An effective Search Engine Optimization campaign begins by using keywords to target the subjects which you intend your web site to rank for. In order to rank in the search engine results pages (SERP’s), a web site has to have a position of relevance to the search engine for a given search term. This is usually achieved by having keyword rich content on the site that coincides with the search term that the internet user types into the search engine.

In organic, (natural) search engine optimization, there are several factors that contribute to the ranking for a search term. Each search engine provider has their own unique set of criteria that they use to determine which web site is most relevant for that specific term. The factors that are used to determine search engine rankings are then calculated by a complex search engine algorithm.

Due to the high amount of targeted customer traffic that stands to be gained by a web site that has a top-ranked position in the search engines, the search providers keep the details of the factors which make up their algorithm a closely guarded secret.

Even though the search providers are careful with the exact formula that they use to gauge the rankings of web sites, there have been several constants discovered that when applied, produce favorable results.

Keywords – Content without Keywords = Website without Traffic

Keywords are at the center of any effective search engine optimization campaign. The basic rule of thumb in search engine optimization is that content is king. So, it is important to base all the content of a web site on accurate and informative content.

The first thing to perform in an optimization campaign is keyword research. To find the search terms that are generating traffic for the topic that you want to rank for, you need to determine what the internet users are searching for. This may be accomplished by several different means however the most common way is to use a keyword selector tool.

There are several different keyword tools that may be used. The one tool that was the industry standard for quite a while was the Overture keyword selector tool which, as of January 07′, has been retired . The data in the Overture database still remains available for historical data, but is no longer being publicly updated by Yahoo!, the company that now owns the service.

There are however several other keyword tools that may be used. Some free and some available for purchase or subscription based service.

• Free: SEO Book keyword suggestion tool:
  
  (http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/)
• Free: Google AdWords keyword suggestion tool:
  (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal)
• Various prices: Keyword Discovery:
  
  (http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/)

You Have to do your Homework – Keyword Research

There are few things to keep in mind before starting keyword research. The fact is that you will probably not be able to rank for a very competitive single-word search term like “money” or “cars”. For that matter, there are many two-word search terms, like “real estate”, that you will not be able to rank for either. So, in order to achieve rankings for your site with a subject like real estate, you have to look for related terms that will allow you to obtain a high position and yet not be too obscure so that you will still be attracting relevant traffic. For instance, you might try ranking for the search term “South Florida Real Estate Agency”, or “South Florida Real Estate Brokers”.

In order to determine the best search terms to use on content pages, I generally make a spreadsheet based on the topics that I feel are of most relevance.

There is an instructional Video I Created on “Search Engine Optimization Keyword Research”, over in You Tube … (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lw1es477LI)

The research phase is generally considered a very crucial part of the campaign because if the keyword terms that you choose are not searched for by internet users or if there are too many pages indexed in the search engines for that specific search phrase, your chances of achieving decent ranking results are very low.

There are some SEO’s that suggest that every page on a web site should be based on a keyword. This strategy may produce a high amount of pages that rank well in the SERP’s. However, the other side to that is sacrificing quality and readability. It may be difficult for a potential customer to perceive a web site as an authority or as a respectable source of information, if that web site has a directory structure that appears to be nothing more than a group of phrases. Moreover, it is very important to maintain a level of simplicity in the navigation and layout of a web site so that when a visitor comes to the site they may quickly identify the areas that would be of interest to them.

If a visitor is trying to determine which link on the navigation is relevant to their search and is only provided a selection of keyword-driven entry page links, the site may elicit a response of being shallow, which could in turn damage the reputation of the site.

As a good rule of thumb, it is suggested to have at least three, and no more than ten, keyword-driven content pages for every topic that you are attempting to rank for.

More Keyword Stuff? Oh Yes! … Keyword and Keyword Phrase Usage

After you have performed your keyword research for the topics that you want to target, there are some considerations that need to be addressed before actually sitting down to start writing. One of the key concepts that many successful SEO’s tend to focus heavily on is keyword or keyword phrase density.

Keyword density is the measurement of how many times a given keyword or keyword phrase is used in the entire body of the page. For instance, if your web page contains 500 words on the page, and your keyword or keyword phrase is used 10 times, you would have a density of 2%.If the keyword density is too high, the search engine algorithm may consider the results to be search engine spamming which in worst case scenarios, can have your site banned from the search engines. If on the other hand, the keyword density is too low, the page will not rank for the search term. Seeing that there are fairly severe consequences for creating a web page with a keyword density that is too high, it is generally suggested to air on the side of caution and limit your density to “safe” levels.

