Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimizing is the process by which one maintains visibility, achieves quality and establishes link equity.

What Can I Expect?

We employ common sense practices for small to medium sized websites which will increase your traffic and put you in the top few results for a variety of search terms with minimal effort. By either increasing your web presence through strategically placed links and/or optimizing your on site content we can increase the amount of referrals to your site. We explain some of the methods behind what we do further in the How Do We Do It? portion of this article.

If you are a new website owner, it takes time to build link equity which will eventually result in increased web traffic. Your business objectives, target market and the nature of your website will play a large role regarding the speed at which your business grows. The internet is evolving and new opportunities continually present themselves, if there was ever a good time to begin your professional website campaign, then it is now.

Client Growth Rate over 2 month period

If you are already on the web and you own an established website there is greater possibility that we can leverage existing link equity and boost your traffic significantly in very little time if your website is in serious neglect, and/or breaking fundamental principles of search engine optimization. Below we briefly describe three fundamental principles of search engine optimization; Visibility, Link Equity, and Quality.

Visibility

Websites must remain compatible with a search engine in every aspect. Our experience building web applications, adhering to strict guidelines and ethical practices ensures that your website maintain complete visibility with a search engine. More often than not, we come across a website which has destroyed it’s own capability to gain search engine referrals.

A clear indication that you are breaking fundamental visibility principles are...

Are your links buried in flash or java plug-ins?
Is your title ( seen at the top left of your browser ) a poor representation of your page content?
Is your text buried within images or are you failing to provide captions and or make use of the alternative text attribute?
are you blocking access to your site content with a robots file or your meta tags?

Link Equity

Establishing link equity is one of the most commonly mis-understood principles of search engine optimization. It is the basis by which all search engines determine the trust value of a web page and it’s position on a search result page. Actively promoting your site on other websites which share common interests re-enforces the value of your own website in the eyes of search engines. Knowing where and how to place a link is key to utilizing effective web marketing tactics. Leveraging existing link equity by correcting quality and visibility problems can result in immediate benefits.

You have not established link equity if...

a search for your domain name returns few or no links of any significant value.
no page rank value is assigned to your website.
the website is completely excluded from a search engine and is not breaking other visibility or quality guidelines.
no one is visiting your site.

You are potentially wasting your link equity if...

you are breaking visibility and/or quality guidelines.
your site is structured poorly and content is nested deep within your site.
you are using frames.
you are targeting the wrong search terms.
your site is architecturally flawed

Quality

Search engines are concerned with placing quality web pages at the forefront of their results. Exact duplicate copies of websites do not saturate the top positions for search results. Variety is a determining factor. Out of the box or cookie cutter style websites can work against you if special attention is not applied to your content.

Constructing a website with quality information, clean structure, customized to your brand image while removing excessive duplicate content can not only attract the attention of your customers but it can also attract the attention of search engines. Please visit our portfolio section for examples regarding the quality of our work.

How do we do it?

We continually monitor and track the health of all customer web sites using our own software designed specifically for search engine optimization. By monitoring and analyzing all traffic to your website, including search engine referrals, Yahoo Crawlers, MsnBot and GoogleBot, we can identify problem areas and leverage opportunity when it is found. Our custom built software offers unique solutions which are unavailable with third party analytics software.

Popular search engines actively visit every page on the web to retrieve information for their own search results. By using our software to fully understand the frequency at which they retrieve information from your site we are able to understand what content is of most interest to them, what content has been overlooked, what is considered unimportant or is technically problematic. Creating content which is optimized for your business does increase the amount of traffic to your site.

By actively promoting your content on other websites we increase the popularity and reputation of your brand. Knowing where to promote your brand and understanding how to get the most out of link placement is essential to building long term link equity value for your site. These marketing efforts are recognized by search engines and they contribute to increasing the number of referrals they return to your site by increasing your website popularity and trust value.

As we evolve, we educate. The world of search engine optimization changes frequently and as we learn you benefit. We provide one on one consultations, tutorials, software upgrades and ongoing technical assessment. Should you feel that your website may benefit from our services, sign up for our free technical assessment at the bottom of this page.

How do I avoid a scam?

There are many rewards and many pitfalls in the world of search engine optimization. There are absolutely no guarantees and anyone promising you something that sounds too good to be true... Is. This does not mean that amazing results are not achievable. Wonderful things can happen, but they can’t be guaranteed.

The most common scam which absolutely baffles our minds is the search engine submission scam. Search engines actively seek out websites by following links on the web. By no means will submitting your site to a search engine gain you a significant increase in web traffic. This includes xml sitemap programs. Your site will be found and indexed by a search engine simply by establishing link equity with other established websites. Anyone who offers you the service of search engine submission is not offering you anything of any value.

Coming in at a close second is the directory submission scam. Often times you’ll hear the claim that by submitting your site to thousands of directories you will increase traffic to your site. These directories are not recognized as having any value and as a result the links which you have placed within them will return no link equity to your own site. In the worse case scenario you may be able to damage your own websites reputation by participating in link exchanges with these directories. While some directories do offer value, automated submissions to thousands will not benefit you.

Number one rankings are the most common promise heard from search engine companies. A number one ranking is not that hard to get for a not so common term or search phrase. Earning a number one position for a highly competitive search term is virtually impossible. You can achieve a number one ranking for a not so common term without the help of an seo company.

Paid Advertising or Search Engine Optimization?

On average you can spend upwards of $1.00 per visitor to your site through purchasing paid advertisements for your site. Not only is this extremely expensive, but often times the visitors to your site do not find what they want.

Paid advertising does not take advantage of the search algorithms which are specifically designed to help searchers find the content they are looking for. When your website is optimized for search engines the possibilities for attracting organic search referrals is limited only by the content which is contained in your site theme.

Additionally, paid advertising switches off the second your bank account is emptied. Search engine optimization has long term residual effects which can produce results substantially more effective than monthly paid advertisements.

Free Website Assessment

We are more than happy to look at your website to help you to determine if you are breaking any fundamental principles of search engine optimization that could be stunting the growth of your website, free of charge. Our web developers are active members in the SEO community and are continually helping others correct very serious but easily fixable problems. We also offer analysis of your website in comparison to other websites and your industry as a whole.