How a Search Engine Placement Specialist Can Help You

The Internet provides a level playing field for businesses. Businesses that invest in a web site know this and want to get their share of the world wide customer base, but how to achieve this with a vast number of web sites available is a daunting task at best and may even seem impossible. One way is to work with a search engine placement specialist.

When a prospect conducts their search through one of the search engines or directories, they are looking for one of two things: Either they are looking for a product or they are looking for information; will they find your web site?

Consider this; you’re on the bus, the train, or driving to work. You see an advertisement in the newspaper or magazine, or on a billboard, and at that moment you think you could use the item being advertised. When you get to the office, you connect to your favorite search engine and type in what sticks in your mind. The results are…well, if the advertiser is search engine optimized, you will find the advertiser’s web site. Otherwise, you will likely find the competition. Now, think about what would happen if the searcher was someone looking for your web site.

A search engine placement specialist can help you ensure that the searcher finds you rather than the competition. So, what is a search engine placement specialist? Well, she is part artist and part scientist. 

Just What Does A Search Engine Placement Specialist Do?

Search engine placement specialist may suggest that you make adjustments to your web site. They have the experience and the knowledge to know that some types of web sites cannot be indexed by the search engines. Framed web sites experience the biggest problems in this area. The way certain web sites are built using frames does not allow the text to be read by the search engines. In this case, the search engine placement specialist may ask that changes be made. They may also suggest changes to the flow or layout of your web site.

Some people have wondered why this is an issue for the search engine placement specialist. If your web site is not easy to navigate, then you will reap no sales. The search engine placement specialist is not only concerned about ranking you high in the search engines, they want you to maintain a high ranking, and a workable navigation will help you stay there.

The search engine placement specialist is also a skilled scientist. The specialist is a person that has learned and studied the methodology of keywords and search engine algorithms. They will analyze keywords and keyword phrases and advise which ones will work best for what pages.

They may also advise you to adjust your text in order to optimize it for searches that will lead to your product or services. Currently, there are more than 900 million people on the Internet worldwide. This number grows larger day by day. Studies have also shown that, of the people online, more than 80 percent of them are using search engines daily. For any company marketing products, getting exposure to that many potential customers is essential, and a staggering prospect.

Web site promotion through search engines is an important part of a strong and successful online presence. On line business owners understand this and work with the search engine specialists to achieve these results.

What Makes A Search Engine Specialist So Special?

How to select a search engine optimization specialist? What do you, as a business and web site owner, need to consider? When do I need to hire a specialist?

What most people don’t realize is that they need to hire the search engine specialist early in the process. This should be done at least at the same time as the hiring of the web site designer. If not, before.

A qualified search engine specialist should have a thorough knowledge of on line marketing strategies as well as spider- friendly HTML, and have experience across multiple platforms of industry. A qualified search engine specialist is going to do more than just slap keywords into Meta tags, which is why they should work hand-in-hand with your designer. 

Your search engine specialist should also have a thorough understanding of web site analytics and statistics. They should also be able to report and interpret them for you.

The search engine specialist will also have a firm knowledge of the differences between search engines and directories, and how to optimize for each of them on the same web site. Strategies that get your web site listed well in directories, such as writing good descriptions and choosing appropriate categories, will not help you in the search engines.

Your search engine placement specialist will work with you on selecting the keywords to use on your web pages. They will be able to tell you, for each keyword, how many searches are made for that keyword or phrase, what its value is if you were to use it in a pay-per-click advertising campaign, and how much competition you will have for that keyword or phrase. They will also be able to advise you on alternative keywords or phrases that your prospective client will be searching with.

The search engine placement specialist will also be able to help you or your copywriter ensure that these keywords or phrases are used effectively in your copy. There are key places in copy that the search engines look for keywords and the search engine placement specialist knows what they are. However, placing your keywords or phrases into your copy is a science as they not only have to be there, but they must be there is a conversational way and fit within context or you will lose your visitors.

Not only do the keywords need to be in the copy, but they must also be included appropriately into your Meta tags. While content is the primary ranking tool, Meta tags are also important. Some companies or search engine specialists will overuse one or the other; either content or tags. The qualified search engine will be one that knows the correct balance. Neither content alone, nor Meta tags alone, can make your web site rank well.

Search engines are looking for well-written relevant copy, good clean design and coding, and the appropriate Meta tags for your web site. The qualified search engine placement specialist will also know which pages need to be submitted to the search engine to get optimal ranking. If your search engine specialist cannot differentiate, or speak to both, look elsewhere.

A good search engine placement specialist will steer you away from unethical behaviors while there are some that will employ doorway sites. Doorway sites are pages that are displayed but redirect to your web site. They are not a part of your web site, however. They are loaded with keywords, but not relevant content. They are considered by the search engines to be unethical and will get your web site banned from the indexes.

They will also steer you away from cloaking tactics. Many companies will tell you that cloaking is necessary when, in fact, it is not. Cloaking is the “hiding” of Meta tags and/or content. It is unnecessary and considered unethical to the search engines. Some companies will tell you that it is necessary to keep your content or Meta tags from being stolen. There are other ways of dealing with these situations that will not get your web site banned from the search engine indexes; and a good search engine specialist knows this. 

Stolen Meta tags are not an issue as Meta tags alone will not get you highly ranked in the search engines. If someone steals your content, it is a copyright infringement and can be dealt with legally and accordingly.

The search engines are very clear that they want the “content that they see to be the same content that the user sees,” and doing otherwise is unethical and can get your web site banned from the search engines.

Remember, There Are No Guarantees

When selecting a search engine placement specialist, be careful of guarantees. While every web site owner would love to be in the No. 1 spot on all of the search engines, and it is certainly possible to get there, no search engine placement specialist has the ability to guarantee that you will be there by any specific amount of time nor that you will remain there for any length of time. The ethical search engine placement specialist will likely guarantee a certain number of pages to rank in the top 20-30 positions of the search engines. This is an expectation that can be met and the best guarantee that anyone can make. 

The number of web pages now included in the search engines worldwide exceeds 41 billion. With more than 50 percent of the households having Internet access, the number of visitors possible to your web site can be huge. Getting a visit by one household may seem impossible, especially when you consider that most people do not go beyond the first 30 to 40 results on their search for information. Search engine optimization by a trained professional can certainly help you achieve your goal of ranking well, thereby getting your share of visitors. Remember that there are ethical ways of doing this that will result in enhanced traffic, not only for today but for the lifetime of your web site.