Though keyword density is a very controversial subject, I have found that keyword densities are relatively safe between 3% and 6%. However, you should keep in mind that algorithms may also consider an overall density of keyword usage for the whole site as well as for individual pages. If you have ten pages that use the keyword “real estate” at a density rate of 5 %, and those pages comprise half the pages on the site, then the site ratio for that keyword just jumped to 12.5 % which is not good.* (5% x 10 pages = 50% / 2 (half the pages)) = 12.5%

Keyword density should be used primarily as a gauge to determine if you have your search term either enough, or not enough times on a page, and should only be used as a gauge.

There are many other factors that contribute to ranking and density is really just a useful tool that can assist you in creating a good balance of keyword rich content. Keyword density alone will not produce search engine rankings.

*There is no evidence which suggests that search engines are calculating results based on total web site keyword density. However, many SEO’s consider total density to be an important factor to measure.

In Real Estate – It’s Location, Location, Location – In SEO – It’s Content, Content, Content

In search engine optimization, content CAN determine your location in the search engine results pages. Web sites that have a high quantity of quality content, naturally appeal to internet users. But, it is not the quality of the content itself that contributes to rankings – it’s the keywords in the content.

Most internet users are searching for informative articles regarding the subject matter that they are searching for. So, it is only natural that if a web site contains information that the user finds authoritative and informative, they will be encouraged to have confidence in the views, opinions, and suggestions that may be implied from the content. However, if a web site has very little or poor quality content that does not express a level of confidence in the consumer, they are most likely going to return to the SERPs’ to search for information that they find confidence in.

Many people that are involved in the creation of web content have a misguided belief that if the content on the site is good, the site will rank well based solely on the quality of the content. This is simply not true. Though good content is paramount to a search engine optimization campaign, the quality of the content has little if any significance in search engine rankings. Again, the quality of the content is not what contributes to rankings – it’s the keywords in the content.

So, you may be wondering, “If content is king why doesn’t that equate to rankings?” The answer is quite simple – the search engine algorithm.
http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html

The search engines give relevance to content on a web site based on the factors in their algorithm, not the quality of the content. So to achieve rankings, it is necessary to understand what the search engine considers as relevant. Not what you or I consider as relevant.

To answer the question that’s on the fringes of your subconscious … it’s the keywords in the content.

How to Put it All Together – Web Pages for the Search Engines

In order to achieve search engine rankings for your web site, there are two things that are necessary.

First, you have to have keywords that internet users are searching for which;

1. There are not too many pages in the search engine index for …
2. You need to have good keyword rich content that is created following your own keyword / phrase density levels.

The third part of the process is based on creating the content in a manner that will produce effective results. One of the first matters at hand is the amount of text that should be used. I recommend keeping the length smaller and adding more pages because search engine robots have been noted as only crawling to a depth of around the first 100 – 150 words.

Personally, I write my pages anywhere between 400 and 600 words in length and sometimes a bit longer. But the basic logic here is this: The more pages that you have, the more crawlable content you have. So, the answer is to simply create more small-sized pages. Furthermore, robots seem to crawl and index lightweight pages better. So, it might be wise to keep the page size rather low by limiting the amount of words, and especially the amount of images that you use on a web page.

Note however, that there really isn’t an ideal page size because different search engines index at a varying rate of depth and page weight. For instance, Yahoo! doesn’t typically index pages that are over 200KB. Google on the other hand, finds pages that are between 500 to 550 KB as “preferable” with regards to page weight.

When creating the content there are some very important guidelines that need to be considered as well. The placement of your keywords on your web page should be at the top of the page since the prime real estate for the robots are the first one hundred words or so. I generally like to follow a self-guided rule of writing the keyword or keyword phrase with in the first two opening sentences.

After that, I follow a formatting technique which tends to elicit excellent results for me, which is:

• Paragraph
• Call-to-action
• Intro-bullet list
• Paragraph
• Paragraph
• Call-to-action
• Closing

This simple format has several powerful elements that contribute to optimization here. The key to using this format successfully is the positioning of the first three elements; the paragraph, call-to-action, bullet list. The use of this combination supports:

1. The creation of keyword or keyword phrases in the first few sentences of the opening paragraph.
2. The ability to create keyword or keyword phrase based links in the Call-to-Action.
3. Many more keyword linking opportunities and supporting topics in the bullet list.

Web pages that are created with this format and use relevant search terms in the bullet list have a tendency to rank for the content in the bullet list as keyword stems on the main keyword.

