Tuesday - May 10, 2005

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+ + My Search Engine "Do Not" List

Everyone wants better search engine positioning for their website. The reality is it's getting harder and harder to get good positioning - and I'm speaking as someone who has been doing this for three or four years. If you're an amateur, do-it-yourselfer, or think SEO might be a new model Mercedes Benz <grin>, you really don't have a chance.

Based on my experience, there are about twenty different variables involved in getting, and then keeping, good search engine positioning. Yes, 20. If one of them is out of whack it will directly impact your SEO efforts and your ability to get top ranked. If you're having trouble with search engine positioning, and want to do something about it, drop me a line. I've achieved top positioning for caterers, disc jockeys, wedding bands, wedding ministers, wedding consultants, and for my own directory of local wedding services at http://www.weddingplanninglinks.com

The first recommendation I make when speaking to people is: Don't Cheat. With that in mind here's my search engine "Do Not" list.

 (1) DO NOT- Do anything to trick or try to cheat the search engines into listing your site more favorably. Search engines will likely view this as spam and penalize you, or worse, permanently blacklist your domain name from their index. If you get blacklisted in one search engine, don’t be surprised if it carries over into other search engines. Likelihood of getting penalized or blacklisted from cheating: 90% +

(2) DO NOT- List keywords sequentially anywhere except in your keywords meta tag. By "list" I mean something like - keyword 1, keyword 2, keyword 3, keyword 4, etc. There are very few legitimate reasons that a list of keywords would actually appear on a web page or within the page's HTML code and the search engines know this. While you may feel you have a legitimate reason for doing, this I would recommend avoiding it so that you do not risk being penalized by the search engines. Likelihood of getting penalized, reduced ranking, or blacklisted: HIGH

(3) DO NOT- Use the same color text on your page as the page's background color – anywhere on your web page. This is an old technique that actually did work for awhile. It was called “keyword stuffing” a web page. Today it doesn’t work and search engines can easily detect this and will view it as spamming. Likelihood of getting penalized, reduced ranking, or blacklisted: 100%

(4) DO NOT- Use multiple instances of the same tag. For example, using more than one title tag. Search engines can detect this very easily and will may view it as spam and think you are trying to cheat. Likelihood of getting penalized, reduced ranking, or blacklisted: 75% +

(5) DO NOT- Submit identical pages. For example, do not duplicate a page of your site, give the copies different file names, and submit each one. Search engines can detect this very easily and view it as spam. Likelihood of getting penalized, reduced ranking, or blacklisted: 100%

(6) DO NOT- Submit the same page to any search engine more than once within 24 hrs. I actually don’t recommend it being done more than once per month, until you are initially listed. Likelihood of getting penalized, reduced ranking, or blacklisted: 90%

(7) DO NOT- Use any keywords in your keywords meta-tags that do not directly relate to the content of your page. This is cheating and even if you get away with it for a little while, sooner or later the search engine spiders will figure out what you are doing. Likelihood of getting penalized, reduced ranking, or blacklisted: 80%

(8) DO NOT- Waste your money using “automatically submit your web site to 3000 search engines… for only $19.95” schemes. These offers are complete frauds and they don’t work. Actually, using “automated” submission tools can actually hurt your ability to get good search engine positioning. Search engines know the difference between a manual submission and an automated submission and may actually penalize you for using an automated submission process (see #1 above). Likelihood of getting penalized, reduced ranking, or blacklisted: 80%

(9) DO NOT- Host your web site on $10.00/month hosting services that typically accommodate SPAMMERS. A search engine can penalize or permanently ban all web sites and domains from a specific IP hosting address (DNS). Legitimate hosting services and service providers don’t allow search engine spamming on their systems and their hosting is still inexpensive (under $50/month). Likelihood of getting penalized, reduced ranking, or blacklisted: MODERATE TO HIGH

(10) DO NOT- Host your web site on a “free” hosting service. Search engines know where these services are and who they are. It’s very unlikely that your web site will ever achieve even decent positioning in any search engine for any search. On top of that, their performance is horrible. Likelihood a bride can find your “free hosting” web site: ABOUT ZERO.

Getting good search engine positioning for your website can be frustrating. Like I said, if you're having trouble with search engine positioning, and want to do something about it, drop me a line. You'll have to make a moderate investment as well as have patience, but once you've legitimately achieved good positioning the likelihood of keeping it, based on direct experience with my client sites, is very good.

+ + Turn The Next Bride Who Visits Your Site Into An Inquiry

If you're having problems turning the brides who visit your website into inquiries and sales you have what's known as a "conversion" problem. A band in the mid-west had this problem with their website and using my report changed it almost immediately. Today they get three to five inquiries a day. Invest $20.00 in a special report I've written and have a better chance of turning the next bride who visits into an inquiry! http://www.bookmoreweddings.com.

+ + More Traffic, More Inquiries

You can have a great web site but if brides can't find it what good is it. Register your site with WEDDINGPLANNINGLINKS.COM and we'll send you great traffic for a full year that is affordable. For as little as $20/month you get more traffic, make it easier for brides to find your website online, and our direct link will help your "backward link" value (SEO). More information is here:
http://www.weddingplanninglinks.com/inquiry.html 

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Best wishes,

Chris Jaeger
Sell More Weddings Inc.
7 Cape Terrace
Gloucester, MA 01930
(978) 283-8295