Listed below are the most frequently asked questions (FAQ) about search engine positioning. If your questions are not covered in this FAQ, feel free to send them to us and we will do our best to give you a satisfactory answer.


Are search engines important?

Absolutely! The majority of users find Web sites via search engines -- a fact that's been documented time and again. Searching is second only to email as the most popular online activity. In a recent Georgia Tech Internet User Survey, respondents were asked how they find pages on the Internet. A full 82% said they used the major search engines. So, the major search engines cannot be ignored.


Which are the major search engines?

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of search engines out there. Still, over 90% of people looking for web sites come through a handful of search engines. The important ones are Yahoo! (technically a directory), Google, MSN, AltaVista, Lycos, FastSearch, Excite, Hotbot and AOL Search. There are literally hundreds of other search engines, but these are the ones that require special effort to attain those top rankings for your keywords or phrases.


What is the difference between a directory and a search engine?

Directories use human editors to evaluate sites for acceptance based on content relevance and uniqueness. Directories are organized by categories, then broken down into subcategories. Once a listing is accepted, the relevancy algorithm determines the ranking.

Search engines, on the other hand, use "spiders" or "crawlers" to scour the web, finding web pages by following links. These they then rank based on their own algorithms that frequently changes to prevent unethical practices.


How much traffic can I get through search engines?

Of course, it depends on your site and what keywords people will use to find you. But we have seen a top ten placement for a keyword literally double a website's traffic overnight. The key is to pick your keywords wisely and then achieve at least a top 30 (preferably top 10) ranking on these all important search engines for these keywords.


What exactly do you mean by search engine submission?

Search engine submission refers to the act of getting your web site listed with search engines. Another term for this is search engine registration. Getting listed does not mean that you will necessarily rank well for particular terms, however. It simply means that the search engine knows your pages exist.


What exactly do you mean by search engine optimization?

Search engine optimization refers to the act of altering your site so that it may rank well for particular terms, especially with crawler-based search engines. We usually look at the page titles, meta tags and keyword density, among many other things.


How do you position my site on these search engines?

Terms such as "search engine marketing" or "search engine promotion" refer to the overall process of marketing a site on search engines. This includes submission, optimization, managing paid listings and more.

Ours is a program where we actively optimize your site in order to improve it's rankings on search engines for certain keywords. Each search engine has different ways to determine which sites will rank well for these keywords. We use pages inside your site, as well as create new pages called "Doorway Pages", and make sure these pages have these keywords in key places so they will rank well on search engines.

In addition to this, we also put your site in our link exchange program so we can build links back to your site from sites all over the world. This is quite important, because many search engines, including Google, Yahoo! and Hotbot, are starting to use the number of links (both links on your page to other sites, and, more importantly, links on other people's pages to your site) as a criteria for how "valuable" a page is. So getting people to link to you, and linking to other useful sites, may soon be as important as choosing the right keywords when it comes to influencing search engine rankings.


What is the reason you only offer submission to the top search engines?

There are lots of programs out there that offer something like "Free Submission to the Top 1000 Search Engines". Well, for one thing, the resulted number of clickthroughs from these small search engines are really negligeble. As the statistics show, over 95% of all web traffic comes from the top 15 or so search engines and directories. Furthermore, many of these "Free Submission" programs exist for the sole purpose of collecting email addresses to be added to their spam lists. So if you pay to be submitted to the "Top 1000 Search Engines," you're not only paying for something that isn't worth much, but you're also paying for the privilege of being spammed!


Why do I need a continous positioning program for my site?

Seach engines results change constantly. The Internet is a rapidly changing environment, and the search engines have to reflect this. New sites are constantly being added, and some will be competing for the same keywords as you. That means a top ten ranking could change the day after you achieve it. The only approach that makes sense is an ongoing positioning program, where we optimize your pages, register them, follow up, adjust when necessary, reregister, follow up again... and so on.

Also, search engines keep changing the rules (commonly known as algorithms). This is because they really do not want anyone to figure out how exactly how they rank sites to prevent unethical practices. So, from time to time, they would change their rules a little bit and we would have to start over.

Search Engines can be really unpredictable as well. One day, you could have a high ranking with a search engine for a keyword phrase, and the next day your ranking could disappear completely, only to resurface after a week or two. All the major engines have their own peculiar behaviors and you would have a difficult time deciding when to panic when your site ranking gone missing from a particular search engine. You need an online marketing service that takes all these factors into account.