Oh Boy! Let’s work on In-Page Optimization

So now we come to the point where we start to look at the implications of actual HTML – web page creation. There are several key areas that are important to proceed carefully at when creating an optimization based web site. The first matter is deal with how the Meta tags are used.

There are three main Meta tags that are relative to the creation of optimized web pages.

The first, and with out a doubt the most important is the Meta Title tag. The Title tag should contain the keyword or keyword phrase and any relevant stems provided that the quantity of the entire title is within an acceptable character count. As with many areas of SEO / SEM, there are many opinions on how many characters should or should not be included in the Title tag. I normally stay between 50 to 60 characters when I am performing optimization on a site for a client. However, I will sometimes push the envelope if I am working on a site for which I am the only liable party. In short, if you use too many characters / words – the site may be penalized for “spamming” the search engines.

The next tag which I believe to be equally as important in an antecedent and consequent sort of way, is the Meta description tag. I feel that this tag is highly underrated and requires some consideration. The Meta Description tag works very much as a support to the Meta title tag and if it is created properly, can offer several opportunities to add keyword relevance and / or stems that may promote a wider marketing saturation for the keyword or keyword phrase.

For instance, let’s take a look at this example of the Meta Title tag and the Meta Description tag “in agreement” with each other:

<meta name="description" content="Meta tag optimization services - To achieve high search engine ranking

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Search Engine Optimization Philosophy

This is arguably the most critical factor when deciding which company to work with to improve your online business or brand identity. Employing a search engine marketing or placement company that only utilizes ethical search engine optimization techniques or “white hat” methods will ensure that you minimize the potential risk of being dropped, removed, penalized, deleted, or banished from the search engines. Nobody enjoys waking up glassy eyed to the unfortunate reality of being “Google sacked” for breaking or bending the search engines’ implicit rules or explicit terms of service.

Search Engine Optimization Methodology / Specific Expertise

Can your expert SEO Company only optimize static websites constructed in basic HTML? An upstanding SEO company will have experience working with websites in all the common programming languages and technologies, PHP, ASP, ASPX, HTML, Cold Fusion, Flash etc.

Does your SEO Company have experience optimizing both static and dynamic websites? Can your SEO Company optimize using various e-commerce packages and interfaces such as Monster Commerce, Yahoo Stores, OS Commerce, Storefront.net, Volusion?

Depth Of Optimization / Piecemeal Services

The most basic search engine optimization companies around don’t actually perform search engine optimization at all- they are merely submission services which either manually or automatically submit your site to various search engines or directories. Submission companies are typically very inexpensive since no actual coding, linking, or content development takes place on your actual website. Typical pricing runs around $19.95 to $399 per month for these submission type services.

A mid level optimization company gets their hands more firmly on the marketing handle by editing code, analyzing keywords, building links, and adjusting / writing fresh content for your site. They also may do a pinch of off-site optimization, such as press releases, article submissions, and blog writing. Typically, firms of this middle level range charge between $399 and $850 per month.

The highest level search engine placement firm performs the duties described for mid level optimization companies, but also is responsible for conversion tracking and analysis. The emphasis on off-site optimization is also much greater and time consuming. This means that high level optimization firms are essentially responsible for discovering what is working and what is not working throughout the entire customer experience – from initial search through conversion. More man hours per month also means a higher fee that search engine firms must charge to cover their costs. The usual pricing range for these firms’ are $850.00 all the way up to $10,000 per month, but on average, you’ll be looking at fees above the $1,000 a month range.

A piecemeal marketing company is one that treats various parts of an optimization campaign as separate entities. For example, an optimization company may charge distinct fees only for “linking” or “content construction.” This piecemeal approach can be detrimental. Successful optimization is the synergy of multiple efforts on multiple fronts, sometimes simultaneous, and sometimes in succession. Piecing together different aspects of an optimization campaign typically reaps poorer results than a comprehensive strategy.

System Of Evaluation / Reporting

The majority of search engine optimization companies cringe at the thought of empowering their clients to evaluate their work. An ethical search engine optimization company does the opposite. There are four tools we recommend using in tandem to evaluate a search engine optimization company’s work / performance.

1. Real Time Statistics / Conversion Analysis Software

Being able to see traffic gains and conversions in real time can be a useful window in evaluating how your SEO Firm is performing. Having the ability to see who is coming to your site, from what search engines they are coming from, and the exact keyword phrase used within the search query is an essential tool.

