What's an SEO? Does Google recommend working with companies that offer to make my site Google-friendly?

The following article is from Google about the best--and worst--SEO practices. To read the article online, click here.

SEO is an abbreviation for "search engine optimizer." Many SEOs provide useful services for website owners, from writing copy to giving advice on site architecture and helping to find relevant directories to which a site can be submitted. However, a few unethical SEOs have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to unfairly manipulate search engine results.

While Google doesn't have relationships with any SEOs and doesn't offer recommendations, we do have a few tips that may help you distinguish between an SEO that will improve your site and one that will only improve your chances of being dropped from search engine results altogether.

• Be wary of SEO firms that send you email out of the blue.

  Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:

  "Dear google.com,
  I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories..."

  Reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for "burn fat at night" diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.

• No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.

  Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a "special relationship" with Google, or advertise a "priority submit" to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or through the Google Sitemaps program, and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.

• Be careful if a company is secretive or won't clearly explain what they intend to do.

  Ask for explanations if something is unclear. If an SEO creates deceptive or misleading content on your behalf, such as doorway pages or "throwaway" domains, your site could be removed entirely from Google's index. Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire, so it's best to be sure you know exactly how they intend to "help" you.

• You should never have to link to an SEO.

  Avoid SEOs that talk about the power of "free-for-all" links, link popularity schemes, or submitting your site to thousands of search engines. These are typically useless exercises that don't affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines -- at least, not in a way you would likely consider to be positive.

• Some SEOs may try to sell you the ability to type keywords directly into the browser address bar.

  Most such proposals require users to install extra software, and very few users do so. Evaluate such proposals with extreme care and be skeptical about the self-reported number of users who have downloaded the required applications.

• Choose wisely.

  While you consider whether to go with an SEO, you may want to do some research on the industry. Google is one way to do that, of course. You might also seek out a few of the cautionary tales that have appeared in the press, including this article on one particularly aggressive SEO: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002002970_nwbizbriefs12.html. While Google doesn't comment on specific companies, we've encountered firms calling themselves SEOs who follow practices that are clearly beyond the pale of accepted business behavior. Be careful.

• Be sure to understand where the money goes.

  While Google never sells better ranking in our search results, several other search engines combine pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results with their regular web search results. Some SEOs will promise to rank you highly in search engines, but place you in the advertising section rather than in the search results. A few SEOs will even change their bid prices in real time to create the illusion that they "control" other search engines and can place themselves in the slot of their choice. This scam doesn't work with Google because our advertising is clearly labeled and separated from our search results, but be sure to ask any SEO you're considering which fees go toward permanent inclusion and which apply toward temporary advertising.

• Talk to many SEOs, and ask other SEOs if they'd recommend the firm you're considering.

  References are a good start, but they don't tell the whole story. You should ask how long a company has been in business and how many full time individuals it employs. If you feel pressured or uneasy, go with your gut feeling and play it safe: hold off until you find a firm that you can trust. Ask your SEO firm if it reports every spam abuse that it finds to Google using our spam complaint form at http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html. Ethical SEO firms report deceptive sites that violate Google's spam guidelines.

• Make sure you're protected legally.

  For your own safety, you should insist on a full and unconditional money-back guarantee. Don't be afraid to request a refund if you're unsatisfied for any reason, or if your SEO's actions cause your domain to be removed from a search engine's index. Make sure you have a contract in writing that includes pricing. The contract should also require the SEO to stay within the guidelines recommended by each search engine for site inclusion.

What are the most common abuses a website owner is likely to encounter?

One common scam is the creation of "shadow" domains that funnel users to a site by using deceptive redirects. These shadow domains often will be owned by the SEO who claims to be working on a client's behalf. However, if the relationship sours, the SEO may point the domain to a different site, or even to a competitor's domain. If that happens, the client has paid to develop a competing site owned entirely by the SEO.

Another illicit practice is to place "doorway" pages loaded with keywords on the client's site somewhere. The SEO promises this will make the page more relevant for more queries. This is inherently false since individual pages are rarely relevant for a wide range of keywords. More insidious, however, is that these doorway pages often contain hidden links to the SEO's other clients as well. Such doorway pages drain away the link popularity of a site and route it to the SEO and its other clients, which may include sites with unsavory or illegal content.

What are some other things to look out for?

There are a few warning signs that you may be dealing with a rogue SEO. It's far from a comprehensive list, so if you have any doubts, you should trust your instincts. By all means, feel free to walk away if the SEO:

• owns shadow domains
• puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
• offers to sell keywords in the address bar
• doesn't distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear in search results
• guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you would get anyway
• operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info
• gets traffic from "fake" search engines, spyware, or scumware
• has had domains removed from Google's index or is not itself listed in Google

If you feel that you were deceived by an SEO in some way, you may want to report it.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) handles complaints about deceptive or unfair business practices. To file a complaint, visit: http://www.ftc.gov/ and click on "File a Complaint Online," call 1-877-FTC-HELP, or write to:

Federal Trade Commission
CRC-240
Washington, D.C. 20580

If your complaint is against a company in another country, please file it at http://www.econsumer.gov/.

Why is On Page SEO Important?

SEO has two separate and distinct focuses –On-page SEO and Off-page SEO.

On-page SEO is executed at the web site itself. Getting improved search engine placement begins with the website. The opening paragraph on each pages needs to be keyword rich without repeating the title of the page. Meta-descriptions and Meta-keywords are important, too. Updating these on a regular basis is essential.

