SEO methods that they use.

Meta tags are thought by most to have little impact, If any at all, on your site's ranking, but is still recommend to use. It's better to be safe than sorry! The meta description tag is used to describe a web page's content to the search engines. Most search engines (Google, Yahoo!, etc) get the web site's description from the web page's content and not from the meta description tag. Write a description of your site here and make it short.

The keyword tag tells the search engines what keywords are related to your site. You should place your main keywords here and add no more than 15 keywords. The Title tag is probably one of the most important SEO techniques today. Not only will the search engine's spider see this, but also the surfers. Place your main keywords in it and be creative. Don't make it longer than it needs to be.

Keyword density is a key part of SEO. On each page write approximately 200 to 500 words. Write it with your targeted keyword phrases. Remember not to over due it and get banned from the search engines for spam or make your visitors hate you. Put your keywords in bold and in the heading tag. Try to get a density of 5 to 15%. If your not sure what you keyword density is try using http://superiorwebmaster.com/webmaster-tools/page_primer.php.

Search engines will not only use links to find new sites, but they'll count each link to a site and use this to determine how popular that site is. What you want to get is quality links. These links should come from web sites that are related to your topic. Don't exchange links with every site you can. Take time to check each one before exchanging links. Make sure they are a clean and professional site. Look to see if they use spam.

Other thing to consider is to make sure HTML is valid. Spiders are somewhat like the browser you use, they read the HTML to display the web page. If your HTML code contains errors, spiders might not be able to find the content on the page. Although most spiders will try to correct minor errors in HTML code, it could still hurt your ranking. Visit w3.org to have your HTML code validated.

Matt Colyer is the owner of the Superior Webmaster. He also is a php, CGI and ASP developer.

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Do-It-Yourself Search Engine Optimization


Search engine optimization, or SEO, is big business. If you rely on search engines to bring visitors to your business website, you need to rely on more than luck. Your business will lag far short of its potential unless your site is optimized and re-optimized for search engine results.

What is search engine optimization?

SEO is optimizing your website for search engines, acquiring inbound links, and monitoring your traffic and referring links to use them optimally. SEO is also studying and monitoring your competitors techniques.

The goal of SEO is to bring in targeted traffic that is organic, i.e., from search results. When people type in a keyword or phrase that youve optimized your site for, you want your site to appear on the first page, preferably high on that page. Good SEO results in increased traffic without the cost and time spent on advertising.

The SEO industry

Where theres a need, theres an industry ready to help you spend money on that need. SEO firms charge from a few hundred dollars up to six-figure amounts to optimize your site for search engines.

If paying thousands of dollars to an SEO firm isnt in your budget, consider using SEO packages to optimize your site yourself.

A combination of SEO tools is needed to get the best results. The SEO packages described below offer a variety of tools to help you optimize your site for search engines.

SEO tools compared

While weve listed numerous features of each SEO tool, these comparisons are summaries only.

Internet Business Promoter (IBP)

Known for their link popularity tool ARELIS, IBP also produces a three-step suite of tools to help you promote your website:

1. Page optimization
Generate, analyze, and edit keywords
Optimize for the top 10 search engine rankings
Optimize the title, link texts, and other parts of the web page
Validate the HTML
View the site via a spider simulator

2. Page promotion
Submit your site to search engines and directories
Search for sites that might add a link to your site

3. Results tracking
Verify search engine positions automatically

Price: $179.95 or $349.95.

LinksManager

Links Manager is designed to help users manage reciprocal linking. It doesnt require any software downloads, and current links pages can be imported into it. Some of its features:

Link organization and formatting
Organize your links into multiple categories, subcategories, and most popular links lists
Store the links on your own server
Highlight newly added and featured links

Link management and tracking
Remove dead links temporarily via a dead link checker
Check whether or not reciprocal links at other sites exist
Rotate links automatically
Deny link submissions according to the criteria you set via a blacklist
View the most popular keywords on your links pages

Price: $19.95 a month.

SEO Administrator

SEO Administrator automates website promotion with tools that can do these tasks:

Keywords and site visitors
Track your sites position for your keywords in over 30 search engines
Report on the keyword weight and density of your site as well as of competitors sites
Suggest keywords that are relevant to each page
Analyze your site logs to find out about site visitors, keywords used, referrers, and more

Search engines and directories
Check which pages at your site have been indexed by various search engines
Check Google PR, the number of inbound links, and whether or not the site is listed in the DMOZ and Yahoo directories
Show the automated descriptions that search engines display for your pages

Price: from $70 to $150, depending on the version.

SEO Elite

With SEO Elite, you can find out exactly what your competitors are doing and copy their strategies. You can find out about your competitors web pages:

Keyword density and prominence
Their and headings
Their meta keywords
Whether their site is listed in the Yahoo directory
Which websites your competitors are advertising on

Concerning link partners and search engines, SEO Elite can:

Find thousands of possible link partners
Track details about pages with inbound links
Check whether or not reciprocal links at other sites exist
Indicate which of your pages search engines have indexed
Keep a record of where your site is ranked for search terms

Price: $167.

