Search Engine Placement Help (CD, how to, work, click)

[sjlcu]

Hi Science & Tech forum!

I thought I'd seek the guru experts advice of the folks in this forum :-)

I would like advice on how to make my website appear higher in search engines. I am a independent consultant for a party plan company and have my own unique wesbsite address that is maintained by the company I represent. They have a very specific policy on negative keywords and I am not at ALL tech savy. There is one rep whose website consistently comes to the top and several others who are on the first page. I know that they all do some form of paid advertising and goggle ad words.

My main questions are:

1.) Is it the advertising that makes their sites appear higher?
2.) Is it how many times their sites are clicked that make it higher?
3.) Are there any reputable companies that I could employ to make mine appear higher?
4.) Any suggestions on how to 'internet network'?

I'm open to any and all suggestions on how to work this process. Thank you all for your time and advice and please forgive me if these are dumb questions!!

Stacie

[Tek_Freek]

You can register your site with search engines. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

register web site with search engines - Google Search (http://tinyurl.com/yrjy7g - broken link)

Number of clicks in the search engine site (i.e. Google) counts. Keywords count. Uniqueness of name counts.

Go to the rep site that ends up at the top a lot. Right-click the page and click on "View Page Source". At the top of all the gibberish you should see some headings with words after them. Look for:

<meta name="keywords" content=

What is after this is the list of keywords your competitor is using. You can use them too.

Paying for advertising will place you "above the line" on Google, or on the right margin. Above the line are those you sometimes see as the first two or three sites. I can't go directly to them because my Firefox is set to block advertising.

You can Create an account with Google that will add you to their maps, etc. I have one and the address is the location of the building that has my PO box since I run my business out of my home. Look at the top right corner of Google for creating an account.

You can also use their business services:

Google Business Solutions

Other search engines have similar features, but I am a Google user.

[sjlcu]

Thanks for your help Tek-Freek :-)

I also found 2 places online that seem legitimate for search engine placement and optimization...hope I don't get scammed! I don't think I can list them here but I'd love to DM you the info and have you take a quick glance at them to see if you or anyone else out here thinks they are worth it.

Stacie

[Tek_Freek]

Try putting them here. I think that CD only deletes competitive sites??

[Bo]

I read recently that an ad in the Yellow Pages will dramatically improve a business's exposure in search results.

A less expensive method would be this new $25/month service offered by Sam's Club.

American Chronicle | Sam's Club Wants to Be Your Search Engine Optimization Company - Should You Let It?

[Bo]

Originally Posted by Tek_Freek

Try putting them here. I think that CD only deletes competitive sites??

I believe that self-promotion is considered advertising here, meaning one is expected to pay to mention one's own business.

[Tek_Freek]

She's not talking about her own business, but a couple of sites that help get search page ranking for her business. No self promotion involved there at all.

[sjlcu]

Ok, will post here and apologize in advance if I am unintentionally breaking the rules...

I found two sites that intrigued me with what they do, but as I stated from the start I don't know much about how this works and don't want to get scammed by my lack of knowledge. I don't have a ton of time to invest to learn the in's and out's of how to take on the task myself if that is even done...I just want the results! On a reasonable budget!

All advice is welcome~thanks again!!

webtraffictonight.com and ineedhits.com

[Yac]

Originally Posted by Tek_Freek

Try putting them here. I think that CD only deletes competitive sites??

I don't think this would do any good - even though city data has a high pagerank, links from forums simply don't work - Google drastically decreased their power some time ago.
Yac.

[Tek_Freek]

Originally Posted by sjlcu

Ok, will post here and apologize in advance if I am unintentionally breaking the rules...

I found two sites that intrigued me with what they do, but as I stated from the start I don't know much about how this works and don't want to get scammed by my lack of knowledge. I don't have a ton of time to invest to learn the in's and out's of how to take on the task myself if that is even done...I just want the results! On a reasonable budget!

All advice is welcome~thanks again!!

webtraffictonight.com and ineedhits.com

Can't find anything negative about them on the web, which is good, but not a guarantee.

ineedhits seems to be directed more to Google than as a generic, and that's not a bad thing. Google is the top search engine and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

You might get the first one cheaper on eBay...

WEBSITE TRAFFIC I WILL INCREASE YOUR WEB SITE TRAFFIC - eBay (item 320223405471 end time Mar-10-08 22:34:56 PDT) (broken link)