Websites with a high search engine rank have a couple of things in common. First, they have feature pages and pages of relevant content. This means if you're selling accounting services, you should have a lot of articles about accounting, taxes, and bookkeeping. These articles should be key word rich and designed to capture the attention of Google, Yahoo, AltaVista, AOL and other major search engines. The more keywords you have, the better your search engine rank. Another characteristic of successful websites is the number of inbound and outbound links they have to and from other sites. When other websites link to yours and when you link to others, it makes your website appear more important, significant, and genuine.

By adding articles to your website on a regular basis, you boost your rankings. The web crawlers and bots will see the changes and give your site a higher ranking because frequent changes means you care about your site and are willing to spend time changing it and adding to it.

Why is a high ranking important?

A high search engine ranking means you are on the first few result pages of a search engine. Most people, when they are looking for something on the web, rarely go beyond the third page. The first page is the most sought after spot, but there are only ten slots available for each of your keywords. There are millions of websites hoping for the number one position on a page, so it takes work and persistence to attain Page One ranking.

If you are an ecommerce site, it is even more important to have high rankings. You want people to find your site first. Even with a physical store location, a wise business person will sell his or her items on a website. You will be able to reach more potential buyers in a much wider area than if you use just direct mail or catalogs. Setting up a website is just the first step. Next, you will want to get traffic to your site and this means a high page ranking. A high page ranking is achieved by diligent Search Engine Optimization.

At this point, you may be thinking that only companies with a large marketing department are able to achieve high search engine rankings for their websites. That is not always the case. Because high search engine rank is so critical to web-based businesses these days, there are a lot of companies that specialize in getting you the best placement possible. These companies can provide you with original, targeted content for your site, and submit your URL to Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other engines for consideration. Ciniva Systems, www.ciniva.com, an award winning Virginia based web design company specializes in search engine optimization, utilizing the latest trends and techniques to ensure your site gets the highest ranking possible.

Search Engine Optimization Basics

Search Engine Optimization is the process of increasing traffic to a website by increasing the ranking and position of that website. It is not about who has the prettiest site with the most bells and whistles.

Sometimes the most gorgeous websites can have terrible rankings because they are not optimized properly, while a site that is basically simple and even horrible in appearance gets really high ratings. What is the principal difference?

There are some simple rules of thumb that you can use to optimize your website and all you need are a few simple web design skills. Whether redesigning a site or creating one from scratch, these rules should apply.

Never use frames when creating a website. If your site uses frames, you may want to think about changing to tables. If you are going to change your site, make certain your HTML is clean and free of unnecessary code.

Each page should include two to three paragraphs of keyword rich body text. For example, if you sell tanning products at your "The Tanning Place" website and the name of your closest competitor is "Up Town Tan," you will want to write a paragraph that goes something like this: Are you looking for an up town tan? Then come to the Tanning Place for that gorgeous up town tan. We feature only the best tanning products from the best sources to give you a beautiful up town tan. Not only are you promoting your own website, if someone enters the term "up town tan" into the search box, then your site will appear along with "Up Town Tan," and you can possibly convince someone who was looking for "Up Town Tan" to come to your site, instead.
The paragraph may seem a little repetitious and simplistic, but your goal is to attract web crawlers and not literary agents. Your high school English teacher will not praise your efforts, unless she has switch to SEO as her career.

Do not duplicate content on each page or even from site to site, if you own more than one site. Make certain each one is differentiated as far as content. It is better to have fewer pages with no duplicated text.

Use internal text links instead of images with links. Web crawlers will not find the link if it is buried behind an image. When you use images, make sure you include alt tags on all of them. This gives you an opportunity to tell the search engines what your site is all about, once again.
Splash pages may look impressive for visitors, but they do little to increase your rankings. Keep your graphics to a minimum because text is what improves your page ranking.

Do not try to attract or fool web crawlers by hiding text, such as making it the same color as the background. It may take a little time, but you will be caught and penalized for this and other black hat practices. I mention again, you are not being graded on your literary ability so do not be afraid to write a couple of keyword rich paragraphs.

Karen Vertigan Pope writes for Ciniva Systems, an award winning Virginia web design company.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karen_Vertigan_Pope

What Has to Be Done Before Your Site is Optimized?

Ciniva Systems understands the importance of Search Engine Optimization in bringing your website to the attention of other people. Having a great website is just the beginning of the story. You want people to visit your site and to participate in whatever you have going on, whether it is selling a gadget, collecting names for sales leads, or simply informing people about something that is near and dear to your heart.

SEO is not easy. SEO is an ongoing project. Once your site is at the top of the list, you have to work to keep it there. SEO is so important and so time consuming, many site owners hire competent people to do the job for them. Here are a few tips we use to get us started.

Before we start any search engine optimization campaign the following question should be answered.

What are the site owners hoping to achieve with their site? More sales, more subscribers, more traffic, more publicity? Without a clear direction, optimization is very difficult. If the site owners don't have a clear focus, our trained staff will assist them in determined what they want to accomplish with their website.

The next step is to do a site review to determine what is needed for the site, itself. A site analysis will offer useful information, such as target keywords used, meta tags and other meta data used and general search engine compatibility. We find out if all the links are working, is the HTML code clean, what is the page load time and other useful information that will help us determine if the site is really ready for a full-blown SEO project. If not, we make it ready.

Determining the site's requirements is next.

When Ciniva creates a site, it is ready for SEO immediately. If Ciniva is doing a site redesign, a determination of the technology used to build the site is essential. Did the site's creator use frames? Flash, Cold Fusion, JavaScript, HTML, XML? Does the site have database driven content? How much content is there on each page and is it keyword friendly? All of this will be determined in the initial site analysis. Many things in a site may have to be changed before SEO will be effective.