Frequently Asked Questions
How much additional traffic will my web site receive if I hire you?
How much time is generally required before I start seeing an increase in traffic?
If you have any other questions regarding our services, please feel free to contact us.
What exactly does 1st Search Engine Ranking.com do?
1st Search Engine Ranking.com helps your site attain top rankings in the major search engines and directories. We create pages that are designed to get high rankings in these search engines. We then submit these pages to the search engines and ensure that your site gets top rankings in them.
This is because only the few major search engines and directories will bring you any traffic. Research of how people look for information on the Internet indicates that 95% of all people who search for information on the Internet use the top search engines and directories. Hence, submitting your site to 2,500+ search engines is not going to benefit you in any way.
In fact, most of these 2,500 search engines exist with the sole aim of getting hold of your email address when you submit your site and then sending you junk email. Hence, submitting your site to these search engines is nothing but a waste of time and money for you.
Which search engines do you submit sites to?
The search engines to which we submit your site can be found here.
Why do I need to hire you to do this - can't I do this myself?
Yes, of course you can. If we can do it, so can you!
However, if you do decide to optimize your site yourself, there is something that you will need to have on your side - time. Initially, you will have to conduct research on how each of the search engines work. Once you do that, you will need to create pages which are optimized for the search engines. After that, you will need to submit each of these optimized pages to the search engines. Then, you will have to wait for a few weeks to let the search engines add your site to their databases. After that, you will need to check how your site is doing in each of the search engines. If you find that your site has not attained the top rankings that you had hoped for, you will have to repeat the whole process all over again. However, even if your site does attain top rankings, your work is not over. Each search engine frequently changes its algorithms which means that a site which has a Top 10 ranking today may not have the same ranking tomorrow. Furthermore, your competitors will also be trying to get their sites to the top. Hence, you will need to constantly monitor the ranking of your site in all the search engines, and you will have to re-optimize those pages that are showing a downward trend in their rankings.
Thus, you'll need to spend a minimum of 2-3 hours every day in trying to optimize your site for the search engines. If you do have 2 or 3 hours to spare every day, then you should, by all means, do it yourself. In that case, we invite you to browse through some Free Articles that we have written on search engine positioning and to subscribe, free of cost, to the 1st Search Ranking Newsletter. We also recommend that you use WebPosition Gold - the software that almost every search engine ranking expert uses.
However, it is quite likely that you find it difficult to take care of all your normal business activities because of a lack of time. Hence, you can hardly afford to spend 2-3 hours every day on search engine positioning. In that case, it makes sense for you to hire a specialist search engine positioning company, so that you can concentrate on your normal business activities.
By a top 30 ranking, we mean a top 30 position for one keyword in one search engine. Hence, suppose that we are optimizing your site for the keyword "tourism in Australia". Suppose that your site is in the top 30 in both AltaVista and Google for that keyword. Then, this constitutes 2 top 30 rankings.
Why can't you guarantee that you will always place me in the Top 10?
While we will often get you top 10 rankings in the search engines, the reason neither we nor any of our competitors can guarantee top 10 placements for each of your keywords for each of the search engines is that none of us have any control over how the search engines rank web sites. If you find any company that is willing to guarantee top 10 placements for each of your keywords for each of the search engines, rest assured that this company is trying to take you for a ride. The algorithms that search engines use are kept extremely secret, and no one, save the search engines themselves, knows the exact process by which the pages are ranked.
Will you select the keywords that are applicable for my site? Or, will I have to do that myself?
We will work with you to select the keywords which are applicable for your site. We do realize that you may find it difficult to determine the keywords for which your site should be optimized. Hence, before we begin work on your project, we will thoroughly analyze your business from different angles. We will also analyze the web sites of your competitors. We will also take inputs from you while we are doing this, since no one knows your business better than you do.
Based on our analysis, we will arrive at an initial list of keywords. Once we have established an initial list of keywords, we will identify the most popular keywords which are applicable for your site. Based on the popularity of the keywords, we will arrive at the final list of keywords which we will submit to you for your approval. After we receive your approval, we will optimize your site for those keywords.