2. Positioning or Visibility Reports

Being emailed bi-weekly positioning reports on the specific keywords that you are interested in ranking highly for can be incredibly useful. A visibility percentage, which is the percentage of people that are finding you for keywords that are important for your business – on the Major Search Engines – Google, Yahoo, AOL, and MSN is also important. Make sure your firm doesn’t overdue the automated search engine queries however, the search engines may consider this spamming their databases.

3. Alexa Rating:

You can download the Alexa Toolbar right now from alexa.com. This gives you a solid summary of the general traffic trend over the last three months for your website when compared to other existing sites. If you have a brand new website, odds are you will not even have an alexa rating or visible data at all. The alexa rating also shows you, in general terms, how your website stacks up- traffic wise- in comparison to your competitors or industry affiliates. The lower your alexa rating the more traffic your site is generating when compared to other sites in the alexa universe. Please note, if your site has an alexa rating of “1″ this doesn’t mean you are the most visited site on the internet- it most likely means you are operating a Yahoo Store- in such a case, it is identifying Yahoo’s overall traffic, and not your individual site. A general tool like this can give you a quick overall impression of traffic growth and trends. Be careful though, the numbers are generalities (similar to the television Nielsen Ratings) and not absolute figures.

4. Google PageRank

You can download the Google Toolbar right now by going to google.toolbar.com. Click on the options tab and check off the “display PageRank” measure. You will be able to see how Google is rating the importance of your site on a scale of 0-10. As an optimization company proceeds with your campaign you can check periodically to see how the number is increasing. The typical website might see a PageRank increase of one to two points over the course of an optimization campaign. Keep in mind that it is easier to increase your PageRank at the lower ends of the spectrum. As you approach higher PageRanks it becomes more difficult for your rating to balloon.

Due Diligence: Corporate Goals / Industry And Keyword Research

How does the SEO Company you are considering perform its up front legwork regarding your organization, industry and corporate goals? Do they ask questions about:

What your corporate goals (both short and long term) are, your industry, your competition. What keywords are currently working for you? What PPC (Pay Per Click) words are currently effective? What PPC engines (Adwords, Overture, MSN/Live) are currently effective? How your site is designed? Is your site dynamic or static?

What tools does your SEO Firm employ to perform its keyword research?

How about Wordtracker, WebCEO, or Keyword Elite? What about the basic Overture keyword suggestion tool or the generic Google keyword suggestion tool supplied by Adwords. Do they utilize a combination of the basic tools? What about proprietary keyword analysis methodology? Do they have dedicated tools that have been developed in-house, or by a third party?

Client to Account Manager Ratio

Not many SEO companies like to publicize their client to account manager ratio. This is the ratio representing the number of clients that each account manager handles at any given time. The lower the amount of clients each account manager assists, odds are the better the service and the higher the level of personal attention. We recommend that a search engine optimization account manager supports less than thirty clients at any given time.

Man-Hours Per Month

The number of man hours per month your SEO production department actually dedicates to your business is crucial. It is more than smart to ask for a monthly time allotment estimate before beginning an optimization campaign. What you expect to receive and what is actually delivered should be right in line.

Company Structure and Size

Does your SEO Company consist of a laptop computer with your account manager working out of his basement sitting beside a salivating golden retriever? Is your SEO company a bureaucratic nightmare that forces you to fill out trouble tickets when you need help on the spot?

Your ethical search engine optimization company should be somewhere within the sweet spot of not too small and not too large. You want individual attention, but you would also like to know there is more than one mind, calculating your next business moves.

Management

Does your ethical search engine optimization company have a solid management team? Do they have a management team at all? Are the firms you are considering privately held or publicly traded? Is the owner of the optimization company an absentee landlord or an active member of the SEO community? It is not out of the question to ask for the curriculum vitae or resume of the powers that be, in fact, it makes perfect sense if you are entrusting this company with not only your business but your livelihood. After all, SEO practitioners have no board certification that you can rely upon to check their track record.

Reputation / Importance

Has your SEO Company received multiple complaints via the Better Business Bureau? Check the better business bureau reports and see if there are unresolved complaints. From time to time clients may file complaints, but we believe it is the timely handling of these inquiries which are even more important when considering an optimization company to work with.

Past Results / Company SEO Rankings

Every SEO Company should have detailed reports regarding past client successes. The reports should include specifics as to optimization goals and timelines. Reporting on past clients should also focus within and between multiple industries. You should always be aware of a base point – where a particular client started out prior to the optimization company commencing an SEO campaign. Is the SEO firm itself performing poorly in the search engines? A low Google PageRank (below a 5) may be an indication your SEO firm hasn’t been around for as long as one might like.

