DIY

Many webmasters attempt SEO themselves and have varying degrees of success. Certainly, there are no special tools that are absolutely required to do the job effectively. However, SEO is a complex mix of skills from varying disciplines, including linguistics, marketing, programming, mathematics, statistics, research and business skills, all of which must be understood fully to prevent potentially damaging behaviour. As well as this, it always helps to be recognised by search engines as being an ethical submissions expert. Companies recognisable from the SEO industry often gain intangible advantages during submission, especially if they are respected within the industry, because directory editors in particular are aware of the proven quality of their previous work. Appeals are more likely to be successful, and submitted descriptions accepted as is.

The two largest barriers to entry into search engine databases are money (for PFI properties), and more importantly knowledge. Mistakes can be very costly. Yahoo submissions, for example, are permanent, and if you don't get these right first time, it can be virtually impossible to get them changed, especially if the content of your site has not changed dramatically in the meantime. Yahoo is possibly the single most important submission that you will do (Looksmart would probably argue this, but it is generally accepted as true), so you really need to make sure that this listing is optimised correctly. Misunderstanding of technical implications of your site can also leave you with no spider-based search engine listings, or very poor ones where a simple change might be all it takes to open up the full potential of your site to search engine robots.

Who should you choose?

This article was first published on 10 June 2002 and does not necessarily match current events or the current opinions and views of bigmouthmedia ltd.

DIY

Search Engine Optimisation Primer