SEOToolset

The focus of SEOToolset is to provide data to help with website promotion. The toolset includes:

Your website
Keyword density analyzer
Keyword selection tool
Reports on rankings for keywords, page names, and indexed page counts
Link partner finder

Search engines and directories
Engine-specific keyword research
Traffic checker for keywords
DMOZ category selector
Search engine submission tool
Search engine ranking monitor

Your competition
Keyword research summary
Link analysis of inbound links to competitors websites

Price: $90.00 per quarter per site.

Web CEO

The 10 tools in the Web CEO package are designed to help you promote and maintain your website, improve search engine results, and analyze site visitors. A summary of these tools:

At your website
Keyword research
Website optimization
Inbound link tracking
WYSIWYG website editing and file uploading
Link checking
Website monitoring
Stats analysis to track visitors, ad campaigns, transactions, and more

Search engines and competition
URL submission to search engines
Search engine rank checking
Tracking who links to the competition

Price: $295 for one person. A free version is also available.

WebPosition

WebPosition, one of the oldest and most popular SEO tools, offers a five-step SEO process:

1. Determine your position in search engines
Create search engine ranking reports
Monitor your sites placement in search engine results

2. Research and choose keywords
Identify the most searched and least competitive keywords

3. Optimize your pages
Compare your pages to those of top-performing sites and specific competitors
Detect when your competitors pages have changed
Be alerted to changes that could affect your site rankings

4. Design and submit your pages
Use Page Builder and Upload Manager to design and maintain your site
Submit your site to search engines with the Submitter tool

5. Analyze your results
Track the correlation between search rankings and revenue
Import top-performing keywords

Price: $149 or $349.

How to hire an SEO firm

If youd prefer to hire an SEO firm instead, do your research. Youll be spending a minimum of a few hundred dollars, more likely thousands of dollars for a medium-sized or larger website.

While many SEO firms are good at what they do, the field unfortunately has its share of scammers as well. They may tell you that a variety of tricks such as hidden text or cloaking will improve your sites position in search engines. In reality, these techniques may get your site banned from search engines. More information is at these pages at Google.com:

Webmaster Guidelines
href=http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html

Search Engine Optimizers
href=http://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html

If youre considering an SEO firm, ask how they measure success. Will your site hits be organic? Look at the sites of SEO firms clients and the site for the SEO firm itself. Do the sites rank well for keywords at these sites? The search engine results for relevant keywords will indicate how successful an SEO firm is.

Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for http://www.websitesource.com and http://www.lowpricedomains.com with experience in the website hosting industry.

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DIY SEO


Part 1. Wordtracker for keywords.

A problem for all new webmasters has always been SEO or search engine optimisation.

The problem starts with the age-old question of how do I design my website so people can find it?

Lets assume that you have an idea for a website that will enable you to make a bit of extra cash, you have a product of your own or you have an affiliation you believe in and you want to make sure that the people searching for your product will find your site over your competitors. How do you start?

Step 1
KEYWORDS
Finding the right keywords for your product is vital, the right keywords on your site will mean the difference between being found and not being found. How do we find these keywords and how do we use them?

First stop is a visit to wordtracker.com Using the trial version should be enough.

Lets say that you sell widgets, type widget into the box and you will get this; 1. widget
2. apple
3. Apple
4. widgets
5. synastry
6. Macintosh
7. security

Clicking on the word widget on the top of this list will bring up another list that contains the word widget.

Lets take a look at the top 5 on that list.

Keyword Count Predict Dig
widget 154 132
widgets 120 103
widget the world watcher 26 22
desktop widgets 22 19
definition for a widget 19 16

The table contains the following information:

Count - This shows the number of times a particular keyword has appeared in our database. E.g. Our database currently holds 373 million words. A count of 147 tells us that this particular word has appeared 147 times out of 373 million (this is over a two-month period).

Predicted - This is the maximum total predicted traffic for all of the major search engines/pay per bids and directories. It is based on the current 24-hour period.

Dig - When you perform any kind of search in the keyword universe, you can now dig down to the next level. E.g. search for 'gambling'. Then, when you click on 'online gambling', just the results for 'online gambling' come up, click on 'online gambling in states' and so on. Great for focusing on niches.

Clicking on each word again adds it to your basket. The next step is to compare these keywords in order to find the best keyword for you,

You are looking for a keyword with a high KEI or Keyword Effectiveness Index, whats this?

In a nutshell: Look for the keywords near the top. The higher the KEI, the more popular your keywords are, and the less competition they have. Which means you have a better chance of getting to the top.

Now you have found your high KEI ranking keywords you have to sprinkle them about your home page and insert them into you meta-tags. The next article in this series will discuss meta-tags, using the title tag, and basic page design that will give your visitors a pleasing site to look at.

Mark white has been involved in IT for 16 years. More information on website optimisation and for free advice visit small-website-advice.com

For affordable SEO services visit get-listed-quickly.com

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