Just as your company wants to provide the highest level of service to your customers, search engines wish to do the same. As a result, while exact methods are internally kept secrets, it still has become evident that the basis for high search engine rankings has shifted to the actual value and amount of relevant content on a website. Basically, this means that the search engines have recognized that when people search for an item on their websites, that the results should actually reflect exactly what the visitor is looking for.
This means that websites that have accurate, relevant, and frequently updated information on the desired topic on their website are surging to the top of the results pages, ad less and less people are utilizing the now obvious pay per click links (Initially, the public thought the pay per click results at the top were relevant, but they are self educated enough to where the novelty and value of pay per click has deteriorated the value of investing in this type of marketing.)
Due to many unethical practices by some unscrupulous "SEO Experts" over the last few years, many legitimate web optimization service providers have received a black eye. A practice over the last few years has been for sites to pull in as much random content as possible from other sites on a variety of subjects just to get more search engine results. Search engines "read" your website, looking for the words on your page and indexing them so that when a visitor to their site enters a range of words, they can closely match those words to the websites that best fit. If your website contains the best combination of those words, then your site will rise to the top - possibly with multiple pages from your site showing up in the results.
In an attempt to beat the system, some SEO service providers started loading sites with non-relevant information for that website in an attempt to draw high traffic to the site and influence search engine ranking. The result was that a website would achieve high rankings, but the information held no value to the visitors, so the resulting visit did not convert into sales.
Google, Yahoo, Bing, and the rest of the search engines rely on the integrity of their search results so that they can provide users with the best results related to the search term. By providing reliable results, they build a loyal user base, which allows them to convert that into online revenue generation opportunities from advertisers. Therefore, they frown on websites that try to take a shortcut. The search engine providers have developed algorithms in their search indexing which recognize unique and relevant content, are able to "grade" the value of information on a website, and reward the ones that are truly relevant, as well as penalize ones that attempt to "beat the system".
Some things to watch out for when choosing a website optimization service are:
- Promise of a 1st page Google listing. For certain search terms, it is simple to achieve a 1st page listing. The question is if that search term is actually one that someone will actually use to look for your products. If you sell "blue widgets", do you really care if you have good results for "green thingamajigs"? Many companies get excited because their SEO service was able to get them ranked number one for their company name!
- Using Hidden text on your website - One technique that is strongly prohibited and will result in an actual ban of all listings involves putting hundreds of relevant keywords on a site, but hidden by making the text the same color as the background. The search engines are still able to read the text, but because it is completely useless to the visitor, it is hidden. Search engines WILL BAN YOUR SITE if this technique is used.
- Companies that manage your pay-per-click accounts - While there are some companies that can and will do this effectively, there are others that charge you an overall fee for all your search terms. Instead, if you choose a company to manage your pay per click campaigns, opt for one that provides you with detailed reports of your keywords, the number of times that your term was used in a search, the number of impressions that you achieved, and your click through rate. Agree to a flat monthly management fee, and maintain a budget. Also, schedule reviews of your keywords 3-4 times a year to review effectiveness of your campaigns, and to adjust search terms accordingly.
