Frequently Asked Questions about SEO

1. I've signed up for one of your search engine optimization packages. How long will it take for my web traffic to start increasing?
   We will begin analyzing your keywords within a day or two after signing up. Within a week of interaction with you, we will have an extensive list of search phrases, your competition will have been evaulated, and you'll have a detailed plan for how to best start improving your rankings.
   
   We will then begin optimizing your web pages. This usually takes several days for us to get them just right. Depending on how fast you want them indexed, you will begin seeing a steady increase in traffic from the optimized web pages and directory listings beginning about two weeks after signing up and steadily increasing. It usually takes 6 to 8 weeks to be indexed completely into all of the important search engines and realize the full benefit of the optimization.
   
2. I've seen some advertisements for guaranteed traffic to my site. What is that all about?
   Some web promotion companies will advertise sending hits to your site for a certain price (i.e. 50,000 hits for $50). We consider this type of web traffic a secondary type that you 'experiment' with after your search engine strategy is implemented.
   
   We have tested out a few of these services, but so far our luck hasn't been so good. With some, we have indeed seen approximately the number of advertised visitors that were promised. The problem is, none of these visitors turned into customers! You need to be very particular about how and where these visitors are coming from. It is possible to create a web site so your web page is read by another web site (i.e. a casino, mall, or other high volume site), but the page isn't even visible to the person who supposedly 'visited' your site. In other cases, our monitoring showed our 50,000 guaranteed visitors only resulted in 8 real visitors. That one was most likely a scam.
   
   If we find a company that produces good quality web traffic, we will add them as another web traffic option for our customers. So far, we haven't been impressed with their value.
3. What's the difference between your service and those 'Submit to Thousands of Search Engines for $xx' offers that I see?
   Quite simply, those services usually do nothing to help your pages receive a better ranking. They may even cause your web rankings to be penalized because the search engines are quite sensitive to so-called 'spammers' (those who try to manipulate the search engines by over-submitting certain web pages, or place keywords within a search page too many times).
   
   For the most part, submitting to search engines does nothing. You are usually competing against millions of other web pages for ranking in the top 10 on a particular phrase. Search google for a phrase in your industry and see how many results it reports...
   
   We work with you in evaluating your current (or yet-to-be-developed web site), and optimize your web pages. In addition, our specialized keyword research services may uncover search term combinations that are better to target than the ones you were thinking.
4. I don't get this whole search engine thing. How does my site get into the natural search engine rankings (non-paid) for the correct search terms?
   There are 5 basic steps to getting your web site to come up higher in the search engines:
   1. Build (or rebuild) a web site - Ideally, the site will have the correct proportion of search phrases dispersed throughout its body, title, links, etc.
   2. Place high quality links to your site - Good high quality links from higher ranking pages will gurantee your site is indexed into the search engines quickly. These days, this is much more effective than submitting to the engines.
   3. Search engine retrieves your web page - This step should happen within 1 to 8 weeks after some good links to your site. The search engine will read and store your site into its database. It will also note new pages that it discovers (by your internal linking) that it needs to spider at a later time.
   4. Search engine indexes your site - Your web page is analyzed and given a score or placement for each phrase on your page. If a good job was done in step #1 above, then you will receive a higher score than your competitors for search terms relevant to your business. Each search engine uses different algorithms to determine which pages are most relevant for a particular search phrase.
   5. Search engine reports its results to a user - When a user types in a phrase, it lists out each site that scored the highest for that particular search term. All of this scoring has been done in advance -- that is why the results come back so fast. If your site has the highest score for that search phrase, your site will be the #1 result. As more links to your web page (containing good keywords in the link text) are discovered, your score improves on that particular keyphrase, and your rankings continue to rise.
5. Some firms offer a 'top ranking' guarantee. What is your guarantee?
   We have found that most guarantees offered by SEO firms are extremely vague, have strict limitations, and are almost always counter-productive to your business. Here is what we mean:
   

   Vague description of the guarantee – The offers usually state something such as "Guaranteed top 10 listings within X months". The problem is, there is usually no mention of which keywords are guaranteed, and which search engines the rankings will appear in. Their guarantee also doesn't specify if those top listings include pay-per-click rankings. Almost anyone can get you ranked highly on non-competitive keywords, or in small search engines, or have you pay (by the click) to be shown in the top 3 listings of engines. Ask the firm if they will guarantee first page Google listings (non-paid), with only key phrases receiving over 5,000 searches per month (as reported by Yahoo's keyphrase tool)...
   
   Counter-productive to your business - Normally firms offering guaranteed top rankings will either not specify what the 'top ranking' keywords are (easily fulfilling their guarantee by choosing low-volume combinations of keywords on your page), or by "helping" you choose less competitive keywords that make it easier for them to reach their milestone. This is counter-productive to your relationship with the SEO firm because their goal is shifted away from helping you find and optimize for the highest quality, highest traffic keywords, to helping you find the lowest traffic, least competitive keywords that they can get away with. Also, there are usually limitations that won't allow you to change your own web site (thus, voiding the guarantee), or that limit the guarantee if your industry is too competitive.

   We prefer an open, honest approach to providing you ALL the data relevant to your rankings. Foremost is the discovery (through keyword analysis) those targeted search terms that provide the most value to your business. We will continue providing our best effort and advice for systematically improving the number of targeted visitors finding your site by the search engines. You will see results with real data - unique visitor tracking reports that show you your improvements. Ranking reports that will track your climb in the search engines.