SEO: Getting more bang for your Buck

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a difficult business to understand. Many website owners think they can do it themselves. Some are successful, many are not.

Why?

It all comes down to understanding how the search engines work. And that takes time, effort, and a lot of study.

Before you get disheartened, remember that there are specialists around who can help you get your website listed at or near the top in the first page of results without you doing all the hard work. Of course, it costs money, but there are ways you can minimize the cost. Here's how.

1. Choose an expert SEO company. Look for a company that already has their own website listed at or near the top. If a company is selling SEO services and you can't find them on the first page of the SERP's (Search Engine Result Page), obviously they can't be very good. An expert has probably been in the business a long time, keeps up with the latest techniques, and has a proven track record.

2. Work with your SEO expert. Change the content on your home page frequently...at least once a month. But once a week is better. Search engines send out their spiders constantly to re-index pages that have been changed. Encourage the spiders to visit your site often and you will see better results.

3. Ask your webmaster to set up META tags at the top of your index page. If he doesn't know what they are, your SEO expert will help. But META tags are essential. Even though not all search engines use them, a large majority do. The meta tags are the TITLE, DESCRIPTION, and KEYWORDS that help the search engines index your site. Some search engines merely index on the content of your page, so if you don't have much text on your home page you stand less chance of a good index rating. Your SEOer will suggest key words to use, but you should also be aware of good key words related to your business. Make sure you give these to your SEOer. You should check your hosting statistics as well to find out what search words and terms visitors have used to reach your website. Incorporate these into your key words. Check the stats regularly and change your keywords as new search terms appear.

4. I'll repeat myself here. Work with your SEO expert. Give him links to websites you would like to set up reciprocal links with. Good reciprocal links boost your ranking. But beware! Choose your links carefully. Joining one of those sites that is composed only of links can be detrimental to your ranking these days. Google is penalizing link sites. Don't go down with them. When selecting a link partner find a website that is in a related field. Even linking to competitors can help both of you. If a visitor doesn't find what they want on one website, they may find it on the other, and of course this works both ways.

5. Ask your SEO expert to register your website with as many directories as possible. There are hundreds, if not thousands of them. Get listed in as many as possible. And place a link back to them in your website. I put a special table of links at the bottom of the home page with a lot of space between the footer and the links. Many directories ask for a link back. Putting the links on your home page helps give you more visibility in the directories.

6. I mentioned keeping up with the latest techniques in #1. This is essential. The search engines are continually changing their algorithms (programs designed to index websites). They don't tell anyone what the algorithms do, so we have to guess. But this should be an educated guess. Being members of SEO discussion forums is one of the best ways we stay up to date. We also have to experiment to see what works best. Ask your SEOer about this. If he doesn't know what you are talking about, you have your answer right there.

7. Pay for listings. This is not something we recommend to all our clients. But sometimes paying for a priority listing can help get your website listed much faster. If you need to start getting visitors to your site as quickly as possible, paying the premium is the way to go. However, a good SEOer will often get the same results by using advanced techniques without having to pay. Before deciding to pay for a priority listing, discuss it with your SEOer. Balance cost against speed and effectiveness.

8. Related to paying for listings is paying for Google Adwords. This is a great way to get your site in front of millions of people immediately. However, you should be aware that this could be a very expensive option. If you have a big budget and you want to get effective results, go ahead. When Adwords first started and very few people were using them, a click through could cost as little as five cents. These days, the same result could cost you tens of dollars...and remember that's per click through.

9. If you are in business you should be concentrating on your business. Do you have time to do SEO as well? Will the time spent repay you with increased business? Or will it mean losing opportunities? And don't assign the job to one of your staff just because they know how to knock out a web page. Webmasters are often not experts in SEO. To get the best results you need someone who devotes all their time to SEO.

10. Cost is always a consideration. I did a survey of costs recently to try and find out what a good median cost for SEO might be. But it was almost impossible to come to a conclusion. Some companies charge hundreds of dollars a month. Others only charge if they get results. Yet others will not even give you a cost until you have discussed their services with them. Obviously, you will have a budget, so start from that. Find companies willing to work somewhere within your budget and then check them out.

Remember that SEO is a very inexact science...in fact, it's more of an art than anything else. Knowing the basics is essential, but combining them with intuition and hard work gets results.

Don't think that paying for a three or six month period of SEO is going to bring millions to your website immediately. It doesn't happen like that. You may not even see very good results for up to six months. Some search engines take that long to include your website in their listings. Once your site is there it is a constant battle to stay at or near the top of the SERPs. SEO is a long-term ongoing solution. Your site may be at the top today, but then it could be pushed down by other websites. Your SEOer will have to work hard to get you back on top again. It's like climbing a ladder, only to be pushed down by someone landing on the rung above you all the time. You have to push them out of the way and climb up again. They will be doing the same thing too, so it's a continuous battle. Paying for a few months is worse than useless. Be prepared to pay your SEOer to keep working for you to get the best results.



SEO: Getting more bang for your Buck - To learn more about this author, visit Marc Holt's Website.

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