Website
Design and Promotion Services
Submissions Vs
'Optimization' Services
There are many
search engine ranking services available around the Internet. The
difficult issue for web site owners is understanding what each of the
search engine services actually provides, and deciding which is the right
choice for your web business.
In our
experience, search engine ranking services break the golden rule - you get
what you pay for. We see services that are charging clients upwards of
$8,000 for optimization of 5/6 web pages, with proportionally high monthly
service fees. Some of these ranking services do not even offer guarantees
at this price level. Many businesses can afford these costs, without
breaking into a sweat, but the majority of us cannot.
So what are
the different types of search engine ranking services, what can I expect
to pay for these search engine optimization services, and what kind of
rankings can I expect for my money?
Before we give
you the options, remember some point you or somebody you pay will have to
submit your site to all the leading search engines and directories. Most
Search Engine Ranking services will include submissions, but at the lower
end of the pay scale they will almost certainly use 'automated' or 'bulk
submission software'.
We recommend that you avoid any automated submission services to list your
site, submitting sites manually to the search engines is far more
effective in our experience.
There
are a plethora of so called 'search engine submission' services around the
Internet, be very careful with these services and understand fully what
you are paying for before you enter in to any agreement with them. Many of
them use 'hype' such as - "we submit your site to 2000 leading search
engines" etc. This is often very misleading and in certain
cases, completely untrue. Most actually 'attempt' to submit your web
address to around 100 search engines, the rest are FFA boards and free
classified boards. We say 'attempt' as in many cases the more important
search engines are programmed to detect submissions from automated
submission software and will filter the submission straight into the
dumper. Another very important issue to consider with submission services
is 'Search Directories' which are the most important sites of all. Search
Directories require a manual submission process where you locate the most
appropriate category for your listing then enter your web address, email,
business address, phone number etc. This can only be done manually through
the appropriate page at their site, and within the appropriate category
for your business. These directories are extremely important. Yahoo!, for
example, searches its directory listings before turning to the 'Google
search engine' for more results. The 'Open Directory' makes its results
available to search engines like AOL Search, AltaVista, HotBot, Google,
Lycos, Netscape Search etc. Making an accurate submission to the right
category at Open Directory is very important. Understand the difference
between automated and manual submission and try to seek out a service that
offers manual submissions.
Once you have determined the level of competition for top positions in
your business category, use the following as a basic guide:
-
Bulk
Submit to 1000's of search engines and directories - these are the
most basic services that do not provide any optimization of your
pages. They submit to maybe 200 search engines, probably less,
the remainder of the submissions are to FFA or basic directories that
are quick and easy to submit to in bulk, but have limited benefit in
terms of traffic. Important 'Directories' like Yahoo! are not usually
included. The way these services submit your site generally has you
listed in lower priority 'queues', and in many cases your site will
not be picked up or 'indexed'. Some of these services are monitored
and submissions automatically blocked. Be very careful.
Expect to
pay between $35.00 one-time, up to $200 for a year. Do not expect high
search rankings from these services, they offer convenience only.
-
Modify
Meta Tags and submission service - these are difficult to classify
as the effectiveness depends largely on who you chose. There are many
services offering 'boiler-plate' changes to your Meta Tags, where the
new tags are software generated based on the content of your page.
These in our opinion do not work. We have run basic tests and the Meta
tags that are generated for a typical 'home' page are useless. Other
services offer 'manual' generation of optimized meta tags, and these
can be more successful, provided you chose a company with the required
expertise. Meta Tags are not everything, but they can help.
-
Medium to High
competition - should try to locate a search engine ranking service
that will go beyond basic Meta Tag revisions. Not all search engines
pay much attention to what is in your Meta tags, so look for someone
who will make changes to the HTML on your key content pages to give
them a boost. At the lower price service levels, the changes will be
mostly hidden and will not change the outside appearance of your site.
These services are less predictable than more expensive services, but
in many cases can generate some very good search rankings. Again,
whoever you chose should submit your site manually to all the leading
engines and directories. Expect to pay around $100 to $500 per month
with setup fees. Make sure that you are getting more than revised Meta
Tags at this price level.
-
Sites
with high or extremely high competition - you will encounter
various approaches at these higher service levels. Most common is to
use Doorway pages and sometimes a separate Hallway domain. Think about
Doorway/Hallway pages as pages that are designed to focus on a
specific search phrase, each targeting a specific search engine. It is
not uncommon to have sites with over 100 custom designed Doorway pages
targeting multiple search phrases and multiple search engines. Again,
be very careful who you select to create Doorway pages for your site.
Software is available that can create high numbers of Doorway pages
for multiple search phrases and all the leading engines. This software
generates 'template' or 'boiler plate' pages that are identical with
the exception of strategically placed keywords. Many search engines
are now programmed to detect these pages and will penalize your site
if you use them. Ask to see samples of Doorway pages and look for a
service that adopts the 'theme' of your main site, and actually adds
valuable content to the site. Costs are widely varying at this level
of service. Some charge a basic setup fee then charge you for 'click-throughs'.
Paying a fee each time someone visits your site is unpredictable and
can get costly. Others charge setup fees then have a 'pay on results'
system where you pay an agreed commission when one of your pages
reaches a top 10 or 20 position. The benefit of this approach is that
it is 'incentive driven' and provides you with a 'maximum cost
exposure' at the start of the job. Others charge based on an hourly
rate and provide 'best endeavors' to achieve the rankings you require,
without any guarantees.
Developing a better understanding of how it all works will help you
decide the best approach for your web site, and will help you make an
informed decision based on realistic expectations.
Hopefully the
information above will be of benefit and allow you to select a search
engine ranking service that achieves your objective of increased traffic
and at a sensible price.
Contact
us today for more information:
