A one-off blast of submissions to the search engines
is all you need for long-term success? Truth or Fiction?
FICTION.
Search engines change their algorithms for ranking
pages quite frequently, and web sites need to be re-tuned
on a regular basis in order that they maintain good
rankings.
To Maintain good rankings one needs to resubmit
to thousands of search engines every month. Truth
or Fiction?
FICTION.
First of all, there simply aren't thousands of search
engines. There are thousands are dubious web
sites such as FFA (free for all) directories to which
you could submit your site, but only a dozen or so
major search engines and directories worth submitting
to. In fact, 99% of all search engine results are
delivered by these dozen or so search engines and
directories. By submitting your site to an FFA, you
will be opening yourself up for spam messages.
All SEO Services are alike.Truth or Fiction?
FICTION.
Despite a few questionable service providers who
are tainting the industry, SEO is striving for ethics
and standards. The types and extent of services vary
widely, and so do the prices.
Professional SEO is too expensive and doesn't give
a good ROI. Truth or Fiction?
FICTION.
SEO is cost-effective when compared to other channels
to market such as banner
ads,
direct mailand
issuing press
releases.
The results of a good SEO campaign are usually more
measurable than others such as keyword banner campaigns.
SEO Professionals Can Guarantee Results. Truth or
Fiction?
FICTION.
Few reputable SEO companies offer a full-money back
guarantee on their results. The companies that do
are either fraudulent, promise top ranking for non-competitive
keywords (as
opposed to strategic keywords to bring you the right
kind of visitors) or charge very high prices (to cover
the losses when they have to make refunds). It does
not make sense to offer complete guarantees due to
the somewhat unpredictable nature of the search engines.
N.b. However, it is reasonable for SEO companies to
offer payment terms whereby partial refunds are offered
according to different levels of customer satisfaction
(or dissatisfaction) agreed up-front. Alternatively,
a service could be split into different phases and
the customer pays when he or she is satisfied with
the completion of each phase. When improvements (in
rankings or Google PageRank)
are not discernable
after a reasonable period of time, the company could
offer free reporting and maintenance (including site
re-optimization)
until improvements are made (as determined by the
reporting).
SEO Traffic Is Not High Quality. Truth or Fiction?
FICTION.
When Internet users set out to find websites via
the search engines, they are proactively looking for
sites which will enhance their lives in some way,
usually meaning they are ready to buy. Users start
off with that purpose meaning that search engine driven
leads are targeted and and more valuable than those
arising from "broadcast-advertising" or methods used
by traditional media.
One can Save Money With Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Engines.
Truth or Fiction?
PARTLY TRUE.
Though PPC
can be of benefit because of partnership deals, the
best results are attained through a high-quality SEO
campaign. You are best to find one that includes search
engine optimization
for all search engine types. Such a campaign is less
expensive than a typical PPC campaign. You should
also note that some users are not attracted to the
"ad-like" nature of featured listings, and prefer
the general search engine results.
Including a General Useful Links Page is a good
policy. Truth or Fiction?
PARTLY TRUE.
Increasing your link
popularity is
a very good idea. Search engines favour sites with
incoming links where those links are from good quality
sites (and sites with a Google PageRank of 4 or more).
In order to get those links, a good method is to exchange
links
i.e. "I'll link to you if you link to me". However,
you'd be very unwise to link to your competitors and
the trick is to find complementary websites e.g. if
your site sells baby clothes, you could link to a
site specialising in finding baby names. Certainly
do not include ad hoc links to sites which do not
complement your subject matter or are of bad quality.
When you add your outgoing links to these complementary
websites, try to avoid adding them all to a general
links page, but try and place them in relevant sections
throughout your site. There is no harm in having a
"useful links" page as well, even if you use it to
buffer links before they get placed in more appropriate
places on your site. Treat your links page as a link
directory, which is well organised into categories
and subcategories pertaining to your niche. If you
run a corporate site, then you are better off with
a partners page than a useful links page. You may
to read our article entitled "Reciprocal
Links: Forming Partnerships with other sites"
and there is also a
free e-book on how to get the most out of your reciprocal
links.
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