If you have received a report from so-called search engine experts, please toss it in the trash. These marketing hucksters will send you reports using website rating tools or website graders.
There is nothing wrong with running your website through online reporting tools. Just be sure you don't give them your email beforehand, though they will probably scrap your email from your website.
Website ranking reports or website graders are meant to give a webmaster a quick snapshot for a website's overall health. These reports are not the be-all, end-all for having a successful website because EVERY WEBSITE IS NOT THE SAME.
A website report/grader is much akin to taking your car to the tire shop for a checkup. You probably already know where I am going with this, and you are correct!
A traveling sales person racking up 200 miles per week on the road versus the person who is commuting one mile each day to work will have different needs when it comes to tire rotation, tread wear and tire types. But what type of salesperson will you get. An honest one or one that will subtly go for the biggest sale possible?
The Search Engine Marketing Sales Pitch
There are two primary ways search engine experts use online ranking tools, online ranking reports, and website grader tools to grab you by the financial short-hairs.
1) Misleading Keyword Reports
They will run your website through a keyword search tool and show you where your website appears for a given search query on a search engine's page.
If you sell women's cotton shirts, then you might get a narrowly focused search report that looks something like this:
Your Website Page Position on Google
~ women's cotton shirts - page 30
~ girls cotton shirts - page 20
~ ladies cotton shirts - page 40
I call this a tunnel-focus report because they did not research relevant phrases that match the Semantics of a real-world search.
(The way people use search engines; NOT MACHINES)
It's worth mentioning that complete reports look far beyond keywords. A complete analysis includes:
~ Number of searches over a day, week and month
~ Listing of searches with long tail key phrases
~ List of competitors websites coming up for similar searches
~ Cross analysis and display of targeted or niche searches versus general searches
It is the difference in showing you the frequency and comparison of the following key phrases:
~ Best prices for Women's cotton shirts and blouses
~ Women's summer cotton shirts and blouses
~ Women's cotton golf shirts
~ Comfortable cotton shirts and blouses for women
~ XL sizes for women's cotton shirts and blouses
~ Designer women's cotton shirts and blouses
It's not about the technical odds and ends of your website.
It is all about your customer, your website visitor and the way people use search engines; NOT MACHINES.
You want to know their age, diversity, education, where they live, where they shop, what they spend, what they like and don't like. Know Your Customer!
2) Misleading Search Engine Marketing 'Techno - Babel'
They will run your website through a website analysis tool and send you a report that shows you grading for some of the following:
H1 tags - yes/no
Meta tags - yes/no
W3C compliancy - yes/no
CSS compliancy - yes/no
Robots txt. - yes/no
XML sitemap - yes/no
Links to Social Networking sites - yes/no
Link in the DMOZ - yes/no
Dublin Core - yes/no
Geo tags - yes/no
ALT-tags - yes/no
Number of Back links - ( # )
Blog site - yes/no
Here's a tip I hope you will remember: if your website showed NO to all the above your website could still out perform a competitor website that showed YES to all the above!
The success of a website is driven by many more important factors.
Keep in mind that all these are 'peripheral elements' for augmenting your website. Online analysis tools show you what little extras you might take advantage of if not found in your website. They are nothing more than a digital yard stick.
Content is King
One of the most important success factors for your website is the quality of your content. This is something that cannot be measured in the most commonly found website grading/ranking tools.
Some tools can provide you general analysis for the reading level of your website
(Child, Adult, College) but they cannot measure the 'Semantics' of your content.
The mantra 'Content is King' has served me well since Google's inception as evidenced by the countless well placed pages our clients have in Google and other major search engines. I have never been drawn in by the so-called search engine experts who claim to have a leg-up on Google.
No one has a leg-up on Google!
Ricardo Vidallon is company owner and creative director for Visionefx a Virginia based web design company.
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