Webland Search Engine Optimization Solutions

Search Engines are the number one way users are going to find your website.

Not only is search traffic targeted but can easily be converted into leads/sales as search engines are perceived to be credible third party (Webland's Newsletter Solution provides the same 3 rd party credibility) sources of information.

Search engine optimization is the act of making website content more search engine friendly to make it rank higher. We will research your keywords and optimize your site based on the most searched keywords in your industry and drive relevant traffic to your site via the major search engines and directories, resulting in new sales for your business.

Industry Statistics
- 66% of online marketers mention using search-engine positioning as a way to drive traffic to their sites.
-Search engines are easy to use. Your site can appear in hundreds of different variations of keyword
searches; unlike more traditional means such as "The Yellow Pages" where you normally appear in only one
category.

1. Google 40.9%
2. Yahoo 27.4%
3. MSN Search 19.6%
4. Others 12.1%

- Over 73% of people who bought online found the site via a search engine.

View a full screen Version >>

Following Goggles' rules is your key to success. The rules are straightforward and our experience will allow you to grow your profits through effective SEO management.

Webland Search Engine Guidelines

Following these guidelines will help search engines find, index, and rank your site, which is the best way to ensure you'll be included in search results. Even if you choose not to implement any of these suggestions, we strongly encourage you to pay very close attention to the guidelines, which outline some of the illicit practices that may lead to a site being removed entirely from index. Once a site has been removed, it will no longer show up in search results.

Design and Content Guidelines:

• Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.
• Offer a site map to your users with links that point to the important parts of your site. If the site map is larger than 100 or so links, you may want to break the site map into separate pages.
• Create a useful, information-rich site and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.
• Think about the words users would type to find your pages (i.e., webland), and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.
• Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links. The robots and crawlers don't recognize text contained in images.
• Make sure that your TITLE and ALT tags are descriptive and accurate.
• Check for broken links and correct HTML.
• If you decide to use dynamic pages (i.e., the URL contains a '?' character), be aware that not every search engine spider crawls dynamic pages as well as static pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and the number of them small.
• Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number (fewer than 100).

Technical Guidelines:

• Use a text browser such as Lynx to examine your site, because most search engine spiders see your site much as Lynx would. If fancy features such as JavaScript, cookies, session ID's, frames, DHTML, or Flash keep you from seeing all of your site in a text browser, then search engine spiders may have trouble crawling your site.
• Allow search bots to crawl your sites without session ID's or arguments that track their path through the site. These techniques are useful for tracking individual user behavior, but the access pattern of bots is entirely different. Using these techniques may result in incomplete indexing of your site, as bots may not be able to eliminate URLs that look different but actually point to the same page.
• Make sure your web server supports the If-Modified-Since HTTP header. This feature allows your web server to tell Google whether your content has changed since we last crawled your site. Supporting this feature saves you bandwidth and overhead.
• If your company buys a content management system, make sure that the system can export your content so that search engine spiders can crawl your site.
  

How does Google rank pages?

The basics

Google's order of results is automatically determined by more than 100 factors, including our PageRank algorithm. Due to the nature of our business and our interest in protecting the integrity of our search results, this is the only information we make available to the public about our ranking system.

Google updates the index about once a month. Each time they update the database of web pages, the index invariably shifts: They find new sites, and lose some sites, and sites ranking may change. Your rank naturally will be affected by changes in the ranking of other sites. You can be assured that no one at Google has hand adjusted the results to boost the ranking of a site. Google's order of results is automatically determined by several factors, including their PageRank algorithm. Webland likes to keep client sites current and work on them in a continuous basis, this adds new content for the search engines to crawl on a regular basis.

We check and see if the number of other sites linking to your URL has changed. This is the single biggest factor in determining what sites are indexed by Google, they find most pages when the robots crawl the web and jump from page to page via hyperlinks.

Regrettably, we cannot manually change your listed address at the same time you move to your new site.

That said, there are steps we can take to make sure your transition is a smooth one. Listings are based in part on the ability to find you from links on other sites. To preserve your rank, you will want to inform others who link to you of your change of address. One way we find out who is linking to you is to try a link search.

Webland Google Quality Guidelines - Basic principles:

• Make pages for users, not for search engines. Don't deceive your users, or present different content to search engines than you display to users.
• Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?"
• Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.

