Strategy

It’s no secret that companies around the world are competing for the top places in search engine results. It’s also no secret that the reasoning behind this is that the closer you are to the top, the more traffic your site will receive and, hopefully, the more revenue your company will generate.

Since most search engines only allow natural results, or non-paid results, at the top of their lists SEO companies are stepping in to help businesses reach those coveted spots. Through SEO techniques these SEO marketing companies can help their clients climb higher and higher in the results page, eventually landing on the first page of a search query.

While many of these companies will simply charge customers a flat rate for their services, RankPay has come up with a different plan. They don’t charge any upfront fees, but they do have an up-front pricing schedule. Their theory however, is if you don’t rank you don’t pay. Then, once you rank, the amount you pay is based upon the ranking that has been established. This amount is the up-front pricing schedule that was determined before the SEO process began.

RankPay can be used for any sized web site, but they will not optimize more than one web site per keyword. Additionally they don’t accept all sites and/or keywords so you’ll have to see if you qualify to use their services. Once your rankings have been achieved your business will be billed monthly. And you always have the option to deactivate terms from your keyword list at any time.

The concept of Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) first appeared in the mid 1990s, and it has undergone significant evolution in the years since. Read on to learn more about the evolution of SEO and how it came to be in the first place…

Before search engines existed, people typically used links to navigate the WWW. Although this navigation method works acceptably, it doesn’t offer a way to quickly locate specific information on the web. This deficiency brought about the introduction of search engines; naturally, individual web site operators wanted to gain a higher position in search results so they could receive more traffic. This led people to look for ways to qualify for higher rankings, often through experimentation.

The development of SEO made it possible for web sites to take specific measures aimed at improving their search result positions. In the past, search engines were less difficult to optimize for, but also easier to manipulate. Such manipulation made it harder for searchers to find useful results. The major engines took various steps to correct this, and SEO adapted to these changes as part of its ongoing evolution. Even today, the engines continue to change their policies in efforts to provide more relevant results.

Some controversial issues have appeared during the evolution of SEO, including disputes over the difference between beneficial and manipulative activities. Individuals applying blatantly manipulative techniques have complicated the work of everyone involved in SEO, and made it impossible for engines to provide quality search results without the use of complex software and algorithms. Such methods continue to be applied by some, but are not as widespread as they were in the past.

Despite changing techniques, the primary objectives (beyond improved rankings in general) of SEO have largely remained the same throughout its evolution. These include obtaining inbound links, optimizing the content and HTML codes of individual pages, and ensuring that sites are accessible to the search engine “spiders” which index them. It has always been important to take into account the reaction of both search engines and searchers to the titles, descriptions, and URLs of each web page.

Basically, SEO has undergone some changes, but has retained the same basic goals throughout its ongoing evolution. In the future, it may need to adapt to more widespread use of mobile internet devices and the expansion of direct user input in search result listings.

Google recently rewrote their article about what an SEO is and if they recommend them. The rewrite now includes how an SEO firm can help a company with valuable services as well as the warnings about common SEO scams that were there previously.

Some highlights from the article include Google’s definition of SEO and what SEO firms can do including the following list:

•    Review of your site content or structure
•    Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScript
•    Content development
•    Managment online business development campaigns
•    Keyword research
•    SEO training
•    Expertise in specific markets and geographies.

Google also offer the following list of questions as helpful questions you can ask an SEO firm when thinking of hiring them to help increase your search engine rankings.

•    Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?
•    Do you follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines?
•    Do you offer any online marketing services or advice to complement your organic search business?
•    What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure your success?
•    What’s your experience in my industry?
•    What’s your experience in my country/city?
•    What’s your experience developing international sites?
•    What are your most important SEO techniques?
•    How long have you been in business?
•    How can I expect to communicate with you? Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site, and provide detailed information about your recommendations and the reasoning behind them?

