We can quickly create your Business Web site usually within three days and present it to you online. Our eCommerce packages take between 1 and 2 weeks on average.
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How effective is Search Engine Optimization?
Over the past year, a lot of changes have occurred in the area of search engine optimization. It now seems that every search engine that matters is charging either a one-time or recurring fee to submit commercial sites. The only two remaining exceptions are Google and dmoz.org (Open Directory). Gone are the days (if they ever existed) that a webmaster could simply submit their site to search engines for free and watch the traffic come to their site. Just last month, Yahoo.com (the most popular search engines on the Internet) began charging an annual $299 listing fee for all commercial sites.
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Others also now charge for submission services including Looksmart, Altavista, and Inktomi. While free search engine submissions are theoretically still available, paid submissions are the only way to guarantee being listed in a timely manner. Why the shift towards paid submission? Besides the fact that Internet advertising has not turned out to be the revenue-producing machine that it was once thought to be, many search engines have become nearly worthless for finding both relevant and useful information.
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The amount of "noise" in search results and the number of companies employing questionable search engine optimization strategies has diminished the quality of search results. As a result, many search engines are either going out of business or their traffic has decreased to almost nothing. The number of search engines one must optimize for has narrowed down to just a few - Yahoo, Google, Looksmart/MSN, Open Directory, and perhaps Altavista. Add to this list the pay-per-click company, Overture, and you've covered the bases. Here's a brief overview of what you can expect from each of the search engines:
Overture - Clicks cost you anywhere from $.05 to $4.00 per click, depending on the key phrase. Overture will get you listed at the top of just about every major search engine, including Yahoo and MSN. They also provide very powerful metrics on which key phrases work and allow you to control your costs very carefully.
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Google - It's very easy to get listed on Google, and it's free. But in terms of optimization, Google is difficult to figure out. Google makes heavy use of link analysis as a primary way to rank the pages (i.e., basing your rank in their listings on an analysis of the links you have from your site, and to your site from other sites). While this system can be helpful in general searches, no one really knows all the algorithms they employ to determine who gets to the top of its listings, and as a result it is very difficult to optimize your site for Google.
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Yahoo - Yahoo is actually a directory, and once you get listed in the directory, you're there. Unfortunately, the one-time $299 submission fee is now an annual fee for new sites. Yahoo also offers a "sponsored site" service that will put your listing at the top of your category for $20-$200 per month depending on the category. Because of the popularity of Yahoo, getting listed in this directory is essential.
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Looksmart/MSN - Looksmart charges a submission fee ($299 for an express submission, $149 for a basic submission), but once you're in their directory you're there for life. Looksmart's listings appear on MSN, which just recently surpassed Yahoo as the most popular destination on the Internet. Looksmart also offers a service that will put your site at the top of its listings for certain key phrases for $29.95 per month (well worth the price). dmoz.org/Open Directory - The Open Directory is built by volunteers that review submitted websites and include them in the directory listings. This directory is important because it provides the main results to AOLSearch, and it provides some results to MSN and Netscape as well. The great news about the Open Directory is that submission is free. Since there is no paid submission, however, there is also no guaranteed timeframe in which they will list your site.
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Altavista - Altavista is waning in popularity, but still gets a fair amount of traffic. They have a paid listing service ($39.00 for up to 500 pages in your site listed), and it's worth the small fee.The strategy we find that works the best is to narrow in on 5-10 key phrases that will bring the right people to your site in some quantity. Understanding your own business, margins, cost to acquire a customer, budget, and so forth is also very important.
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Anyone can put their site in the top 1000 Internet sites if they have a budget of $100,000 per month. But from a business standpoint, it wouldn't make sense for most businesses. For an Internet business, setting the right budget for search engine placement is a critical component to a successful marketing strategy. You don't want to cut corners here.
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What if I want to change my site content after it's been published?
What is your Returns/Cancellations Policy?
If for any reason you're not totally satisfied with the final ecommerce web site design we present to you... you may cancel your order and receive a $950 rebate (for our ecommerce web sites) and a $350 rebate (for our business web sites)... no questions asked. The reason we cannot give a full refund is that we have put several hours into the initial design and may have initiated web site hosting which is non-refundable.
We hope this policy will make your eCommerce endeavor even more secure and enjoyable!
After your website has been approved by you and published to the internet, any changes made after that point will be estimated and billed on an hourly basis.
