What is a keyword versus a keyword phrase, and which is more effective for top search engine ranking?
A keyword is a single word such as "marketing," while a keyword phrase is a more targeted set of keywords grouped together, such as "search engine marketing." Single keywords can be more effective if your business is focused on tight niche, while keyword phrases are a good idea if you are in a more competitive arena. We work directly with you to generate the most powerful and relevant keywords and keyword phrases for your business.
What is a top 20 ranking / top 20 placement, and why is it so important?
When someone performs a search on a search engine, it returns a list of websites that are relevant to the keyword used in that particular search. These websites are listed in order of relevancy -- the more relevant the website, the higher the ranking. Since the websites that appear lower on the list are considered less relevant, people rarely ever want to look beyond the top 20 to 30 websites listed. When we work with you, our sole focus is to get your website to rank within these all-important Top 20 listings.
What’s the difference between a search engine and a directory?
A "search engine" simply means that a computer or "robot" will analyze your site to determine its relevancy and ultimate ranking. An example of a classic search engine would be AltaVista. A "directory," on the other hand, means that an actual human being will review your submission to determine where it should be ranked. Directories also allow you to place your website in specific categories related to the nature of your website. (The most popular directory is Yahoo!) When we work with you, we focus on all of the most important avenues to get your site noticed, including both search engines and directories.
Which search engines will you submit my site to?
We sub 
mit to the most popular search engines, which result in 97% of all search engine traffic. These include:
AltaVista
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AOL
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Lycos
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Yahoo WebPages
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Google
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iWon
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About
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HotBot
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Netscape
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LookSmart
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Direct Hit
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FindWhat
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MSN
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Fast/All the Web
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Overture
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The actual engines may vary from time to time due to industry changes. But we always keep your best interests in mind and only work with the major search engines and directories.
Will my website be ranked in the Top 20 of all these search engines?
No company can ethically guarantee that your site will achieve a Top 20 ranking in every prominent search engine at all times. There are certain elements that are beyond our control, such as search engines changing their policies and criteria. Our program, however, offers you more protection than any other in existence, because we guarantee that your website will maintain top 20 within any of the engines we submit to. And of course your positions will be held under the keywords we have chosen together.
Everyone wants to get their website to the top. How do you get past all this competition and get my website in the Top 20?
It's true that there is resistance in getting to the top of the search engines. However, not everyone is trying to get to the top - most people have no clue where to begin. In addition, each category of business has a very large number of related keywords and keyword phrases (sometimes even hundreds of combinations of keywords can be used for one business) - which leaves many opportunities to achieve top rankings.
Is search engine placement really that important? What can I expect from top search engine placement?
Many other companies don’t want you to know this, but the truth is this: The reason for any controversy you may hear about the effectiveness of search engine positioning, is because fewer and fewer companies can get you results in an ethical manner! The fact remains that search engine placement is far and away the most powerful technique in existence for systematically driving large amounts of highly targeted traffic in a completely automated fashion.
Why can’t I just submit my site to the search engines myself instead of paying someone like you?
You are more than welcome to try to achieve Top 20 placement on your own. But like most business owners and entrepreneurs, you can’t afford to take your attention away from running your business to do "technical work." Achieving and maintaining top search engine rankings takes lots of time. And it takes much more time to learn how to do it. There’s a simple reason why we consistently get Top 20 rankings for our clients: It’s because we have a full-time staff dedicated to doing this - and only this!
What’s the purpose of the Information Pages? Can’t I just get my home page ranked at the top of all the engines?
Your home page is obviously a very important page on your site and "sets the table" for the rest of your content. But there’s one major reason why you can’t get your home page listed at the top of ALL the major engines.
Each search engine has it’s own requirements for top placement. Therefore, if you tune your home page to get a top ranking in HotBot, it may not be possible for that same page to get a significant ranking in Lycos.
In addition, pages that are able to achieve top rankings usually have content that is tuned to just one or two keywords or keyword phrases. So to get your home page listed at the top, you’d have to adjust it’s content to focus on one particular keyword. That’s fine, but without doorway pages, you will miss out on all the other keywords that people use to find your website.
Information Pages allow you to achieve top rankings with numerous different keywords and keyword phrases. Which exponentially increases your exposure in the search engines. In some cases, we will build as many as 200 or more customized Gateway Information Pages, each targeting not only a specific keyword, but also a specific search engine.
How long until I see results?
The top search engines vary greatly in terms of how long they take to "index" your page. Some engines can have your pages listed within a week or two, while others take up to two or three months. But before we can submit your pages, we perform the personalized keyword consultation to select the optimal set of keywords. Based on these keywords, we develop your doorway pages and prepare them for submission to the search engines. This process normally takes just a few days, depending on the number of new clients we’re servicing at the time. We have had clients who see Top 20 rankings within 3 weeks of signing up for our service.