Search Engines and SEO
One service we do not presently offer is "SEO" or search
engine optimization. While we design your site to be
visible to search engines and we do verify and submit them to
several thousand engines including Google and Yahoo, you cannot
expect that to be sufficient if you are planing on your web
site attracting a lot of visitors.
Your page will be lost among many millions all competing for
top ranking in the major engines. There are many companies
offering professional SEO services. These have less to do with
your web site than with getting others to recognize that your
site exists and gets the traffic you deserve. This is an
industry unto itself, mostly separated from web development and
hosting. It is not cheap. You may be asked to pay several
hundreds of dollars a month to achieve and maintain top
ranking. We do not posses the knowledge or the time to be good
at this ourselves.
What these SEO companies do is not so much magical as it is
just plain time intensive. There is nothing they do that you
can't learn to do yourself or perhaps, have an employee do for
you. If you take the DIY route expect to spend some time to get
where you want to be. The first step will be the time it takes
to learn the tricks of the trade. There are web sites devoted
to this topic.
Once you get a handle then it will take time...perhaps
several hours a day to start then tapering off some once you
have a system and feel comfortable with what you are doing.
We cannot over stress this point. We can make your
site and provide the hosting to make it fast and reliable but
just having it there does not result in traffic. If you just
wait for search engines to find you...you are in for a long
wait. You MUST be proactive when it comes to marketing
your web site.
Some tips: Create a business page in the major social
networking sites. MySpace, FaceBook, Blogger etc. Create a Twitter
account. Network! These are all free but can help you
boost traffic to your site and help you brand your company to a
wider audience. Seek blogs and forums that are relevant and
post. Make sure to include links to your web site.
It takes time !
Even with a good SEO company, there is no
short cut and no miracle, look for months to pass before you
find yourself loaded down with traffic. You are among many
millions using the web and all of them are trying to get to the
same place at the same time. You have to be willing to throw
either money or time into the project.
We recommend the following books to help guide you through
the process of DIY optimization. Even if you plan to hire a
professional, you would do well to read one of these so you
know the questions to ask. It will help you avoid a costly
mistake by assuring the firm you hire knows what it is doing.
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