We use various keyword research tools on the Internet to find out which keywords are popular among users. We don't look at the competitiveness of keywords when we are selecting keywords, i.e. we select keywords only on the basis of popularity without regard to their competitiveness. Thus, if there is a keyword which is popular and which is relevant to your site, we will select that keyword, even if that keyword is very competitive. The only restriction here is that we do not select single word keywords - we only select multiple word keywords. This is because single word keywords don't bring in targeted traffic to your site.
We will optimize your existing domain. This question brings out the basic difference between the business models followed by us and many of our competitors. Many of our competitors will not optimize the domain owned by you. Instead, they will optimize domains owned by them, which, according to them, are 'leased' to you. If you choose to stop using their services, they will simply stop leasing the domain to you, which implies that you will immediately loose all traffic from the search engines.
This tactic allows them to force their customers into using their services on a permanent basis. In our case, however, since we optimize your existing domain for you, you are not obligated to use our services on a permanent basis.
We are not in favor of creating doorway pages because the search engines hate such doorway pages. Some of our competitors in the search engine placement industry create hundreds of doorway pages, each page targeting one keyword and one search engine. While such a procedure is great in theory, the search engines will often consider this to be spamming and will often penalize or even ban web sites for doing so.
The process that we follow is to create keyword rich pages, each page optimized for one keyword for all the search engines. We don't just concentrate on creating pages which are optimized for the search engines. The pages that we create provide useful content for your visitors and ensure that they are attracted to the products or services that you are selling. Since the pages that we create provide useful content, these pages are completely acceptable to the search engines.
Page cloaking is a technique by which you can display different pages under different circumstances. By using page cloaking, you can show one page to the search engines, but a different page to your users. Page cloaking is primarily used as a method by which you can prevent your competitors from copying the code that has helped you to attain top rankings in the search engines.
However, most search engines do not want sites to use page cloaking. According to the search engines, the visitors to your site should see the same thing as is shown to the search engines. If a search engine comes to know of a site using page cloaking, there is a high possibility that the site will be penalized for spamming and will be banned forever from that search engine. Getting banned from some of the more popular search engines can severely damage the popularity of a site. Hence, the risks involved in page cloaking far outweigh the gains. That is the reason we do not use page cloaking.
However, some of our competitors not only use page cloaking, they make too big a deal out of it. We know of at least one company who has used this excuse of page cloaking to justify the higher prices that it charges! This company is not only using a method that is grossly unacceptable to the search engines, it is actually charging higher for it!
What if some of my pages already receive high rankings? Will you change them?
We do not modify any of the existing pages in your domain, except the home page. Many search engines give a lot of importance to the home page of a domain. That is the reason we need to modify the home page in order to ensure that it gets a higher ranking in the search engines. However, we will not modify the home page in such a way as to change its general appearance - we will modify it in a way that is almost indiscernible to your visitors.
However, if the home page already gets a high ranking, we will not modify it in any way whatsoever, since we are firm believers in the adage: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Also note that all the other pages of your site will remain exactly the way they are. We do not believe in changing the existing layout and design of your web site.
Will you upload the files that you create to my site? Or, will I have to do it myself?
The choice is yours. If you want, we can upload the files to your site. However, in that case, you will need to give us temporary access to your domain. If you do not feel comfortable doing that, we will give you the files which you or your webmaster can upload to your site.
We always submit your site manually to the search engines. We don't use any automatic submission tools to submit your site because the search engines frown upon the use of such tools.
Yes, at the end of the 4 month optimization process, we will provide you with a report showing the positions of your site in the search engines. This report will show exactly where you are ranked in each search engine for each keyword. The report does not cost extra - its cost is included in the cost of our packages.
How many top 30 positions do your customers tend to obtain?
It is difficult for us to state the exact number of top 30 positions that our clients tend to obtain - the number of positions tends to vary depending on the site. However, what we can say is that in most cases, we are able to obtain far more top 30 positions than our guaranteed minimum. Another statistic that you may be interested in knowing is that among the total number of top 30 positions that we achieve for our clients, about 70% tend to be positions within 1 - 10, about 20% tend to be positions between 11 - 20 and the remaining 10% tend to be positions between 21-30.
While web sites which we optimize for the search engines may often continue to obtain high rankings for many months at a stretch without any further intervention on our part, search engines do change their algorithms every now and then. When a particular search engine changes its algorithm, the sites which used to get high rankings earlier will no longer do so.
