search engine submission and optimisation

[lloydc]

I got an email through today about a search engine booster, from the company who i have web hosting with.

basically if submits my site to 400 search engines, and it generates key words and meta tags and other such bullshit.

this incurs an annual fee of $89.

Has anyone had experience with this kinda thing?

is it worth it?

[Cupe]

i've had experience and not really

you can do most of it yourself free

i haven't paid a cent for SEO with ADJF and it comes up pretty high.

just have to research how googles SEO works these days as their algorithms have changed alot over the last decade

A brief dissection of the criteria:

Domain Trust/Authority - I think this was a factor that most SEOs did not seriously feel until after the Florida update (November of 2003), after which it skyrocketed into consciousness, crept along for a bit, and over the last couple of years, has become the dominant factor in the success of rankings at Google. That's not to say that things like exact-match domain names + lots of anchor text from diverse root domains can't still overwhelm the occasional page from Wikipedia, Amazon or the BBC, but the preferential treatment has reached new heights.

Just in the last couple days, we've started seeing authority sites like Technorati re-ranking for their tag pages on virtually every SERP they target. Google's "Brand" or "Vince" update also points in this direction, as does the collection of user-data and usage metrics that are potentially being applied or could be leveraged in the future.

Anchor Text in External Links - While this is still a very powerful ranking tactic, it's not the powerhouse it once was, and before ~2004, I really felt that it didn't carry the same power it did for those years afterwards. Today, my belief is that anchor text has come to be regarded much as PageRank was after its dominance in the algorithm - as a technique that SEOs have focused on gaming to such an extent that much of it has become noise, and it's only really valuable when found in conjunction with other positive signals (or at least, this is how Google thinks now, and their algorithm is still moving in transit towards that destination).

On-Page Keyword Usage - There's little doubt that when I initially started doing SEO, even Google was more susceptible to keyword stuffing. Incidentally, I think this gave rise to the myth of keyword density as a ranking factor (or at least, didn't help slow it down). Today, it's not lost all of its ranking power, but it still sits in the middle as an essential element, but one where "more" won't help you. This is in direct contrast to the other elements I've included in this diagram (where more does equal better rankings).

Raw PageRank / Link Juice - In the early days of my SEO career, PageRank was everything (or nearly everything). Manipulating rankings was as easy as getting a few high PageRank links, and this exploit, along with Google's display of PageRank in the toolbar, built industries of link sellers and buyers we still see today. In 2003, PageRank was already on the decline as a ranking factor - a decline that has continued to this day. My feeling is that now PageRank can still make some difference, but it's much more effective for Google as a determining factor for inclusion in the index and comparison against duplicates & scrapers.

BTW - When I say "PageRank" I'm referring to the original, egalitarian concept of links as votes, and the idea that every page and every link passes link juice in a similar fashion to help calculate the raw popularity of URLs in Google's index.

[Cupe]

So what sort of sites will rank well in Google over the long term?

Sites that have lots of text-based links, both internal links and inbound links from other sites within the same topic area;

Sites that offer valuable and useful information, where pages accurately describe content and are stored in clear hierarchical structures;

Sites with descriptive and relevant TITLE and ALT tags;

Sites with easily accessible pages;

Sites that AVOID deceptive or “spammy” practices such as participating in link schemes, keyword spamming, cloaked pages and redirects;

Sites that respect the Google’s cost of processor time, and make the Googlebot’s job as easy as possible.

[Cupe]

Bad SEO or ‘Black Hat SEO’ includes the use of keyword stuffed doorway or gateway pages, cloaked and redirected pages, link farms and a whole host of other search engine UNfriendly tactics.

Most ‘Black Hat SEO’ consultants make huge amounts of money. This is due to the fact that it takes a relatively small amount of time and energy to successfully optimise customer web pages, using unpopular keywords or keyword stuffed doorway pages.

Of course unpopular keywords are rarely searched and receive virtually no visitors or sales. Keyword stuffed doorway pages are worse still as eventually the customers’ website suffers negative results in the search engines in ways that are sometimes irreversible, including permanent exclusion.

By the time this all becomes apparent to the client the unscrupulous SEO consultant has received payment and already moved on to the next unwary victim.

Good SEO or Clever SEO as we like to call it requires a carefully planned structure and strategy to achieve desired results. This structure will take time to formulate as it requires days of dedicated competitor, client and keyword analysis. Once a strategy is decided then even more time is spent implementing this into a client’s web presence as an initial set-up.

Actual website optimisation should be considered an ongoing process, which continues to improve the clients’ web presence continually month by month. A good SEO solution will normally include a 9 or 12 month contract after set-up, with an option to renew at the end of the contract period. The monthly optimisation is used to improve on each previous month’s performance by following the websites’ original structure and strategy during set-up. In other words a constant flow of freshly optimised sub pages, web content, hyper links and external content is added each month to maintain and improve results.

[lloydc]

+ rep mate, that is some really useful info right there!

not that i've thought about it, it's prob not worth while optimising for anything other than google right?

seriously, who uses any other search engines?

[Cupe]

http://www.submitexpress.com/free-submission.html

(Don't use your normal email, this sends you a bit of spam - You do need to confirm a few submissions so use an email you can access).

[lloydc]

thanks mate

[J0rdz]

+ rep mate, that is some really useful info right there!

not that i've thought about it, it's prob not worth while optimising for anything other than google right?

seriously, who uses any other search engines?

Bing is about the only other one you really need to worry about, search engine wise.

Directory listings are another kettle of fish - but will depend on what type of website your running and who you want to attract.

I wouldn't pay your web host for submission to search engines or anything like that.

IF you were keen to go the paid route, rather then gearing it yourself... check out Traffic Bug: http://www.traffic-bug.com/

Even if you just download the trial and submit your site, it's worth it.