References / Company Shelf Life

Every SEO company should have solid references across industries and fields in both business to consumer industries as well as business to business arenas. References should stem from not only the past six months, but should originate from years prior to your introduction with the company. If your SEO firm performs quality work, clients should be around for years to sing their praises.

Costs / Pricing Structure / Up front Fees

Costs should be consistent with the service that the company is offering- a la the “Consistent Value Proposition” taught at Yale School of Management. A $49.00 a month campaign run by a credit card company that does not specialize in search engine optimization might not be the optimal choice for an in depth or high level optimization campaign. An SEO company should also only offer costing after they have a clear understanding of your business, goals, and the work involved. Blanketed cost structures can lead to frustration, unrealized expectations, and ultimately failure. Also be concerned if your optimization firm demands a full six month payment up front in order to simply “get started.”

The ideal optimization company charges an up front fee and monthly recurring fee which is commensurate with the services that are actually being performed. A high quality optimization firm that works on your site utilizing 30-60 man-hours per month cannot possibly charge a $49.00 every thirty days to perform its services.

Redundancy

A nasty case of the bird flu hits your unsuspecting account manager right where it counts! Does your optimization company have the ability to smoothly transition the current state of your campaign to another qualified optimization expert? Every SEO company should have a system in place where knowledge about existing accounts can be easily disseminated from one individual to the next. If there does happen to be a catastrophe regarding your account manager, you should feel comfortable that your business continues to prosper regardless of the circumstances.

Quality Control

Every SEO company should have someone overseeing your account manager to ensure that every last “i” is dotted and every last “t” is crossed. Your account manager should be responsible for the success of your campaign, but an extra set of eyes can occasionally be needed to add one more factor weighing in on your side of success.

Promises / Results Timeline

We’ve heard SEO companies promise first page listings in Google for competitive phrases within 48-Hours. If your SEO sales representative is overzealous and unrealistic, it should be a sign that this is most likely a company to steer away from. Gaining search engine listings can be a hard fought, time intensive battle that comes from both diligent work and intelligent planning.

Production Staff Quality

Production staff should be divided between account managers and specialized production technicians. Account managers are the hub of an optimization campaign direction and implementation. Account managers should be able to perform all of the actual coding, linking, and content construction for each client. As an optimization campaign progresses and increases in complexity, they should be able to call upon their support staff or production department to complete specialized work orders for each client. The more specialized each member of the production department, the more efficient they will be at completing their work (thank Henry Ford for this).

Location / Proximity

When you call your account manager or SEO company do you listen to a curious two beeps before being connected to an individual working without air conditioning overseas? Not a good sign. It is imperative that you hire a search engine placement firm whose sales force works in tandem with its production department. There should be no disparity between what you were sold and what was actually delivered. The SEO guru working on your account should be able to understand your business, industry, and company goals quickly, without any overseas static jamming up communications.

-By: Brian Ortiz

Brian Ortiz is the CEO of SEOMatrix: Ethical Search Engine Optimization. He has been specializing in search engine marketing and most notably conversion analysis for both national and international clients for over five years. SEOMatrix is a Connecticut search engine optimization company. To receive a free optimization or conversion rate analysis for your website sign up for our matrix report.

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The first part of this series was about questions to ask a potential search engine optimization company regarding the tactics that it will use to optimize your site. These questions are crucial because there are search engine optimization companies out there that will use techniques that can put your site at risk of penalization by the major engines. The second part of the series covered questions that could determine the competence of a particular search engine optimization company to determine if you will be able to trust them with your business.

Now we come to the final part of this series, in which we will look at business assurances made by search engine optimization companies. If your prospective search engine optimization company has satisfactorily answered all of your questions as outlined in the first two articles, it may indeed be a perfect fit for your business. However, there are still some important areas that need to be covered – primarily related to business assurances and expectations.

Business Assurances

What type of guarantee will you give me?

Many search engine optimization companies will tell you that they can’t offer you a guarantee at all because they don’t control the engines. Other firms will try to give you a guarantee that is rankings-centric and that is, as demonstrated in my article “Leprechaun Repellant and Guaranteed SEO Companies – The Disturbing Link (http://www.mediumblue.com/newsletters/seo-companies.html),” rather useless unless the search engine optimization company can prove that all of the keyphrases that will be targeted are both relevant and popular.

