Tips on Search Engine Placement Services Search engine placement services can be provided by search engine optimization companies. 1. You should look for certain things in a company. You should make sure they have the right experience. See what they have done for other customers. Ask for a client list. Try to get current ranking reports for clients. Make sure they don’t use spamming tactics. You’ll have to decide whether a smaller or larger company is better. A larger company may have more resources. A smaller company may have a more personal touch. It may also be less expensive. Look at the number of staff at the company. If it’s a small staff with many clients, you may not get as much attention. See if the company has a good statistics system. They should provide more than the statistics you get with your hosting company. A company should look at how the user feels about the site. Look for a company with search engines. Search with the keywords “search engine optimization” or “search engine placement”. If a company ranks high in the search engine, they probably know search engine tactics. Make sure you get monthly ranking reports. See what other services are offered such as link popularity improvement plans. See how they charge. Is there a flat fee, a monthly fee, or a cost per click? 2. Find out if the company has a guarantee. See what kind of guarantee the company offers. The majority of companies have some kind of guarantee and will give a refund if they can’t meet the guarantee. A company may have a pay-per-performance placement where you pay a preliminary fee, and you don’t pay anything else unless your site is in the top ten or top twenty. Keep in mind that these companies need a few months because of the amount of time it can take to get into search engines. 3. Find out the company’s optimization tactics. Is there a doorway page? Is there cloaking software? Do they use any kind of redirection tactics? Cloaking may put your ranking in danger because search engines often don’t approve of that. The IP number would need to be constantly changed, and that would require diligence on the part of the company. Find out if the company uses software for optimization or if they do it manually. Software can be banned by a search engine, and people who really know their search engine business shouldn’t have to rely on software. At the least, the company should submit your site to the big directories such as Yahoo. The company should work with you on keyword selection. Of course you can come up with your own keywords, but the company may offer more appropriate ones. They should know how to find out what the most popular keywords are. 4. Know about ownership issues. You will have to find out who owns the optimized pages. The company may register new domain names under their name, host it on their servers, and forward traffic to you. If you take your business from the company, you will lose your site’s traffic. Get the domain names put in your name after your association with the company is over. A company may not get a new domain name. They may optimize what you already have. If that’s the case, find out if your site will be altered. | 