Finally, Google provides a list of things to be wary of if you run across them when dealing with an SEO firms. They are as follows:

•    owns shadow domains
•    puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
•    offers to sell keywords in the address bar
•    doesn’t distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear on search results pages
•    guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you would get anyway
•    operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info
•    gets traffic from “fake” search engines, spyware, or scumware
•    has had domains removed from Google’s index or is not itself listed in Google
•    requests your FTP account information or root access to your server

Overall, it’s a good to see that Google is showing support for search engine optimization firms that follow their guidelines and can help increase your rankings as a result.

There is a fair amount of discussion on organic Search Engine Optimization at forums, blogs, and web sites about SEO - but how do you know if your SEO strategy is actually organic, or what could be changed to make it more organic?

It isn’t quite as simple as just not using PPC ads. There are a number of characteristics which determine whether or not an SEO campaign is organic. To know if your SEO is organic, see if can you agree with the statements in the following checklist:

- You don’t use paid/guaranteed inclusion services or pay for expedited submission on any of the search engines.

- Your web site’s inbound links (preferably not bought) appear on web pages which have relevant or similar content.

- You don’t use software or online scripts which “mass-submit” your site to huge numbers of search engines or directories.

- None of your site’s search engine listings were bought through pay per click (PPC) sponsored search result programs.

- You don’t apply techniques like “cloaking” or “doorway pages”, which are aimed at deceiving search engine spiders/robots.

- The site doesn’t have lots of useless, automatically generated, or basically identical pages designed to attract hits.

- You haven’t reciprocally linked to web sites which have little or no relevance to the site you are promoting.

- Your SEO strategy includes an emphasis upon optimizing the web site itself (META tags, keyword density, navigation, etc).

- You know that none of your affiliates or other promoters are using any of the above-mentioned techniques to advertise your site.

If you were able to check all of these items, your SEO methods are probably considered organic. However, there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with using non-organic SEO, as long as you know that your techniques are effective, up to date, and ethical.

Organic SEO usually provides a more long-term effect than other strategies, and generates traffic from a wider range of search engines without separate efforts. It’s also well-accepted by search engines, isn’t affected by “click fraud”, and generally has a lower ongoing cost.

However, organic SEO techniques typically take longer to start producing hits than PPC or paid inclusion listings. They are also more time-consuming and don’t allow the effectiveness of different keywords, phrases, or page descriptions to be tested as easily.

Actually, not one but several Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct lists can be found on various SEO related web sites. They vary from one to the next, but generally address ethics regarding how the search engines, other SEO firms, and clients should be treated. Read on for more details about the concept of an SEO Code of Ethics.

Most people involved in SEO agree that ethical practices include making realistic claims about the services offered to clients and avoiding deceptive “black hat” search optimization techniques. These measures can be found on most of the above-mentioned Code of Ethics pages.

Many of these Code of Ethics lists also refer to matters of professionalism, such as abstaining from negative public statements about customers or other firms. This prevents retaliatory statements and helps preserve a more positive image of SEO in general.

However, there are some issues in which the role of ethics remains unclear. Some say that guaranteeing high rankings for particular keywords is unethical, while firms offering these guarantees might argue that it is only unethical if the guarantee isn’t genuine.

Another example is the use of automated SEO software. One site’s Code of Ethics lists not using automatic software. On the other hand, it could be said that there’s nothing wrong with software that works properly and applies ethical techniques. Issues involving more than one client competing for the same keyword can also become problematic.

Nonetheless, there are many issues the vast majority of SEO marketers can agree on. Submitting clients’ sites to “FFA” link pages, artificial “keyword stuffing”, trying to deceive searchers into visiting offensive sites, or creating “doorway pages” is generally seen as unethical. The same goes for any practice likely to worsen a client’s search rankings.

As in most professions and industries, the ethical practices of one individual or company providing these services has an impact upon the reputation of SEO in general. Upholding ethics encourages clients to continue using it for promotion and search engines to apply favorable policies.

