Frequently Asked Questions

Got Questions? Get Answered. Here's your opportunity to go one-on-one with our experts with your questions about search engines. Just send us an email at consultant@significantranking.com and we shall get back to you within 48 hours. Meanwhile, please go through the following FAQ’s and you might find your questioned answered here.

Why have a website?
Why should I get my website optimized when I have not generated anything out of its web presence yet?
"Our website looks great - its bound to be popular, right?"
"But our website went live months ago. It must be well known by now"
There are a lot of companies out there that will submit my site to 1000 search engines for very little money. Why would I pay you to submit my site to 15-20 search engines?
"We paid someone to submit our website with 2500 search engines worldwide. Will that do it?"
I have a website but no one is finding it.
What is Search Engine Optimization?
Why is search engine optimization so important for your website/business?
Can Search Engines see our website content?
How do search engines determine who gets the highest rankings?
How long does it take to get listed on the search engines?
What search engines will the majority of my traffic come from?
What directories are going to send me the most traffic?
Why directory Optimization?
I've already submitted my website to the search engines but it is not ranking, what will your service do for me?
Doesn't submitting my website guarantee it will rank with the search engines?
How often should a website be submitted?
How long before I see better rankings?
My site was listed on a search engine last week, but now it's gone. What happened?
Is the home page only submitted to Search engines?
What pages (URLs) can a search engine index?
How do I know which keywords to use?
Can you optimize for any keywords?
I want to be #1 when someone types in the word...
If my page rank keeps changing, what do I do?
How long does the top ranking that you have achieved for me continue to stay there?
Why can't I get my site in the Top 10 on all the search engines? What is normally considered a success in Search Engine Optimization?
Why does my page rank 5th in one search engine and 9th in the other?
We have a great TITLE for our web pages. Surely that will help?
"But we have META tags as well. Surely that will help?"
Do you use techniques like page cloaking?
Should I do this work myself or should I hire a professional?
Why don't I just buy keywords?
How long before I see better rankings?
What About Maintaining Our Top Search Engine Rankings?
Why the Monthly Maintenance Fee?
What Kind of exposure does my website get if it appears in higher rankings?

1. Why have a website?

Many companies still don't know why they have a website. Most started off in the early to mid 1990's as a corporate novelty, but by 1999 the mentality of "If we don't have a website we don't have a viable business" began to flourish. With stock market valuations of Internet based or leveraged businesses reaching the ridiculous more and more companies began to move their businesses and their business processes to the web.

Over the years as browser technology has evolved so have websites. In the early 1990's web sites were built initially as straight text, then some formatting of fonts and layout was added, very quickly graphics began to appear and sites had more appeal to the consumer.

In the late 90's sites began to use more advanced technologies such as java and flash, and more importantly pages and their content were generated dynamically using databases. Sites became incredibly feature rich and cosmetically appealing. The strong adage of "if we build it they will come"; and the "if we make it look bigger and better than our competitors with more functionality we will capture market share" began to drive web development.

No consideration was made as to how traffic moved around the web and why. Most businesses built websites and expected a massive influx of visitors to drive their sales and generate new leads. Most businesses went broke.

According to latest research nearly 93% of entries to a website are generated by search engine traffic. Similar research shows that almost 45% of sales to an ecommerce website are as a result of a lead from a search engine.

If a company derives revenue from its website - regardless of whether that be from advertising, direct sales, or lead generation - then the webmasters main focus - even before the site is built - should be in working out how to drive targeted traffic to that web site.

The Internet is still a level playing field. A site built for a couple of hundred dollars can easily receive more traffic than a similar site built for millions.

Often you will see in search results tiny companies with amateur web sites ranking higher than well known blue chip companies for the same search results. 65% of click throughs from search engines come from the first page of displayed results (around 10 listings). 98% of all click throughs come from the first 3 pages.