On the other hand, a search engine optimization company may offer you a truly meaningful guarantee in the form of one that is traffic-centric and drawn from targeted keyphrases. In such a case, you will approve the keyphrases and the search engine optimization company will guarantee a percentage increase in targeted search traffic. This guarantee is meaningful because the firm cannot pick unpopular phrases and you will approve the phrases to be certain that they are relevant. Not all search engine optimization companies offer this type of guarantee, but it’s worth looking for one that does.

Will you work with my competitors?

Few search engine optimization companies will give you a blanket “no.” If they do, ask them to delineate. It’s rare that a search engine optimization company will block out an entire business segment, and its idea of what comprises a competitor may be much narrower than yours. Some firms will not give you any promises regarding your competition. This response is not satisfactory, as the last thing you want a search engine optimization company doing is learning about your industry from optimizing your site and then soliciting your competition, using the knowledge they have gained to benefit from economies of scale.

Other search engine optimization companies will charge you extra for exclusivity – which can seem a bit like extortion. Remember, the vendor does not have control. YOU are the one paying the bills, and any search engine optimization company that uses this policy is not worthy of your cash. Quality search engine optimization companies will ask you to submit a list of your primary competitors and will not work with any of them for as long as you maintain a relationship with the firm. Period.

How much work is expected of me?

As discussed in the first part of this series, quality search engine optimization almost always requires the creation of new content. But who is responsible for writing this content? If your company is like most, everyone is pretty busy. If you embark on an SEO campaign, will you have to pay extra for an outside copywriting resource? Will you have to give the job to an overburdened internal person?

Search engine optimization companies that are interested in taking as much off of your plate as possible will ask only that you make a resource available for a phone call and will then handle the copy for you (giving you, of course, the opportunity to approve it all). You should also be prepared to provide the firm with any marketing materials, brochures, or whitepapers that explain your product and your messaging. Since writing for search engines is a learned art, it is not practical to expect a new person to come in and get it right the first time. This means that if a copywriting resource is not available from your search engine optimization company, your campaign can take much longer.

Additionally, once your search engine optimization company has made all of its change recommendations, will it drop a huge document in your lap and require you to make those changes? Or will the firm instead make a resource available to do the implementation at no extra cost? Certainly, there are some sites, especially those that draw on dynamic content, where you may not want an external company coming in to make the changes (although you should still limit your search to search engine optimization companies that are capable of handling this). Simpler sites, such as those created using strict HTML, are easy to change.

Your search engine optimization company should be able to implement these changes on a test bed site for your approval before the site goes live. Much like copywriting, implementation of SEO changes is a specialty that regular designers do not often face. It is usually faster to have your firm do this, since it has handled such a task so many times before.

Well, you’ve asked the questions, narrowed your choices, and now have to select between any of the vendors that answered satisfactorily. Of course, some search engine optimization companies will tell you whatever it is you want to hear to get your business. Your best bet is to take your time and read the fine print–and make sure that anything of particular importance to you is added to the contract. I’m not saying that all salespeople are liars–just the really good ones. But if you’re savvy and ask the right questions, that shouldn’t be a problem.

-By: Scott Buresh

About the Author

Scott Buresh is the CEO of Medium Blue, a search engine optimization company. Scott has contributed content to many publications including Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley, 2004), MarketingProfs, ZDNet, WebProNews, Lockergnome, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. Medium Blue, which was recently named the number one search engine optimization company in the world by PromotionWorld, serves local and national clients, including Boston Scientific, Cirronet, and DS Waters. Visit MediumBlue.com to request a custom SEO guarantee based on your goals and your data.

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Search is a growing industry, and it seems that every day there is a new search engine optimization company in the game. However, the skills of many of these search engine optimization companies are questionable — staying on top of the knowledge curve can be daunting, and getting up to speed more daunting still. Moreover, there are a huge variety of tactics, “safe” and “unsafe” practices (in terms of the risk of penalization), and other important business considerations that you should think about before deciding on any particular search engine optimization company.

The following is the first of a three-part series that provides a list of questions to help you to determine if the company you are considering is deserving of your trust. In this installment, we’ll focus on the tactics that search engine optimization companies might use that could put your website at risk of penalization or removal from the major search engines.

Ask your potential search engine optimization company the following:

“Do you show search engines anything that a visitor does not see?”

There is a common tactic that certain search engine optimization companies use called “cloaking.” In simple terms, these companies use technology that enables your website to recognize when a visitor to your site is a spider and to then feed that spider specialized content designed to rank highly in search engines. This tactic violates the Terms of Service (TOS) of every major search engine. Sites that are caught cloaking are routinely removed from engines. Therefore, depending on your tolerance for risk, you may want to find a search engine optimization company that does not employ this tactic.