Basically, ethical SEO practices clearly include being honest to customers and search engines, while forgoing undesirable practices like web page “cloaking.” However, there are disagreements over issues like paid links, social bookmarking, and ranking guarantees which make it difficult to create a single, specific Code of Ethics everyone can agree with.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is an effective promotional strategy which helps enhance your web site’s traffic from regular (not Pay Per Click) search results. But how do you know when your site is in need of SEO work? Here is a list of possible indications:

1. When your traffic mostly comes from non-search sources and/or PPC listings: This isn’t necessarily a problem, but using SEO will provide you with more stability and diversification in traffic sources, as well as an increase in overall hits.

2. When you don’t have a Site Map and/or don’t know if your site can be navigated by search engine spiders/robots: If your site’s pages can’t be indexed by search engines, they won’t appear in results. Part of SEO is making sure the site is designed in a way which allows for this.

3. When no SEO work has been conducted on the website for a long period of time: Search engines eventually change some of their policies, and different engines become more or less popular, so a site which was well optimized for them ten years ago is probably using some outdated techniques by now.

4. When you plan to eventually resell a web site: Being able to say that your site is search engine optimized and pointing to specific search keywords it shows up under (or a high Google PageRank) will help increase your site’s resale value substantially.

5. When your costs from other advertising methods are too expensive: SEO offers a more long-term solution to gaining web traffic, in contrast to continually paying for each impression or click on your links. This allows you to escape monthly or weekly promotional expenses.

6. When you have a low Google PageRank: This ranking (PR) assigned by Google is a useful indication of whether or not a site has enough quality, relevant links pointing to it. If it is low (especially below three), efforts should be made to increase the number of inbound links it has.

You may even want to begin SEO efforts before creating and launching a web site; if the web pages incorporate SEO into their design and content from the beginning, they won’t require changes later on, nor will they be disadvantaged in search results until such changes are made.

The Google Sandbox is an unconfirmed theory about how the top search engine indexes web sites which were recently created. If it truly exists, the Sandbox puts new web site operators at a disadvantage in Google search results. Here are some more details on what the Google Sandbox is, and how webmasters can respond to it.

The concept of the Sandbox theory is that Google lists new web sites in the Sandbox for a substantial period of time, causing them to receive a lower priority in search results than other sites. According to wikipedia.org and other sources, Google also does this when sites are transferred to different owners. However, this has not been verified, and it is unclear what criteria is used to confirm such changes.

What can webmasters do about the Sandbox? First, buying an established domain name with a Google PageRank of one or higher may help counteract this effect. Even if the Google Sandbox does penalize ownership changes, it is unlikely to face removal from the top results for as long as most new web sites remain excluded. Some “used” domain names sell for little more than the cost of a new registration. However, care should be taken to avoid names which have been given a poor reputation by their previous owners.

Regardless of whether an existing site is purchased or a new domain name registered, it is best to begin promotional efforts as soon as the web site is ready to use; directly submit the site to Google and start working to obtain links on other sites. For example, a content-based site can start advertising itself after only a few pages are completed, then add more pages as they are finished.

New web site operators and marketers can also focus on optimizing a site for other search engines (Yahoo, MSN, Ask) to increase traffic without waiting for removal from the Google Sandbox. Another option is to concentrate on different forms of online promotion, including such methods as pay-per-click listings, web directory links, or submitting links to social bookmarking systems.

Despite disagreement over whether or not a Sandbox specifically exists, what matters is that new web sites usually have to wait a significant period of time before they start to receive substantial traffic from Google search results. Applying the above-mentioned techniques can help mitigate the detrimental effects to new web site owners.

As with various other computer- and telephone-based services, some companies are outsourcing SEO (Search Engine Optimization) work to foreign countries. This can be a complex and difficult choice for business operators to make. Like most business decisions, there are both pros and cons for this type of outsourcing.

PROS

1. Workers in foreign countries have lower business and living expenses, so they are willing to accept less pay for SEO and other kinds of work.

2. People in these countries might also be willing to complete the project sooner in exchange for only slightly higher levels of pay.

3. Outsourcing such services helps to improve the economies of urban areas in some developing foreign countries.

CONS

1. It is harder to hold someone in a foreign country accountable for not finishing (or starting) SEO projects they have been paid to complete.

