Search Engine Optimization: A Scary Enough Subject To Keep You Up At Night
Search engines help millions of click-satisfied surfers navigate the hundreds of millions of websites waiting to be read. A top ranking listing on a search engine is the most coveted prize. How does a website get to be number one? Anyone with a guaranteed answer to that question would be a billionaire before Google completed a search on their name. Many search engine optimization marketers claim to have the answer guaranteed, but a guarantee could be a signal for the buyer to beware.
Instant Link Popularity
Did you think the popularity contest ended in high school? Well, in the world of the internet you couldn’t be more wrong. Link popularity is even more important in Internet marketing than being chosen as Homecoming Queen. Search engines like google.com use link popularity to decide how high a web page ranks in their indexes. The more popular a link is, the higher the web page appears in the search results. An SEO marketer who guarantees instant link popularity is more than likely using link farms. This is a very fraudulent way to trick and manipulate search engine results. Search engine algorithms are smart and will spot link farms, and your site will drop in rankings and might even get banned. While it takes more time, good content and links to other websites with related topics is a much better way to build lasting link popularity.
Guaranteed positions in search engines
No one can guarantee search engine results. The best that even the most credible SEO marketers can do is point out your past success, but this is not a guarantee of what can happen with your web page. Only the search engine itself decides how a page rests in the ranking indexes. See for yourself, most search engines have a disclaimer on their sites to that effect. Reputable SEO marketers may know what can be done to generate good index placement, but they can’t guarantee it unless you pay the search engine for top placement advertising.
You don’t have to change your website
The Internet is a state of constant change. Published websites evolve, change or cease to exist, while new websites appear like daisies. Internet marketers know that content is king, so information must be unique and change frequently to capture and maintain the attention of the millions of people who surf the Internet. Trying to predict what will be popular tomorrow is like trying to predict what a teenager is thinking. The only way to ensure that you maintain a high index rating is to continue to generate quality content and a high flow of traffic to your site. If the site never changes, visits to your site will slow down and your rankings may drop. Keep it fresh, relevant, and interesting or you’ll never have the notoriously short attention span of the web-browsing public.
Do your homework, read the fine print, and you won’t fall prey to SEO promises that may be more myth than fact.