Hence, neither we, nor any of our competitors, can guarantee that the search engine positions, once attained, will remain that way indefinitely without any further optimization. We also can't guarantee the length of time for which your site will be at the top. Thus, in order to ensure that your site continues to obtain top rankings, we provide you with a monthly maintenance plan.
Not at all. As explained in the previous question, web sites which we optimize for the search engines may often continue to obtain high rankings for many months at a stretch without any further intervention on our part. Hence, it is quite possible that you will continue to attain high rankings in the search engines without subscribing to our maintenance plan.
However, there is also the possibility that after a couple of months, the sites which had high rankings earlier no longer do so because of changes in the algorithms employed by the search engines. Hence, it may make sense for you to subscribe to our maintenance plan.
No, it won't. When you initially order our services, the search engine positions of your site are evaluated at the end of four months. Hence, only positions achieved at the end of four months are taken into consideration. For example, suppose that your web site attains a top 30 ranking in the first week of the fourth month but in the second week, your site is no longer in the top 30. Then, if we do not manage to regain that top 30 position for your site by the end of the fourth month, this will not constitute a top 30 ranking.
For our maintenance plan, the search engine positions of your site are evaluated at the end of each month. In this case too, only positions at the end of each month are taken into consideration. For example, suppose that your web site attains a top 30 ranking in the first week of the month but in the second week, your site is no longer in the top 30. Then, if we do not manage to regain that top 30 position for your site by the end of the month, this will not constitute a top 30 ranking.
How much additional traffic will my web site receive if I hire you?
It is difficult for us to predict the exact amount of additional traffic that you will get when we optimize your site for the search engines. A lot actually depends on your business. What we can guarantee is that whatever be the nature of your business, your site will witness a dramatic improvement in traffic, in percentage terms, compared to what it was getting earlier. However, it will be inappropriate for us to specify exactly how much additional traffic you will get in absolute terms.
How much time is generally required before I start seeing an increase in traffic?
Generally, it takes between 2.5 - 3 months from the time that you order before you start seeing an increase in traffic to your site.
Here's how we are different from our competitors:
Some of our competitors have minimum project amounts of around $1500. However, our Standard Package costs only $699. This is ideal in case you do not have a large budget, or if you want to evaluate our services before committing a larger amount.
We optimize your existing domain for you. The optimized pages that we create for you are again owned, not by us, but by you. This is in contrast to some of our competitors who 'lease' domains to you. They are simply trying to blackmail you into becoming customers for life.
We don't use search engine positioning techniques which may be beneficial in the short run but harmful in the long run to your site in terms of its positions in the search engines. Unlike many of our competitors, we do not use page cloaking or any other technique that is frowned upon by the search engines and which could get your site banned by the search engines. We only use techniques that are acceptable to the search engines.
We offer you a no-nonsense, 100% risk-free guarantee. In case we fail to get the guaranteed minimum number of top 30 search engine positions, we will return the entire amount that you have paid us.
While there are other companies in this field who guarantee their results, many of them try to meet their guarantee by selecting keywords which are not very competitive. As getting top positions for uncompetitive keywords is a relatively simple task, they are easily able to meet their guarantee. However, keywords which are uncompetitive are generally also the keywords which are not very popular among users. This means that while they may be able to get you top positions in the search engines, you won't get too much traffic from these positions because not many people search for such keywords in the search engines. We, on the other hand, select keywords only on the basis of their popularity, regardless of their competitiveness. This ensures that we are not only able to get you top positions in the search engines, we are also able to get you more traffic to your site.
We not only try to get you more traffic, we try to ensure that the traffic that you get is converted into more sales for you. After all, what's the use of more traffic if it doesn't lead to more sales?
We offer superior customer service. We reply to all your questions within 24 hours of receiving your email. This is true even on Sundays. You are not just another client for us - you are special to us.
Can you provide me with some references whom I can contact?
Sure. Send an email to info@1stSearchRanking.com and ask us for some references. Within 24 hours, we will send you some references whom you can contact.
Are all web sites eligible to order your services?
We do not optimize web sites dealing with get-rich-quick schemes, pornography or any illegal activities like hacking, cracking, warez etc.
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