If your site is not being found in these first 3 pages, then you can assume you are almost invisible on the web. The only way to combat this is to spend money offline to drive traffic to the website. A much more expensive proposition.

The two MOST IMPORTANT things a web master needs to understand is driving traffic and conversion ratios. Driving traffic is all about getting users to your site in the first place, and conversion ratios is how to get these users to take up your offering - whether it be buying something or simply filling in a form.

Different Traffic Generating Strategies
The 2 traditional strategies that most companies employ to generate more traffic to their website are:
• Offline Advertising
• Banner Advertising

The strategies that actually work BEST for websites are:
• Search Engine Optimization and Submission
• Link Exchanges with Similar Sites
• Direct Marketing to Friendly / Targeted Users
• Word of Mouth

Search Engines are the number one tool for delivering targeted traffic to websites. They are also one of the most cost effective means with the best conversion rates of any advertising medium. The consumer perceives them as independent, credible, third party reference sources. They are used to commence the journey of information search, and in many cases, to search for recalled brands.

Traffic generally moves around the Internet either 'actively' seeking a solution or 'passively' browsing/surfing through the Internets' web of affiliated links.

Search Engines are one of the only mediums that generate targeted active traffic. Users are normally searching for a specific solution to a problem - whether that be information acquisition or purchase related.

Users are already conditioned that search engines best meet fulfillment of these requests. Other mediums such as banner advertising or tiles hope that a passing user will find the information displayed of sufficient interest to click.

Industry Statistics

Searching is the second most popular online activity after email. Every day, 57 percent of all Internet users use a search engine
More people find sites via search engines than any other method with more than 75 percent of surfers using search engines as the primary means to traverse the web.
The top 10 search engines have 147,000,000 unique visitors each month, a number that jumps over 10 percent every month (MediaMetrix, January 2000).
Search engines produce highly targeted traffic with higher conversion ratios thereby directly impacting on increasing site revenues.
66% of online marketers mention using search-engine positioning as a way to drive traffic to their sites
Search engines promote your site 24 hours 365 days a year.
Search engines have a residual affect long after the initial promotion has ended.
Search engines offer one of the greatest returns on investment of any online and offline marketing activity. The cost per search engine visitor can be 10 to 20 cents as opposed to other means like banners, which in reality are closer to $10 to $15.
There is no starting or end point on the web so your site MUST be linked somewhere in order for people to find it. Search engines provide the most comprehensive linking.
Search engines are easy to use. Your site can appear in hundreds of different variations of keyword searches; unlike more traditional means such as "The Yellow Pages" where you normally appear in only one category.
Over 43% of people who bought online found the site via a search engine.
People who spend five or more hours a week online average an astounding 71% of their time searching for information. This is your traditional offline time poor user.
Search engines CAN be manipulated.

Search Engines: Portals to the ‘World Wide Web’:
Search engines are the most popular way (and usually the only way) smaller web sites can be found since they are portals to the ‘World Wide Web’. Studies show it's more likely a person will click on a link to your site from a search engine before they click on a banner ad, so it's critical your website be ranked high on search engines. It has been found that 93% of Internet users employ search engines or directories to find out websites, which they do by typing in a ‘keyword’ or a ‘phrase’ that represents what they are looking for.

To maintain a competitive edge, it is absolutely important that your website be registered and ranked higher with all the top search engines, which comprise over 90% of the total Internet traffic.

The more potential customers you attract to your website, the more success you will have! But how can you get more visitors to your site? We can help you attract more of your targeted customers to your Website. Whether your company has a website already, or you're having ‘Infinity” build your initial web presence.

Search engine optimization is the most cost-effective method of website promotion available today and is the leading on-line marketing strategy of profitable websites.

We have the experience and the tools to help you get the most out of your website. We can help you cost-effectively drive the right traffic to your site.
We provide an excellent selection of search engine consulting services. Services developed not only through our thorough knowledge of the way search engines work today, but through our continued dedication in keeping with them as they change through the years. All of our services include the maintenance necessary, to keep your relevancy high, and reports to keep you informed of the progress.

