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Five Things Most Search Engine Optimization Firms Won't Tell You 
-- But That You Need to Know Before You Spend a Dime
By Brad Fallon (c) 2004 President of SEO Research, LLC 
(http://www.seoresearch.com)


So, you want your Web site to rank high on Google and other 
search engines.

To do that, you're planning on hiring a search engine 
optimization (SEO) firm. Good move -- maybe. A good SEO firm 
can help make your rankings and sales skyrocket. That's the 
good news. The bad news is there are a lot of SEO firms out 
there that will charge you big bucks without delivering results. 
As someone in the SEO business myself, I've heard countless 
horror stories about people who have gotten ripped off by paying 
for services they didn't need, or simply not understanding what 
their SEO firm is supposed to be doing on their behalf.

Below are some of the things most SEO firms will never tell you. 
Knowing these insider secrets can save you thousands of dollars 
and many hours of frustration.

1. Most SEO work follows the 80/20 rule. In other words, 20% of 
the work will account for 80% of the results. If that's true 
(and believe me, from personal experience I know that it is), 
you should make sure that the fee structure reflects this. Ask 
for an itemized quote, so you can make sure that you aren't
paying too much for the other 80%. For example, a lot of SEO 
experts will tell you they're going to spend X number of hours 
tweaking your site's keywords and meta tags, but there's really 
no hard evidence that those techniques have a significant impact 
on your rankings. Doing simple things like making sure your page
structure is "search engine friendly" (ensuring all your pages 
can be indexed by search engines) is infinitely more important. 
As part of a comprehensive SEO strategy, you still want to do 
the other 80%, but you want to make sure that the bulk of the 
priority (and cost) is focused effort that will produce the
most results.

2. You can receive a guarantee. Most big SEO firms say to watch 
out for anyone who guarantees results. They'll tell you most 
places that do so are nothing but scam artists. Here's the truth: 
I can absolutely guarantee any business I can get you ranked in 
the top 10 on Google for any keyword you choose. It all depends
on how much money you're willing to spend and how long you're 
willing to wait for the results. If an SEO firm is confident in 
their ability to improve your rankings, why wouldn't they offer 
you a guarantee?

3. You can see immediate results. Most SEO firms will try to 
tell you it takes months to see tangible results. Wrong. In fact, 
it's often possible to see results within a week, depending on 
the keywords you're targeting. I know because I've accomplished 
this for my clients time and time again. Unless you're going 
after extremely competitive keywords, if the SEO firm bidding
for your business says it will take three months to accomplish 
anything, they're probably just looking to sign you up for a 
lucrative long-term retainer.

4. SEO work is not too complicated to explain in detail. Too 
many SEO experts will balk if you ask them to explain in detail 
the work they're going to do for you. But don't let them off the 
hook. While some strategies may indeed be technical, most of the
techniques are easily explained -- especially some of the most 
important ones (see point #1 above about the 80/20 rule). If 
you're going to pay someone a lot of money to work for you, you 
deserve and explanation of exactly what they're going to do.

5. The greatest factor in SEO has nothing to do with your web 
site. In my research, I've found that around 80% of the Google 
ranking factors have nothing to do with the web site itself. The 
real determining factors are links to your site from other web 
sites. As long as your site is easily crawled by Google, most of 
the energy should be focused on getting these outside links. If 
a SEO firm tries to sell you an expensive package to simply 
"optimize" your site for Google, it's probably going to cost you 
a lot of money for very little result.

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Brad Fallon is president of SEO Research, LLC 
(http://www.seoresearch.com) and the host of Search Engine Radio, 
a weekly talk radio show devoted to Search Marketing. He is the 
author of "Creating Customers Out of Thin Air: Secrets of Online 
Marketing for Offline Businesses." A seasoned web marketer and
SEO consultant, Brad helps clients in a broad range of industries 
increase their rankings and profits. For his free report, "10 
Tips to Get Your Site Ranked #1 in Google" go to 
http://www.instantseoexpert.com
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