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is a small army of people out there who, for amounts ranging
from a few dollars to a small fortune, will promise to get
you prominently listed with the search engines. Most of
these services do this (with wildly varying degrees of success)
through a process which has now become widely known as
"Search Engine Optimisation" (SEO).
In theory, SEO involves preparing your website for the
search engine spiders, so they will like what they see when
they get there and place you where you want to be placed.
And while there are some genuine people involved in the
business, it's also fair to say there are also unreputable
characters, who will promise you the world and ultimately
deliver very little of any real value. In fact, some of
them can actually do you a lot more harm than good by getting
you banned from search engines for questionable practices!
A disaster if you are relying on the search engines to bring
you business.
SEO is not as easy as it used to be and a lot of SEO specialists
now call themselves Search Engine Marketers (SEMs)
and specialise in advising you how to pay for search engine
advertising.
The importance of optimisation
Whether you use the services of a professional SEO specialist
or you do it yourself, optimising your website for the search
engines still makes a lot of sense — even if you are
going to pay for search engine advertising.
The major search engines will list your site for free.
But generally speaking, that's all they do — list it.
There is no guarantee they will place you at or near the
top of the list. No matter how much you pay them for advertising,
they will not give you favourable treatment in ranking your
website.
This is where OPTIMISATION is so important.
Tip: To learn everything you need to know about
optimising your website for the search engines, get a
copy of the Search Engine Secrets
manual.
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