We can optimize your current website, design a new website from scratch, or modify your existing website's design, building in Search Engine Optimization techniques from the beginning, assuring you of increased search engine driven traffic.

2. Why should I get my website optimized when I have not generated anything out of its web presence yet?

Less then 2% of all Websites are properly coded for optimal Search Engine indexing. Yet, more than 90% of visitors arriving at a website do so from the search engines. If your site is NOT in the top of the major search engines or directories results, then each day you are losing thousands of potential customers. It’s about time you get that valuable investment bringing results.

3. "Our website looks great - its bound to be popular, right?"

Scoring well with the major search engines is one of the most cost effective methods of directing web traffic to your web site. If you want to promote your website successfully, you must know how to get the best possible ranking on the most popular search engines. Looks don’t matter if your website is not optimized.

4."But our website went live months ago. It must be well known by now"

Try this test for yourself. Pretend to be one of your potential customers and try to find your product or service using one of the major search engines. Does your site get found? Are hundreds of your competitors listed before yours? Is your website listed way down the list?

5. There are a lot of companies out there that will submit my site to 1000 search engines for very little money. Why would I pay you to submit my site to 15-20 search engines?

95% of search engine traffic comes from these major 15-20 top engines. You are better off focusing on the engines that will yield the most results. Ranking well on these engines involves customizing pages to rank well for specific engines on specific phrases.

6. "We paid someone to submit our website with 2500 search engines worldwide. Will that do it?"

Normally, you should refrain from using such services as providers offering these schemes use automatic submission softwares/programs to submit your site. Many search engines consider this to be SPAM, and could actually penalize your website ranking. More over, close to 90% of web searches originate in top 20 search engines.

If you think that just submitting your website to the secondary search engines and a few major search engines through some program/software will bring them flocking to your website then think again! Submitting is not enough! Even registering with hundreds of search engines may not bring the traffic that you expected. We have mentioned above the Top Search engines that bring have over 90% of the total Internet traffic.

7. I have a website but no one is finding it.

A great deal of people say this. This problem has many sources. Sites that contain heavy JavaScript, are designed with frames, have Flash intros or Flash pages, or sites with dynamic URL's are typically poorly indexed online, if indexed at all. Another reason for low, pre-qualified traffic is poor or no selection of key phrases for a site. For example, an investment banker writing a thesis on the likelihood of a depression may want to come up under the term 'depression' on the search engines. But research of key phrases would reveal that most people searching the word 'depression,' are searching for information about the psychological kind and not the monetary kind. You have to understand how people are searching and then place yourself in those areas through search engine optimization.

8. What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search engine optimization refers to techniques used to achieve high rankings in search results of search engines for keywords and phrases that are appropriate to a website's content and purpose.

9. Why is search engine optimization so important for your website/business?

"93% of global consumers use the search engines to find and access websites. "
- Forester Research.

Search engines are extremely important for any online business, as the major part of the Internet population use them to find a new product or a service. So, your website has to be listed in the search engine results. Banner driven traffic model is no longer effective nor capable of producing desirable results for most of websites. When it comes to ROI (return on investment), search engine optimization campaigns present the most viable long term solutions by delivering fresh, targeted traffic to your website. Simply by getting your website listed in the search engines is not enough to attract traffic and generate sales. A listing alone does not assure you will receive any new visitors to your website and it is just ineffective if you do not appear within the first 30 matches of the search results. Your website must achieve higher Search Engine Ranks for your customers to be able to find your site.

10. Can Search Engines See our website Content ?

Almost all websites are designed to graphically appeal to the consumer within the constraints imposed by technology and bandwidth. Few websites are designed from the outset to be Search Engine friendly.