“Do you create pages, either on my server or somewhere else, that are not built in to the navigation of my site?”

Another common technique that some search engine optimization companies employ is the creation of “doorway pages.” Since the term “doorway page” now has such a negative connotation in the industry, many search engine optimization companies have their own names for such pages: “gateway pages,” “bridge pages,” “targeted entry pages,” “specialized content pages,” and so on. Whatever they are called, such pages are rarely effective and also put websites at risk of penalization, as this is another tactic that violates the TOS of every major engine. If your potential search engine optimization company does not give you a definitive “no” to the above question, you may want to look elsewhere.

“What is your link building methodology? Is it automated, and do you target reciprocal links?”

Quality search engine optimization companies are concerned about garnering quality inbound links to your website because “link popularity” plays a big factor in rankings. If the major players at any potential search engine optimization company tell you that they do not build links, it’s time to laugh in their faces, call them lazy, and move on.

Because finding quality links from quality sites is very time consuming, many search engine optimization companies have tried to automate the process. One undesirable approach to link building is automated reciprocal linking schemes, often responding to the ubiquitous emails that are sent to anyone with a website, looking for link exchanges to boost a site’s link popularity. The danger here is that an outbound link from your site is counted as a “vote” for the site to which it links. If that site gets penalized, your site may get penalized in turn. (Google refers to this type of linking relationship as a “bad neighborhood.”) A good search engine optimization company will concentrate instead on garnering quality inbound-only links to your website and adding the type of content that makes it worthy of non-reciprocal links from a variety of sites.

“Do you use hidden text or hidden links?”

Search engines, as a rule, do not like it when a website shows them content that is not designed for a visitor to see. However, there are search engine optimization companies that will employ hidden text (text that is the same color as the background color of a page or text that is hidden behind a graphic, for example) to try to boost that page’s relevance, and thus the page’s ranking. Other search engine optimization companies will use hidden links, typically sized down to one pixel, that lead to dozens, or even hundreds of pages that are not designed for visitors to see, known as doorway pages. This is another tactic that, if discovered, can get a website removed from search engines. If you are averse to this type of risk, make certain the search engine optimization company that you are considering gives you a definitive “no” in answer to the question.

“Have you ever gotten a client’s site penalized? If so, when was the last time?”

Many quality search engine optimization companies have, at one time or another, gotten a client site penalized, either due to a change in the TOS of an engine or an oversight of some sort. If the search engine optimization company with which you are speaking tells you that it has gotten a site penalized, but that it was many years ago, this may not be such a big deal. But if the company tells you that it caused a site to be penalized last week, you should quickly procure a cross and some garlic and run screaming in the opposite direction.

While these questions do not cover all potentially dangerous methodologies, it has been my experience that shady search engine optimization companies rarely use only one illegal trick — and one of the tricks in their arsenal is almost certainly listed above. If a search engine optimization company gives you a lot of evasive answers to these questions, it may give you an idea of the type of firm that you are dealing with. Unless you are comfortable with the risks associated with the above tactics used by some search engine optimization companies, I suggest you find another vendor.

Coming soon – Part 2: Questions to determine your potential search engine optimization company’s competence level.

-By: Scott Buresh

About the Author

Scott Buresh is the CEO of Medium Blue, a search engine optimization company. Scott has contributed content to many publications including Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley, 2004), MarketingProfs, ZDNet, WebProNews, Lockergnome, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. Medium Blue, which was recently named the number one search engine optimization company in the world by PromotionWorld, serves local and national clients, including Boston Scientific, Cirronet, and DS Waters. Visit MediumBlue.com to request a custom SEO guarantee based on your goals and your data.

Blogs

• Search Engine Optimization Advantage | NipunInfoTech Blog | Website Designing Company
• Search Engine Optimization Companies | NipunInfoTech Blog | Website Designing Company

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A search engine optimization company can create a campaign to bring you new, targeted leads, and raise your company’s online profile, all while keeping in line with your branding strategy. However, you will find that in order to get quality results that last, significant changes will need to be made to your website, from the addition of copy to changes to the code to alterations to the site’s design.

If your internal resources are already strained to the breaking point, you are probably considering outsourcing your SEO efforts. The search engine optimization company that you select should have the capability to handle all aspects of the project with minimal involvement from your company to save you time and keep your branding strategy intact.

