Search Engine Optimization

SEO 101

There are some basic standards to SEO, and responsible web design will follow these standards. We incorporate these basic standards into all sites that we develop.

Content is King

The content of the page is the most important thing in how a page is ranked. Your page content and hidden page metadata should agree. The metadata should not overstate the content of the page. There are aspects of the programming that will tell the search engine how important the content is... so there is good and bad programming

Content is best in HTML text for the most search engines to read and therefore index that content. Some search engines are now reading PDF files, but chances are, those PDFs dont have your site navigation in them so your web site wont necessarily be linked from the PDF. Also, images are not something a search engine can read either. This includes Flash. If you want flash-based web site, then you might consider making a non-flash site so that search engines will index your content.

Good Guys and Bad Guys

There are differing techniques in SEO and SEM and often these are known as "White hat" and "Black Hat" techniques. Basically, The White hat techniques are the ones that you are supposed to use. These are the ones that are designed to work with the search engine algrorithms in their efforts to provide the seeker the best results possible. The Black Hat techniques, on the other hand, are methods that are tricky and dont always work. They are often deceptive, and if you get caught doing them, you will be penalized in your rankings. If someone promises you that they will get you the top rank on Google then... well, according to Google they are not telling you the truth. These are black hat marketers.

Dont try to fool the search engine. It used to be that we had all kinds of tricks we could do to get our sites to the top rankings. Search engines weren't really intelligent back then. But now, they have sophisticated algorithms to make sure that all the meta data tags match the actual content ine the page. If you try to fool them... if you break the rules, your site will be penalized in the rankings, and it might even be disallowed. Honesty is the best policy and that applies to your search engine rankings too.

Search engine companies spend millions dollars on developing their algorithms... and they keep changing them. They dont want the market to figure out the weighting strategies, so they keep changing the algorithms. If you are gullible enough to believe the SEO tricksters claims to guarantee top ranks.... well, find a good charity to give your money to instead... at least you will get a tax deduction for it and you will sleep better knowing that you have helped someone else along their way.

The XI Plan - WHITE HAT SEO ONLY

We have core values and we will only do white hat SEO. The black hat stuff is not honest, and in the long run its not going to help you but rather it will hurt your rankings at which point we know you wouldnt trust us or be happy with our service any more. Suffice to say, our relationship would be damaged. Its better to do things right, pains-taking as it is. Take the time to write good content, to build a good web site. Take the time to do it right, and when you earn the rankings, you will keep them longer.

XI builds SEO features into every web site that we develop, but we also contract SEO monthly plans with our clients. SEO is not the kind of thing you can touch once and leave it be - if you do you will get beat by the guys that are working it all the time.

• Starter Plan - FREE - Online access to web stats, keyword reports, search engine query results, and more.