Factors that need to be examined when developing web sites to take advantage of search traffic include:
• Accessibility of the site to search engines
• Navigation structure of the site to allow deep indexing
• Meta data to provide description of page content
• Targeted body text to increase site relevance
• Incoming and out going links to provide better link relevance

In the perfect world a well designed site would allow search engines to browse its entire content adding every page to its large library of possible search results. The site would never be more than two or three levels deep at the most - all data 2 clicks away from the home page.

11. How do search engines determine who gets the highest rankings?

Each search engine establishes different criteria or what is referred to as "algorithms" to determine the ranking of a website with respect to the website’s optimization. We know what these search engines are looking for. We've learned the secrets of how each search engine ranks your page, and we'll apply that valuable information on your website.

12. How long does it take to get listed on the search engines?

Some engines say they will list you within a couple of days or weeks, but realistically, a site embarking on search engine optimization and submission will start to see results is in about 2- 3 months. You can begin tracking results in a couple weeks after your first submission and then begin resubmitting again to trigger the engines to notice your site. The timeframe also depends on the competitive nature of your industry.

13. What search engines will the majority of my traffic come from?

If your favorite search engine is not listed it is because—almost all search engines share their search results or receive their results from other search engines. Therefore, we have determined the Search Engines used for over 90% of the Internet traffic to be considered for optimization:
MSN, AOL, Google, AltaVista, Iwon, Direct hit, Fast/Alltheweb, Lycos, Netscape, Hot Bot, Sprinks, overture, infospace, nbci, canada, inbounds, kanoodle, WiseNet, Excite and NorthernLight.

14. What directories are going to send me the most traffic?

We have determined that the following 3 Directories to be the most important for gaining relevant traffic: YAHOO, Looksmart and OPD. (Demoz).

15. Why directory Optimization?

Directory optimization is the process of indexing to the categories best suited for your Website. The development of detailed and exacting descriptions that emphasize relevancy to a Websites' content is extremely important. Addressing the requirements of the directory editors is the key to successful directory optimization. We will leverage the power of the directories in your favor for maximum success.

16. I've already submitted my website to the search engines but it is not ranking, what will your service do for me?

We will undertake a thorough analysis of a website prior to submitting it to the search engines and make recommendations for optimizing the site.

17. Doesn’t submitting my website guarantee it will rank with the search engines?

Absolutely not. Rankings are largely dependent upon the website's pages being indexed by the search engines and way the pages are optimized.

18. How often should a website be submitted?

Submitting a website weekly or monthly serves no purpose and can adversely affect the web site. After the initial submission of a site it is only re-submitted for the following reasons: 1-The site's index counts drop, 2-The rankings fall, 3-There is substantial content changes to the pages.

19. How long before I see better rankings?

You will start seeing the search engine optimization results as early 7 - 10 business days after we upload the "optimized web page/s". But it takes about 2-3 months for all the major search engines to index your website. So, we would check your ranks 3 months after you signup with us. If we do not meet our guarantee, your money back.

20. My site was listed on a search engine last week, but now it's gone. What happened?

Periodically, some search engines will purge outdated URL information, and occasionally an active website will inadvertently be removed. We will ensure your website is there in these search engine's database and resubmit them if needed (Mainaitance). If your site if it suddenly disappears from the search engine listing or starts to drop in the ratings, we will take care of it.

Do not submit your site too frequently (more than once a day), because some search engines will consider this to be "spamming" and may delete your site from their listings. You also do not want to re-submit to a search engine if you already are ranked highly.

21. Is the home page only submitted to Search engines?

Any page you wish to be added in the search engines can be submitted and ranked for higher positioning.

22. What pages (URLs) can a search engine index?

Web pages are either static or dynamic. A static page is created and placed on the web server, it's URL (web address) will generally end with ".htm" or ".html". It will not change unless somebody alters the content and uploads it to the server again. Dynamic pages on the other hand are generated from a database. Static pages are almost always submittable to the search engines however dynamic pages can pose a problem. If when you click on a link and the page you go to has a URL containing a "?" followed by something like "id=10" then the page is dynamic and may not be submitted to the engines. Is there a work around? Maybe, we will need to work on it in greater detail.

