Search Engine Optimization
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Search Engine Optimization
Methodology:
According to the Internet Domain Survey of July 2002, the number of hosts advertised in the DNS has reached over 162,000,000. The metaphor of finding a needle in a haystack hardly describes the difficulty any
company may face when trying to attract someone searching for products,
services or information. While there are millions of websites in existence, it is also important to appreciate how many potential visitors are on the web. Studies conducted in March 2002 by Jupiter Media state there were an estimated 114 million Internet users online in the US at work or at home. 80 percent of whom are estimated to have made some type of search request during the month.
It is natural to think that high search engine rankings will drive traffic to a web site. This assertion is simple, but achieving high ranks has grown into a complex set of tasks. The algorithms and methodology of top search engines are well known. What is not well known is that search engines vigorously discriminate against websites that violate their
policies. Many search engines ban sites that precisely follow their set of rules specifying how to solve the problem of achieving a top rank.
Can your company afford such a penalty?
A responsible search engine optimization ( SEO ) company is ethically bound not to exploit this knowledge in order to achieve a false high rank. Therefore, in order to develop a successful responsible strategy, you must recognize and understand the 4 core elements that impact how search engines rank a website. The elements are:
1. Page Content
2. Keyword or Key Phrase: selection, placement, and frequency
3. Meta Tags
4. Link architecture
1. Page Content
The most important search engine optimization step anyone should follow is to develop text filled pages containing well-written copy. How you present the content helps as well. By Using heading tags, emphasis tags, and placing the human read text at the top of each page, you employ frontline tactics in the challenge of achieving high ranks. Very, very few web sites can get in the Top 10 of all the 6 major search engines (AltaVista, Excite, HotBot, Google, Lycos, Northern Light). This requires an artful balance of HTML coding, design experience, and excellent copywriting skills. You do not want your website to be permanently banned from a search engine or directory due to lack of experience. It is imperative to optimize the HTML coding, perform keyword research, and incorporate professional copywriting to get a site optimally placed within the search engines. Of course, there are many tricks, urban myths, and spamming techniques that try and replace well developed page content but all fall short in the long term. As previously stated, search engines quest for good search results delivered quickly to a visitor. They have the ability to recognize good human generated content. They also have the ability to recognize "perfect" content generated by artificial means.
2. Keyword or Key Phrase Selection
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Selection -- Selecting the best keywords or key phrases you believe your potential customers will use to find you is of primary importance. It also requires research. Research comes in the form of statistical data available and in depth competitive analyses.
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Placement -- Of equal importance is keyword placement on individual pages. The text in your title tag is one the most important elements for ranking well in some search engines. Keywords or phrases found within the first 500 words may boosts rankings as well.
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Frequency -- Of secondary importance to keyword selection and placement is keyword frequency. Designing and coding your site with keywords in the right locations and the right frequency is an art form. Keywords need to appear frequently on your web pages, but if they appear too frequently, your site will be penalized for word stacking or could be removed permanently from the index.
3. Meta Tags
Meta Tags are rightly placed as number three on the list core elements that effect search engine ranks. Humans rarely see the Meta tags contained in a website. Only a few search engines place more emphasis on the tags than on the actual content of a web page. Yet, while they are third on the list, they cannot be ignored. Basic Meta tags such as title, keywords, and description are obvious. A & A Systems also uses advanced tags such as Dublin Core tags, content rating tags, and other informational tags to improve the quality of information that a spider returns.
4. Link Architecture
Placing keywords throughout your web pages is useless as a search engine optimization strategy if the search engine spiders are unable to find your web pages. Therefore, always have text links on your site so that the search engine spiders can follow these links and reach the depths of your site. Oftentimes, this means having two forms of navigation on your site: one that your target audience prefers, and one for the search engines. Flash laden websites, dynamically generated text websites, and graphic laden websites almost always rank poorly because a spider cannot index or crawl a site properly.
After two or three months of hand submissions to your target search engines and directories, you will see a jump in traffic. If your hosting company has well developed tools to display your site log data, you will see when a search engine's spider indexes your site and how visitors arrived at your site.
After search engines and directories rank your site, review your site statistics and decide where most of your traffic comes from. Analyze the logs and determine if your applied strategies are successful. Only after these four elements are perfected should a company consider pay per click, or sponsorship advertising. Any paid advertising program can be a costly endeavor, yet it yields almost immediate results.
While paid advertisement eliminates an immediate need for search engine
optimization, the optimization process is still important. For if a
website is accessible, easy to navigate, and packed with relevant text,
chances are a visitor will have a pleasant experience. A well
designed site will also invoke a level of trust. This trust is
imperative for an e-commerce site.
We have divided our services into three steps setup, submission, and analysis.
Step One: Initial optimization
Option one: Basic Setup
- Client completes HTML tag form provided by A & A Systems
- Telephone / E-mail support to assist with keyword selection
- Telephone / E-mail support to assist with keyword placement
- Telephone / E-mail support to assist with keyword frequency
- Text file containing complete HTML tags delivered ready to post to the web site
- Page scrubbing after HTML tags are added to guard against spamming or un-inclusion. Will advise of any issues found
Option two: Value Setup
- Client visit to determine keyword selection
- Client visit to determine keyword placement
- Client visit to determine keyword frequency
- In depth assessment and reporting of your site's
architecture and concrete suggestions how to optimize it making it
more search engine friendly.
- Targeted research and reporting on 5 competitors to determine industry standards and practices
- Text file containing complete HTML tags delivered ready to post to the web site
- Page scrubbing after HTML tags are added to guard against spamming or un-inclusion. Will make necessary revisions to eliminate issues found
**Setup add-ons
· Localization fees for setup of non-English oriented pages
· Research of additional keywords possible
Step Two: Reoccurring monthly submissions
Option one: Basic Monthly Submission
- Submit site to any non-fee based major, English language oriented search engine (list provided)
- Guaranteed 100% success ratio when submitting to all non-fee based search engines that accept manual or automatic submissions. If the automatic submit process fails, each failure is then hand submitted
Option two: Advanced paid
strategies -- A detailed proposal needed for this option
Step Three: Search engine rankings analysis.
Option one: Basic Analysis
Option two: Value Analysis
- Includes basic analysis reports
- Enhanced rankings report created by combining all of the basic analysis data collected
- Plot monthly trends and deliver graphical, web based reports
- Archive trend reports and compile in Excel or .csv file formats for client's usage
**Analysis add-ons (Purchased as one time reports or added to the monthly reporting cycle)
- Continued keyword research and recommendation report
- "See how your competition ranks" report (five companies per report)
- Active review of visitor logs and deliver web based reports
- Custom reports built based on client requirements initial setup fee
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