Search Engine Optimization FAQ's

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization, also known as Search Engine Marketing, is a rapidly growing industry that offers to improve web site "visibility" in the major search engines. Search Engine Optimization includes Keyword Analysis, Keyword Density Optimization, Web Page Submission, and Link Building.

What is Keyword Analysis?

Keyword Analysis is the most important step in Search Engine Optimization. If you don't target the right phrases, you cannot get good rankings in the search engines. It's as simple as that! Keyword analysis identifies keyword combinations that (1) are likely to bring qualified traffic that will convert into sales, (2) get enough searches for optimization to be worthwhile, and (3) don't have so much competition that it is impossible to get first page rankings. At Mach 10 Results, we pride ourselves on providing expert Keyword Analysis.

What is Keyword Density Optimization?

Keyword Density Optimization is the step that follows Keyword Analysis. Keyword Density Optimization ensures that the Search Engines realize that your site is "relevant to" the terms that were determined in the Keyword Analysis step to be relevant to your prospects. Keyword Density Optimization does this by making sure that keywords appear prominently in title tags, meta tags, alt tags, header lines, hyperlink text, near the top of the page, and throughout the page body. The best Search Engine Optimization Gurus can do this without resorting to techniques that can get a site banned from the Search Engines such as "cloaking." If you'd like Mach 10 Results to look at your existing Web Site and do some Search Engine Optimization, contact us at sales@mach10results.com, and we'll help.

How should sites be submitted to the Search Engines?

Search Engine Submission is best when done by hand. There are nine general Search Engines to which it is important to submit a site: Google, Yahoo!, DMOZ Open Directory, Inktomi, AltaVista, Excite, AllTheWeb, NorthernLight, and LookSmart. Over 95% of a Web Site's general Search Engine Traffic will come from submitting properly to these Search Engines. It's especially important to submit to Yahoo!, DMOZ, and LookSmart correctly, because the description that is provided to these top-tier indexes is difficult to change once it has been entered. At Mach 10 Results, we always submit sites correctly to the Major Search Engines for the best possible results.

There can be costs associated with submitting a site to the Search Engines. Yahoo! costs $299 for a commercial site, but we believe that the one-time expense is easily justified for any serious business on the web. LookSmart costs $149 for an eight-week review for a commercial site, which we also believe is worthwhile. LookSmart is important because it powers the popular MSN Search Portal. If a Web Site is non-commercial, we can submit to Yahoo! and LookSmart for free. The Open Directory submission is always free, and the Open Directory data is used mainly by AOL search, Netscape search, and Google. Inktomi costs $25 per URL per year and provides secondary results for MSN (if there are no matches in LookSmart), for AOL (if there are no matches in DMOZ), and for Overture (if there are no bidded listings). We recommend the use of Inktomi to target specific phrases on subpages that aren't covered by a submission to LookSmart (for MSN) and DMOZ (for AOL). Submission to Google, AltaVista, Excite, AllTheWeb, and Northern Light is currently free. Normally these Search Engines will find your site automatically if other sites are linking to it.

What is Link Building?

Link Building is an essential part of any Internet Promotion Campaign. Link Building is as simple as getting other sites to link to you. Link building is important, not only because these links will bring in traffic themselves, but also because Search Engines such as Google and AltaVista look at Link Popularity as an important part of ranking web sites.

The most important part of Link Building is often overlooked. If you want people to link to your site, make sure that your site has something worth linking to! Without solid content, few webmasters will want to link to your site. This means that you should write up some articles on a subject related to your site. For example, if you sell flowers, have a web page that informs people what flowers are right for what occasions and a web page that explains how to keep flowers healthy. If you put some work into writing quality content, you will find that you can get links to you with much less effort.

The easiest way to get links is just to ask. The most effective way to ask is to link to the other site first. The best way to do this is to have a "links" page. Link to all of the sites that you would like to have links to you on the links page. You can find people who might be willing to link to you by looking at who links to a competitor's web page, or you can just surf the net for similar sites and take note of those that already have a "links" page. Once you have the links page up, fire off a friendly e-mail saying that you've linked to the webmaster's site and would appreciate a link in exchange.

If you would like to take advantage of our services, give us a call or an email.

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