23. How do I know which keywords to use?

Scoring well on different keywords increases the way customers will be able to find your site. Unfortunately, there are no set guidelines since the answer is based entirely on your site focus and organization.
• Think about which keywords visitors will use to find your site.
• Consider your site's focus and intended audience.
• Ask your customers or visitors what keywords THEY would use to find you.

Of course, we offer our Keyword Research Expertise.

Quick Steps in devising keywords:

Use relevant keywords that are directly related to your site. In order to increase the relevancy of your listing, select keywords that best reflect how your site is unique or what you most want customers to know about your site. Use keywords or phrases that are directly related to the products, services or content available on your website.
If appropriate, use keyword phrases. Suggesting two or three-word phrases allows you to further specify where your site is most relevant. Phrases of more than three words will not be used. For example, if your site offers website designing services, the keyword phrase "website designers" is better than using "website" and "designers" as individual keywords.
Use product-specific keywords. Use product-specific, targeted keywords or phrases instead of general keywords for your listing and use distinctive product names when possible. Using broad, general words is less helpful in determining relevancy. The more targeted and specific your keywords are, the more likely you are to generate additional traffic to your site.
Each specific keyword or phrase you suggest will increase your site's relevancy and drive more targeted traffic to your site. Ten well-targeted keywords will result in greater relevancy than just a few generic keywords.
Avoid punctuation marks in keywords. Do not use punctuation in keywords or phrases — think about how users would actually type them into a search box. The search algorithm will ignore punctuation.

24. Can you optimize for any keywords?

For preemptive testing we use the Overture tool to estimate the difficulty of ranking a given keyword phrase: http://inventory.goto.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Any score above 15000 we consider extra-competitive and will use a backup keyword by default, however we will quote you a separate price to achieve a top-ten if it is a must-have to your business. Again, our results are guaranteed and you only pay for verified performance.

We can optimize your website to get the best possible ranks for most of the keywords, however each website has more than one target audience, and each target audience may use slightly different language when looking for a product or service like yours. We have extensive training in keyword strategy research and help you identify what words, and combinations of words, will bring your site the most qualified leads. Getting the right keywords is vital. Without them, your business on-line will not bring the traffic from the search engines - no matter what your rankings are. Because a #1 ranking is useless if no one searches for it.

Note: We can optimize your website to get the best possible ranks. But, it is really cumbersome to get a website within Top 20 ranks for too generalized keywords. For example: "Loans", "Insurance", "Credit Cards" etc are too generalized keywords. For the same, a lot of time and effort has to be spent as a result of which the keyword cost increases exhorbitantly. Also, such generalized keywords are hardly used by a specific target market. If your keywords are too generalized, we will inform you so and work out the best possible alternative.

25. I want to be #1 when someone types in the word...

If your goal is to be #1 for anything you are probably going to drive yourself crazy - especially for a general word such as 'book', 'travel' or 'gardening.'

Get specific, and you will not only get better placement, you will also get more qualified buyers. Fight battles you can win. Choose a phrase - not a single word. Most people don't search on single words any more. It gives too many results. So if you sell books about airplanes aim for phrases like 'aviation books', 'civil aviation', 'learn to fly'. Phrases like that are going to give you better rankings and the people that come across your listing are going to be in the market for what you are selling. But don't forget to do your key phrase research because you want to appear under terms people are actually searching.

26. If my page rank keeps changing, what do I do?

More and more websites are getting added to the search engines web every day. The competition is increasing. When search engines update their indexes if they find your competitor's website more relevant to the topic, they may put the ranking of your site down to put your competitor's web pages at a higher position.
Search engines keep changing their ranking algorithm. In order to retain the high positions in the search engines, one has to constantly remain updated of the latest ranking trends. We do that for you!