Protecting Your Time

Your search engine optimization company needs to be respectful of your time by making resources available to handle copywriting, implementation, and keyphrase recommendations, some of the most time-consuming parts of an SEO campaign, so that you don’t have to. While you may need to provide reference material about your branding strategy, and while you should always have an approval step for each milestone in your campaign, your company should otherwise be able to sit back and relax while the search engine optimization company handles all the details.

Copywriting

It’s very likely that your internal marketing department does not have the additional time that would be necessary to write the optimized copy that needs to appear on your site. Your search engine optimization company should have the resources available to handle all copy, from brand new pages to updates of existing pages, as long as you are able to provide the materials that accurately describe your products and services, as well as your branding strategy and marketing message.

Implementation

Likewise, your IT department is probably already stretched thin with internal issues. While your search engine optimization company does not perform the same functions as your Web design firm, it still should be able to implement all changes to your site on a test bed, allowing you final approval before your site goes live. This will eliminate the need for your IT people to be deeply involved in the process.

Keyphrase Recommendations

Many companies believe they need to be heavily involved in the selection of keyphrases for their SEO campaign in order to keep the initiative in line with their branding strategy. However, you may be surprised to find that the lingo your customers are using, and the phrases they’re searching for, are not the same as the ones you might use internally. Your search engine optimization company should have the experience necessary to do all of the research for you and present its findings, leaving you to simply review and approve the results.

These are only a few examples of how your search engine optimization company can protect your time. A full SEO campaign involves many more steps than this, but your firm should maintain the philosophy of adhering to your branding strategy while taking as much of the burden off of your hands as possible throughout the entire process.

Protecting Your Brand

When you hand the reins of your SEO campaign over to your search engine optimization company, you need to be able to trust that your branding strategy will be followed. In order for this to happen, you need to be sure that the search engine optimization company you’ve hired has the proven resources available, so you’re not jeopardizing your own brand in order to save time. And you need to be confident that the firm can produce copy that is as accurate and well-written as your internal resources would have done.

Copywriter

Your search engine optimization company should have a copywriter on staff that has proven skill in writing search engine optimized copy, and marketing copy in general. The firm should be able to provide its clients with writing samples and references to demonstrate the copywriter’s ability to interpret a company’s branding strategy and messaging.

Marketing Materials

At the beginning of your campaign, your search engine optimization company should request a “data dump” of all of your current marketing materials that reveal your branding strategy, including whitepapers and press releases. This will ensure that any new pages that are added to your site will be in line with your marketing message and will be technically accurate.

Differentiators and Initiatives

A quality search engine optimization company will ask you for your brand’s key differentiators. These can be woven into your web copy by the copywriter in order to give a more complete picture of your company and enhance your branding. Strategy changes and new initiatives on the horizon should also be discussed with your search engine optimization company so that the firm can make plans to address them as they happen.

Interviews

Your technical experts are valuable resources for your search engine optimization company, but it’s understandable that their time is limited. Reputable search engine optimization companies will need to conduct interviews with these experts in order to get a better picture of your branding strategy, your services, and your products, but these interviews should be kept brief and concise. Of course, the more information you can provide, the more in-tune your search engine optimization company can be with your brand.

Adjustments

Along the way, your company may come across new considerations that need to be incorporated into its campaign. If you change your branding strategy, your search engine optimization company should be able to adjust your campaign accordingly. If you add or remove products, your search engine optimization company should be able to accommodate you with ease. Your search engine optimization company should always be flexible enough to manage your company’s unique requirements.

Conclusion

Utilizing a search engine optimization campaign as part of a complete marketing and branding strategy doesn’t need to mean additional work for your company. You should be able to find a search engine optimization company that can handle your copy and your implementation so that you don’t have to. Your resources should only be involved as much as they can be, and the search engine optimization company should take care of the rest.

-By: Scott Buresh

About the Author

Scott Buresh is the CEO of Medium Blue, a search engine optimization company. Scott has contributed content to many publications including Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley, 2004), MarketingProfs, ZDNet, WebProNews, Lockergnome, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. Medium Blue, which was recently named the number one search engine optimization company in the world by PromotionWorld, serves local and national clients, including Boston Scientific, Cirronet, and DS Waters. Visit MediumBlue.com to request a custom SEO guarantee based on your goals and your data.

Blogs

• Search Engine Optimization Advantage | NipunInfoTech Blog | Website Designing Company
• SEARH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION | SEO | Ultimatum Media’s Web Site | Positionnement Internet Web Pour Entreprise

Turnkey Websites | Internet Marketing Tools | Copy Paste System | Fast Track Cash | Free Web Traffic