Google's Page Ranking & Actinic V7

[jont]

Warning...Stay away from Verica

Pound to a Penny they have to be using auto-submit software to get your site to 13.500 search engines and "other media".

Their own directory has links to their paying members sites but they are through a cgi link for tracking purposes and therefore useless as an imbound link for the target site. Marvellous page ranking of zero!

[WILKO92]

That seems to be the problem with SEO companies. Some are good, honest and put in a lot of good work on your behalf, many are just out to get lots of your money. Last year they were probably selling pyramid schemes. Recommendation is a must.

One of my local competitors paid lots of money to a SEO company and had some very quick results. Unfortunately, how they achieved this was to create a page of keyword/link gobbledygoop that ran to their site. This worked brilliantly for a while, everyone was impressed and much money changed hands. Untill google pulled the plug on the page and now they are nowhere. Unsurprisingly the SEO company don't want to discuss it anymore.

The real answer is quality, relevent and useful to the end user optimisation for which patience is a neccessity. The search engines soon get wise to the latest quick fix.

[Dek]

seo

Yes I agree, I spent some time yesterday posting about SEO and some stratergy stuff.

I responded to a similar company ethic of them using spam keywords at the base of their pages.

If you look at all the best sites, they are there on merit, true merit. Quality page copy, well written and laid out, well promoted, stay fresh enough to keep interest but not massive changes all the time, lots of copy and relevant links both in and out, well structured html, etc.....

If you want a search engine company to do work for you then ask them what they are going to do for the money.

If they wont tell you or are being secretive then dont use them.

Getting instant results is easy, but ultimately very costly in the long run.

The short lived high rank may last for a couple of months but will have devastating effect.

There are many, many ways to promote sites and get good rankings.

Also dont be fooled by false hit counts.

I have a site that gets only 20 visits a day on average yet it out performs many that get into the hundreds.....why? because the visits are targetted visits, this means that almost everyone who visits comes here for a reason and they get what they want.

5000 visits a day is no use if the visitor goes away empty handed every time!

There is no guarantees either with placings.

The only thing really that should be guaranteed is that the work promised is actually carried out properly and the promoting is done sensibly.

Every SEO company will have some things that they do that makes them slightly different from anyone else (or they think so anyway), I wont tell all of my little tips but anyone wanting work done from my company will get told exactly what is to happen, why, where the postings will happen and how the results will affect the placings. The "secret" tips are just little things that can sometimes make a little more difference, this is what I keep close to my chest, everything else will be laid out properly.
Having said this, the placing can NOT be guaranteed.

Some things to consider when deciding on SEO;

Do they do their own keyword research
Do they check with the customer the target audience
Do they ask about the company and want to understand the company
Do they use linking stratergies
Do they discuss linking with you
Do they discuss engine promotion
Do they discuss your page copy
Do they ask about current placings
Do they ask about your expectations
Do they ask how long you think the work will take
Do they understand what they are doing
Do they answer ALL your questions
Do they provide you with a written schedule of works to be carried out
Do they have sites that have been done that are a good example of their work
Do they rubbish the competition or do it cheaper just to get the job
Do they talk techno rubbish to blind you with knowledge


Plus many more........

Enough ramble, sorry, on my high horse for a moment there.