2. Outsourcing SEO or any other type of service promotes lower wages throughout the world and can lead to a competition where quality is sacrificed for price and speed.

3. Someone located in a much different time zone is more difficult to communicate with conveniently, especially over the phone or in real-time.

4. SEO firms in foreign countries which largely compete on the basis of price and know they are being paid lower rates may feel less obligation to provide high-quality service or work to attract repeat customers.

5. PayPal payments cannot be received in some countries, so there is the added inconvenience and cost of mailing a check or money order internationally. This also decreases the chance of recovering funds when a service is not completed.

6. Regardless of their SEO skills, language and/or societal differences in foreign countries can make it more difficult for someone to optimize web sites in a manner which doesn’t compromise readability or seem awkward.

For the company purchasing SEO services, the pros of outsourcing SEO to foreign countries are few but significant (cost and speed), while the several cons range from minor inconveniences to potentially major problems. Both options have pros and cons for society in general as well.

A company should carefully compare both the potential risks and advantages of outsourcing before making a decision. Either way, it is important to find a reputable SEO provider which uses ethical practices; this type of optimization can be ineffective or even harm a web site’s search rankings when performed improperly.

The goal of personalized search engines is to provide results which cater to the individual person who conducts each search. Existing implementations of this concept require user registration, but it might also be accomplished by using browser cookies to keep track of the searcher’s interests. Read on to learn more about how this is accomplished, its potential implications, and the web sites which are currently offering personalized search features.

Google’s personalized search feature is integrated into its Web History system, which keeps track of the web sites users visit and the searches they perform. It then provides personalized results with the record of previous internet use as a basis. Members can choose to install a toolbar which records all web sites they visit, or just have it monitor the search keywords they use on Google.

Nsyght.com is another example of personalized search; it allows members to enter bookmarks or import them from social bookmarking services, then uses the member’s bookmarks to customize their results. Users can also “block” listings they aren’t interested in from showing up in their personalized results again. Nsyght has a very short registration form and does not use a toolbar.

One possible example might be that someone interested in radio communications would see police scanners in their personalized results when searching for “scanner”, whereas a person more interested in computers would see results pertaining to image scanners. Such a system could possibly divide the traffic from a particular keyword among a greater number of sites. If effective, it may also result in searchers entering fewer words to describe their searches, except when they are on subjects the user is not usually interested in.

Potential obstacles to the success of personalized search systems include privacy concerns and technical demands. Some internet users are likely to worry about having all of their searches and/or other online activity indefinitely stored by search engines. These systems must have the capacity to store a large amount of data on each user, which could dissuade smaller engines from adopting this concept.

Overall, personalized search is likely to provide searchers with results more relevant to them, except when they look for information on subjects they weren’t previously interested in. It also offers a way for engines to provide additionally user-targeted advertisements. If personalized searching becomes more widespread, it may complicate search engine optimization efforts because people will see different results depending upon their interests.

Google’s universal search returns results that include web pages, video, news postings, images and even maps. With all of these varied results you may be wondering how to take full advantage of universal search. Never fear, Google itself has posted tips on how to do this. Here are the highlights.

If you have a site that has news content you should submit it for inclusion in Google News. Once Google includes your site you can submit a News Sitemap to let them know about your most recent articles. This feature only works for English sites currently though. You can also submit any past news content for inclusion in the News Archive Search.

Additionally, if your site has images you can opt in to enhanced image search in your webmaster tools. This will let Google gather metadata about your images that can help them decide if your images should be returned as a search result.

Also, you can use your location to your advantage. Provide your geographical information to Google’s local business center and they will return your business when it’s relevant to a local search.

Finally, if you have any video content host it on any video hosting service such as Google Video or YouTube. If your video is relevant to the search then Google will show it in the results. Better yet, that video can be played directly from the search results page.

All of these tactics will help you place higher in Google’s new universal search. But, continue doing whatever was working for you before to make sure that you still turn up for regular results, too.