In order to remain aware of the current positions of your website, continuous monitoring of the ranks of a site is needed. We will re-optimize your site for the search engines and resubmit whenever necessary. We provide monthly reports of the search engine ranks to our maintenance plan subscriber.

27. How long does the top ranking that you have achieved for me continue to stay there?

The top ranking that we attain for you may exist sometimes for months sometimes it may even go down within a few weeks. The rankings change when the search engines updates their indexes again and come across some other pages which it finds more relevant. No one can stop this, as no one owns the search engines.

No search engine ranking company on the Internet can guarantee that it will help you to retain the ranks in the search engine results for a specific period of time unless you hire their maintenance service.

28. Why can't I get my site in the Top 10 on all the search engines? What is normally considered a success in Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization consultants consider a page successfully optimized if it ranks in the Top 30 on at least one search engine.

29. Why does my page rank 5th in one search engine and 9th in the other?

A: Each search engine uses its own rules to determine how relevant a page is to a given search query and these rules vary widely from one search engine to another.

30. We have a great TITLE for our web pages. Surely that will help?"

Just mentioning the name of your product or service in the <TITLE> tag of your web page may not be enough. It is true that the <TITLE> of your web page is one of the most important for search engine success it is not everything.

31. "But we have META tags as well. Surely that will help?"

There is no "magic formulae" that will shoot you to the top of the search engine listings. Improving your ranking on search engines comes from doing many tiny things correctly. Having correct META tags is just one of the many things that contribute to optimizing your page for improved search engine ranking.

32. Do you use techniques like page cloaking?

We do not use page cloaking in our process of search engine optimization.
Page cloaking is the concept of showing one page to the search engines (spiders) and some other to the web surfers. Search engines are extremely against this method. They consider this as spamming and may be penalize the site by banning the site from its entire index.

It is advisable not to use page-cloaking technique.

33. Should I do this work myself or should I hire a professional?

The answer to this question involves 3 factors. Time, interest, and money. You must know what is acceptable by the engines. Doing it wrong can get you listed poorly, and if you offend too many rules you can even be banned from certain engines. Ideally, if doing this work in-house, choose someone to be the search engine expert. Doing it right involves continual research. Hiring a web page promotion expert is not cheap. It is a focused profession and can involve a lot of customization for many particular pages in a site. But chances are, hiring someone will get you the results you were looking for and usually quicker than if you were going to do it yourself.

34. Why don’t I just buy keywords?

Visit Goto.com and type your keyword of choice to get a sense of search engine positioning values. "Casino" is currently at $7. This means XYZ Casino Company pays GOTO.com $7 for EVERY time a user clicks on their link. GOTO.com has less than 5% market share for Internet traffic.

35. How long before I see better rankings?

36. What About Maintaining Our Top Search Engine Rankings?

Internet search engines are highly competitive and are becoming increasingly more difficult to conquer every day. Seasoned web marketers understand that top search engine rankings won't last without careful attention. In order to protect your investment, we provide you with a results-based maintenance program.

37. Why the Monthly Maintenance Fee?

We have put the Monthly Maintenance Fee in to protect your investment. When we get you to the top of the Search Engines we want to keep you there. In order for us to keep you at the top, we are regularly maintaining the work we have done for you. What works today might not work tomorrow, so we are continually researching the search engines to keep you on top.

Maintenance Costs: At this point, it is important you understand the concept of paying only for results and understand how many categories or keyword phrases you will require. If this is unclear, please contact us for further explanation.

38. What Kind of exposure does my website get if it appears in higher rankings?

Unbeatable Quality Exposure: The exposure you will get is phenomenal. Not only are there over 150 Million Internet users with an average income of $60,000, the people who find your Web site are highly qualified buyers since they are looking for your company's products or services. Remember, search engines to make buying decisions.