Search Engine Optimization

Are you on the front page of Google? Is your website on Google? Is it searchable? Can you find it? Do you need to search by using as an exact phrase the domain name in full?

I create SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Campaigns for clients. I also design websites. Whenever I need assistance with my SEO campaign strategy I hire a top SEO specialist who has proven to be extremely successful on prior projects. At all costs, I avoid optimized madness.

Whenever I hire the SEO specialist for a new SEO project he submits my website to major directories, search engines and more. The first batch of people to inquire about my listings, however, are other SEO companies who want to pitch me on their services and sell me the option of a top spot on the front page of Google.

I wondered how could a company that is not directly affiliated with the noted juggernaut Search Engine be able to guarantee me a prime spot on the seemingly most popular Search Engine on the Internet. Recently, a week ago I hire the SEO specialist to create a SEO campaign for my property research website: HomeIsReal.com. The specialist I hired made no warranties as to my potential ranking on Google or any other Search Engine. Rather he emphasized that SEO is a six-month process, at the minimum level. A website will need to be regularly submitted to various Search Engines and keywords will need to be changed / updated and descriptions will need to be optimized.

Today I received a notification from a website directory service that indicated my website had been submitted and request confirmation of the listings details. I confirmed the details as being accurate. Within minutes I received a barrage of telephone calls from SEO companies offering to top-rank my website. Some SEO businesses that contacted me actually did know my domain name. Others asked me if I was the owner of a business, not really knowing which company they might be contacting. I was nonetheless polite to each sales representative.

A few of the calls were weird, however, since some of the sales people did not seem to know anything about SEO. One representative asked me to type in keywords to the search bar, which I did without any hesitation. Initially it seemed that the keywords were correctly heard and corresponding rightly input. I even confirmed the search results with the representative. When the supposed client’s website did not appear in the top ten results the representative asked me to confirm the search term again. I relayed the term searched and was told that I had misheard the keywords and commanded to re-enter the search phrase once again. Finally I was able to find the supposed clients’ website among the top six results, even though the sales representative told me with a tone of certainty that their clients’ website would be among the top two results.

After all of the sales pitches that are filled with a ‘smoke and mirrors’ strategy, eventually comes the hard fact that no one can guarantee the top spot on Google or anything other Search Engine. Even an expensive Ad Words campaign cannot ensure the absolute top position on Google. One could hope to be on the first / front page, but not command / demand it.

These SEO companies, which seem to exist in an endless supply, usually have two sales representatives. The soft sales pitch comes first, with the initial sales person, thereafter a referral is made to a so-called SEO Expert or Social Media Manager who comes on very strong for the hard sell. Sometimes the sales pitch is so harsh that one can feel the words jumping through the phone. Today the second tier sales person criticized my knowledge of SEO, even though I have two websites that are the front page of the top Search Engine for their respective keywords. I was told that I don’t have strong knowledge of back-links and that I don’t know enough about SEO, by the Sales Manager who was trying to sell me his companies’ services. After he berated me for a minute or so, where after he heard me giggle about his condemnation of my skills, he was infuriated and he hung up the phone.

What a relief – no more being insulted by a sales representative that I don’t know and who I did not ask to call me in the first place. I wonder: could there be a DO NOT CALL LIST specifically for SEO companies? One could submit numbers that should be added to the list. While I do not mind being called for a service that I could use, I certainly do not want to be ridiculed or insulted during the sales pitch. Surely I should be the one to end the phone call. The most important request I have is that if a sales person is going to call me, then this person should have already done their research on my website and be able to intelligently explain to me what unique service they can provide to improve the ranking of my website. If an SEO company is requesting many hundreds or thousands of dollars, then they should be able to guarantee that my website will be number one on all major Search Engines, or at least on one. Otherwise, I might as well create and manage my own SEO campaign.

To be Found Online

This article will aim to explain the online game. It is a game, like no other. Domain names are the closest thing to real estate in the electronic word of ‘cyberspace’. One could rightly say that the domain name market is a stock market, yet to be so termed and not established as such properly. There are many domain name auction websites, domain name brokers, and escrow services to process financial deals for domain name transfers, even an option to set a parameter to acquire a domain immediately upon it not being renewed. What does this have to do with being found online?

To understand cyberspace one must know how real space functions – that is how the real world operates, in terms of its agreed upon social and business constructs. In the real practical world where you are is where you appear to be others. You have an address with distinguishes factors that seem to be unique and which set you apart from other people who have a similar presence in society. The same could be properly claimed about cyberspace.

To be found online one needs to have an online address, this is initially a numbered URL, which is issued by a registrar through the hosting process. One connects the domain name to the hosting space. This is similar to one’s house being located in a subdivision. One will likely build a website to appear at the online address that will be found using the domain name. One can also forward other domains to the main domain with or without masking. Masking means that the domain name typed in the URL bar will not change upon the redirect process from the domain name typed to the one arrived at when one visits the website to which the main domain is connected.

The preliminaries aside, let us discuss how one can be found online. If one wants people to visit one’s house, then one will invite them, either directly by calling them or by asking them in-person to kindly visit, or one can send out invitations. In the realm of cyberspace one can also invite visitors by sending them e-mails asking them to visit or one can create keywords that describe one’s website. If done properly a Search Engine will direct searchers to one’s website when matching keywords are entered. One will of course need to known by the Search Engine for the Search Engine to potentially refer visitors. To make oneself known, similar in principle to hosting a housewarming party, one will submit one’s website to Search Engines for consideration to be added to the searchable database.

Next a Search Engine will ‘crawl’ one’s website to review its content. If the Search Engine finds one’s websites to be fitting it will catalogue it for search-ability by searchers who browse the Internet and specifically the listing Search Engine. This process could be equated with requesting a listing with a chamber of commerce or business bureau so that potential customers could find a set company according to their requirements. The chamber of commerce will review the application and evaluate the business to determine if it should be indexed with their list of reputable businesses for search-ability by prospective consumers. A business bureau will likely assign a letter ‘A’ or grade to the business listed to let prospective clients know how it ranks in terms of providing excellence to customers.

To be found online one needs create an identity, just like in a person or a business in the real world. One will need to list one’s business with Search Engines, online business directories, phone directories, create a business Facebook page / group, create a business profile on LinkedIN; have a Twitter account for sharing of articles / blog posts that one will publish. Also, one will want to have an account on Tumblr and a Yelp business listing, among other social media outlets. Needless to say, if one does not have a presence then one cannot be said to exist, at least to others. It is in one’s recognizable and known presence and interconnectedness with others that one has an identity. Likewise, online one wants to exist. To do so one must have an online address, business listings and definitely many ads on various directories / ‘pennysaver’ websites and be liked on social media. Similar to being liked in the real world and having a good reputation, one will want to build a reputation online.

All of the aforesaid discussion about being found online has not fully ventured into the more technical aspects of having one’s website fully indexed. In addition to the simplified explanation provided there more highly technical requirements, such as: meta tags, tracking by Google Analytics and registering one’s website with Webmaster Tools. There is also fetching and rendering a website in Analytics, request for crawling and permitting robots to scan one’s website, to name a few of the many other options for increasing one’s ability to be found online.

Posts

Optimized Madness

Found Online

Any more questions for Aaron? Feel free to get in touch!