Webland SEO Quality Guidelines - Specific recommendations:

• Avoid hidden text or hidden links.
• Don't employ cloaking or sneaky redirects.
• Don't send automated queries to Google.
• Don't load pages with irrelevant words.
• Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.
• Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines, or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.

These quality guidelines cover the most common forms of deceptive or manipulative behavior, but search engines will respond negatively to other misleading practices not listed here, (e.g. tricking users by registering misspellings of well-known web sites). It's not safe to assume that just because a specific deceptive technique isn't included on this page, search engines approve of it. Webmasters who spend their energies upholding the spirit of the basic principles listed above will provide a much better user experience and subsequently enjoy better ranking than those who spend their time looking for loopholes they can exploit.

Search Engine Optimizers - SEO

SEO is an abbreviation for "search engine optimizer." Many SEOs provide useful services for website owners, from writing copy to giving advice on site architecture and helping to find relevant directories to which a site can be submitted. However, there are a few unethical SEOs who have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to unfairly manipulate search engine results.

• No one can guarantee a #1 ranking.

Beware of SEO's that claim to guarantee rankings, or that claim a "special relationship" with valid search engines, or that claim to have a "priority submit". There is no priority submit for Google or Yahoo.

Be careful if a company is secretive or won't clearly explain what they intend to do.

Ask for explanations if something is unclear. If an SEO creates deceptive or misleading content on your behalf, such as doorway pages or "throwaway" domains, your site could be removed entirely from an index. Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire, so it's best to be sure you know exactly how they intend to "help" you.

• Choose wisely.

While you consider whether to go with an SEO, you may want to do some research on the industry. Google or Yahoo is one way to do that of course. You might also seek out some advice from Webland.

Be sure to understand where the money goes .

Good search engines never sell better ranking in search results themselves, some other search engines combine pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results with their regular web search results. Some SEO's will promise to rank you highly in search engines, but place you in the advertising section of the engine rather than in search results. This scam does not work with Google because their advertising is clearly labeled and separated from search results, but be sure to ask any SEO you're considering which fees go toward permanent inclusion and which apply toward temporary advertising.

• Talk to many SEOs, and ask other SEOs if they would recommend the firm you're considering.

References are a good start, but they don't tell the whole story. You should ask how long a company has been in business and how many full time staffers it employs. If you feel pressured or uneasy, go with your gut feeling and play it safe: hold off until you find a firm that you can trust.

• Make sure you're protected legally.

For your own safety, you should insist on a full and unconditional money-back guarantee. Don't be afraid to request a refund if you are unsatisfied for any reason, or if your SEO's actions cause your domain to be removed from a search engine's index. Make sure you have a contract in writing that includes pricing. The contract should also require the SEO to stay within the guidelines recommended by each search engine for site inclusion.

What are the most common abuses a website owner is likely to encounter?

One common scam is the creation of "shadow" domains that funnel users to a site by using deceptive redirects. These shadow domains often will be owned by the SEO who claims to be working on a client's behalf. However, if the relationship sours, the SEO may point the domain to a different site, or even to a competitor's domain. If that happens, the client has paid to develop a competing site owned entirely by the SEO.

Another illicit practice is to place "doorway" pages loaded with keywords on the client's site somewhere. The SEO promises this will make the page more relevant for more queries. This is inherently false since individual pages are rarely relevant for a wide range of keywords. More insidious however, is that these doorway pages often contain hidden links to the SEO's other clients as well. Such doorway pages drain away the link popularity of a site and route it to the SEO and its other clients, which may include sites with unsavory or illegal content.

What are some other things to look out for?

There are a few warning signs you may be dealing with a rogue SEO. It's far from a comprehensive list, so if you have any doubts, you should trust your instincts. By all means, feel free to walk away if the SEO:

• owns shadow domains
• puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
• offers to sell keywords in the address bar
• doesn't distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear in search
• operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info
• gets traffic from "fake" search engines, spyware, or scumware
• has had domains removed from Yahoo or Google's index or is not itself listed in Google or Yahoo

If you feel you were deceived by an SEO in some way, you may want to report it.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) handles complaints about deceptive or unfair business practices. To file a complaint, visit: http://www.ftc.gov/ and click on "File a Complaint Online", call 1-877-FTC-HELP, or write to:

Federal Trade Commission
CRC-240
Washington , D.C.
20580