What I Offer in Search Engine Optimization - and Why

Writing, designing and publishing a web site is only part of the process. Once your site is online, people have to find it or you've wasted your time. This process is called "Search Engine Optimization" and unfortunately, most people don't even think about it until after their site is up and running. In fact, it should be included in every step beginning with Day One.

Here at Phoenix Technologies, I do not present myself as a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) company. To offer the full range of services these (reputable) companies offer, you would pay probably as much or more than it cost you to design your whole site.

What I do is offer some of the most basic tips and tricks (all legal!) so that the SEO process is not completely ignored as your site comes to life.

How to Get the #1 Listing on Search Engines!
Many SEO companies will "promise" you the #1 ratings - beware of such promises. I don't make such promises, even though the actual example below shows you I can do it ... and how! My customer's business name is "Aromatherapy Solutions" - which as "aromatherapy solutions" is also a generic term. Using that as the search phrase, she is #1 on Ask Jeeves, DirectHits, Excite, Infospace, Metacrawler, MSN, Teoma, and Webcrawler.

In addition, she is listed multiple times in the Top 10-20 on 16 search engines and appears in the Top Ten on all 19! This is out of at least 28,700 search results (some engines don't list the total searches found so on those I didn't venture past the first page).

Well, then why don't I promise the moon and get rich?

Because it would be misleading and dishonest. If you use just the word "aromatherapy" then obviously the results won't be as good. Some SEO charlatans will get you a #1 listing alright - but it will be on a search word nobody uses.

I could use just the URL - www.aromatherapysolutions.com/ and come up #1 every time - because that URL is a unique one-of-a-kind ... but it means anyone searching for it has to already know it, and that kind of defeats the purpose of a search engine. If they already know it, why go to a search engine? Just type it in the browser bar and go straight to it. That kind of trickery is how they "promise" you the #1 spot.

The secret is to find a balance between those search terms no one uses and those that turn up a gazillion results (in which case you're probably going to be lost in the shuffle).

Rather than re-invent the wheel, I have prepared links to some of the best search engine articles available on the Internet, from ISEDB.com (Internet Search Engine Database). Unlike many such sites, these guys aren't trying to sell you something (though many of their authors may be) and so the advice they offer is generally pretty unbiased and accurate ... and very, very useful.

Does my strategy work?

Well, I picked a random client's web site (www.aromatherapysolutions.com). Early in the re-design process, I submitted it to the search engines, since she already had an active domain name with content. Here are the ranking results as of June 8, 2003 (the date I did the analysis):

Aromatherapy Solutions SE Ranks
Search term - "Aromatherapy Solutions"*

Alexa - #3, #4 (out of 202)
AltaVista - #3 (out of 16 - 1 of 2 with multiple results - 13)
AlltheWeb - #8, #9 (out of 95)
AOL Search - #3, #4 (out of 14)
AOLNetfind - not available
Ask Jeeves - #1 & #9 (out of 10 - 1st page only)
DirectHits - #1, #2 (out of 63)
Dogpile - #3, #6(out of 5)
Excite - #1, #7, #19 (out of 73)
FAST - 0 (out of 0)
Google - #3 (out of 204)
GoTo - paid listings only (out of 0)-run by Overture
Hotbot (Teoma) - #2 (out of 27,100)
Infoseek - #3, #4 (out of 138) - run by Google
Infospace - #1, #8 (out of 20 - 1st page only)
Inktomi - 0 (out of 0)
Iwon - #3, #4 (out of 202)
Looksmart - 0 (out of 5; listed #1, #7 out of Inktomi results)
Lycos - #7, #8 (out of 97)
Magellan - not available 6-8-03
Metacrawler - #1, #8 (out of 57)
MSN - #1, #8 (out of 58)
Northern Light - not available 6-8-03
Teoma - #1, #2 (out of 63)
Webcrawler - #1, #9 (out of 74)
Whatuseek - 0 - paid listings only (out of 4)
Yahoo - #3, #4, #11, #12, #15 (out of 204)

*Some search engines require the word "AND" between "Aromatherapy" and "Solutions; others allow the phrase "Aromatherapy Solutions" inside quotation marks. ALSO - some search engines, such as Google, Inktomi and Teoma are used by several other search engines. For example, Google is also used by Yahoo. Rank well on one of these and you rank well on several others.

The site above was listed in the Top Ten on all 19 search engines (above) in which it appeared. On 9 of those it ranked #1! In addition, it had multiple Top 10-20 rankings on 16 search engines.

Toolshop Assessment Tools Keyword Thesaurus Link Popularity Tracker META Tag Generator META Tag Scanner Robot Generator Submit Engine Top Keywords Word Tracker

Here are some free search engine tools for those who wish to handle the process themselves.

Submit Corner
Submit Corner - Optimize Your Search Rankings
Submit Corner - Improve Your Site's Rankings
Submit Corner - Search Engine Optimization Guides
Submit Corner - Free Web Tools for Search Engine Placement
Online Tutorials and Guides To Improve Your Rankings
Free Tools to Help Improve Your Rankings

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