Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

How Does Google Rank Pages

Beginners Guide to SEO

SEO Scams to Avoid

SEO and Internet Marketing - is that enough?

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Why we do not guarantee top search engine rankings?

People representing so called SEO companies have rung me up (having not bothered to check out my website to see what I actually do) and made claims such as:

"We have a special relationship with the search engines which allows us to get your website to the top of the rankings."

No they do not - Nobody does! - this usually means that some form of pay per click scheme is being used to increase visitors to your site - which of course can be done by anyone.

"We submit your website to thousands of search engines."

There are only a handful of real search engines. The others are free directories (most of which won’t be relevant). Or worse, free for all links pages (which are at best no use and at worse damaging because the real search engines know what they are and penalise your website for being involved).

To submit to hundreds or thousands of irrelevant search engines can only be done for a realistic price using an automated tool – the real search engines don’t accept automated submissions. In fact you don't need to submit your website to the standard free search engines like Google, what you need to do is ensure that an existing website (like your web designers) has a link to your website. Then the search engines will find your website, thereafter they will know where you are and regularly come back to check for changes.

Other tricks used by the search engine cheats to watch for:

Setting up "virtual, doorway or duplicate pages" intended only for the search engines - cloaking. These pages are generally intended to be invisible to the normal visitor and generally do not work as there are no legitimate links to them.

"Stuffing your web pages with lists of invisible key words" search engines can recognise lists of key words for what they are when they see them. Ideal keyword density is often said to be around 5 repetitions of a keyword for every 100 other words.

"Hidden links or feeder pages ". These tricks inflate and control the traffic to your website. This is likely to be a rip-off. The traffic to your site is likely to be irrelevant and inflates your web stats. You are then charged for the useless traffic.

Search engines are now well developed:

Search engines are wise to all the tricks and are always looking to inprove their validation techniques. Your website could be penalised or banned at some point if any techniques are used to try to cheat the search engine. If the cheating techniques work it is only likely to be short term.

Focus only on valid Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques to ensure your website attains long term sustainable high search engine rankings without risk. This means good text content, sensible use of target keywords and efficient html markup.

Common sense should tell you that not every business can have top search engine ranking.