Google's guide on SEO

What's an SEO? Does Google recommend working with companies that offer to make my site Google-friendly?

SEO is an acronym for "search engine optimization" or "search engine optimizer." Deciding to hire an Toronto search engine optimizaiton is a big decision. Make sure to research the potential advantages as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site. Many SEOs and other agencies and consultants provide useful services for website owners, including:

* Reviewing and providing recommendations on your site content or structure
* Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScript
* Content development
* Managing online business development campaigns
* Keyword research
* SEO training

Keep in mind that the Google search results page often includes paid advertising and free organic search results. It costs nothing to appear in our organic search results, and advertising with Google won't improve your ranking. Free resources such as Webmaster Tools, the official Webmaster Central blog, and our discussion group can provide you with a great deal of information about how to optimize your site for organic search. Many of these free sources, as well as information on paid search, can be found on Google Webmaster Central.

Before beginning your search for an SEO , it's a great idea to become an educated consumer and get familiar with how search engines work. We recommend starting here:

* Google Webmaster Guidelines
* Google 101: How Google crawls, indexes and serves the web.

If you're thinking about hiring an SEO, the earlier the better. A great time to hire is when you're considering a site redesign, or planning to launch a new site. That way, you and your SEO can ensure that your site is designed to be search engine-friendly from the bottom up. However, a good SEO can also help improve an existing site.

Some useful questions to ask an SEO include:

* Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?
* Do you follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines?
* Do you offer any online marketing services to complement your organic search business?
* What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe?
* What's your experience in my industry?
* How long have you been in business?

While SEOs can provide clients with valuable services, some unethical SEOs have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to manipulate search engine results in unfair ways. Practices that violate our guidelines may result in your site being removed from the Google index. Here are some things to consider:

* Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that send you email out of the blue.

Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:

"Dear google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories..."

Reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for "burn fat at night" diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.
* No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.

Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a "special relationship" with Google, or advertise a "priority submit" to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or by submitting a Sitemap and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.
* Be careful if a company is secretive or won't clearly explain what they intend to do.

Ask for explanations if something is unclear. If an SEO creates deceptive or misleading content on your behalf, such as doorway pages or "throwaway" domains, your site could be removed entirely from Google's index. Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire, so it's best to be sure you know exactly how they intend to "help" you.

* You should never have to link to an SEO.

Avoid SEOs that talk about the power of "free-for-all" links, link popularity schemes, or submitting your site to thousands of search engines. These are typically useless exercises that don't affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines -- at least, not in a way you would likely consider to be positive.

* Choose wisely.

While you consider whether to go with an SEO, you may want to do some research on the industry. Google is one way to do that, of course. You might also seek out a few of the cautionary tales that have appeared in the press, including this article on one particularly aggressive SEO: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002002970_nwbizbriefs12.html. While Google doesn't comment on specific companies, we've encountered firms calling themselves SEOs who follow practices that are clearly beyond the pale of accepted business behavior. Be careful.

* Be sure to understand where the money goes.

While Google never sells better ranking in our search results, several other search engines combine pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results with their regular web search results. Some SEOs will promise to rank you highly in search engines, but place you in the advertising section rather than in the search results. A few SEOs will even change their bid prices in real time to create the illusion that they "control" other search engines and can place themselves in the slot of their choice. This scam doesn't work with Google because our advertising is clearly labeled and separated from our search results, but be sure to ask any SEO you're considering which fees go toward permanent inclusion and which apply toward temporary advertising.

* What are the most common abuses a website owner is likely to encounter?

One common scam is the creation of "shadow" domains that funnel users to a site by using deceptive redirects. These shadow domains often will be owned by the SEO who claims to be working on a client's behalf. However, if the relationship sours, the SEO may point the domain to a different site, or even to a competitor's domain. If that happens, the client has paid to develop a competing site owned entirely by the SEO.

Another illicit practice is to place "doorway" pages loaded with keywords on the client's site somewhere. The Toronto SEO services promises this will make the page more relevant for more queries. This is inherently false since individual pages are rarely relevant for a wide range of keywords. More insidious, however, is that these doorway pages often contain hidden links to the SEO's other clients as well. Such doorway pages drain away the link popularity of a site and route it to the SEO and its other clients, which may include sites with unsavory or illegal content.

* What are some other things to look out for?

There are a few warning signs that you may be dealing with a rogue SEO. It's far from a comprehensive list, so if you have any doubts, you should trust your instincts. By all means, feel free to walk away if the SEO:

o owns shadow domains
o puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
o offers to sell keywords in the address bar
o doesn't distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear in search results
o guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you would get anyway
o operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info
o gets traffic from "fake" search engines, spyware, or scumware
o has had domains removed from Google's index or is not itself listed in Google

If you feel that you were deceived by an SEO in some way, you may want to report it.

Advertising; get out there, and get noticed

Writing a Job Description - Is it Marketing?

Writing job descriptions to post online can be a daunting and even boring task. But why does it have to be? It could be one of the most important things you do. Why? Well, what you're selling is your company rather than the product your company sells.

You want a prospective employee to choose you, over another company, to spend their entire and very valuable day with. Your company can be the reason your new employee gets up in the morning and transports themselves to work. That's a really important decision for any prospective employee to make.

So is writing a job description considered marketing? Perhaps one of the most important forms of it!

Here's a template we use that might help get you started. Before we write about the position we're trying to fill we provide an overview that looks something like this.

Who We Are

Here write about what your company does, how long you've been in business, any awards your company has won, and how fast you're growing. You want your employee to get excited about the company first.

Our Culture

In our case we write about how we "work hard but play hard". You might talk about how fun it is to work in your company and some fun stories about your customers. If your business is a bit more serious you might focus on any employee achievements or how you empower your employees. Either way, you want to give the vibe of what it could be like to work in your company.

What We Offer

Here you can write in generalities about your generous package and the way you promote from within. This is to make prospective employees feel great about applying.

Then we get into the actual descriptions.

Job Title

Provide a paragraph of the overall position. You'll want to get your prospective employee excited about what they'll be doing day-to-day. Here's an example of a posting we have for a Marketing Manager:

The Marketing Programs Manager role is integral to Toronto SEO marketing’s rapidly growing marketing organization and is responsible for driving new customer conversion through email, surveys and postcards. This is a great opportunity for a proven marketing programs professional to gain broad experience across a variety of channels and help drive the most important objective of the company.

Qualifications

Here you'll give your bulleted must haves. It's tough to be sexy here. You'll want some number of years of experience, some education level, someone who is detail-oriented. Just think about all of the things this person must know how to do before coming into the job.

Responsibilities

These are bulleted areas of what this person is going to be responsible for day-to-day. Here you should even try to make the mundane sound hot!

To Apply

Here's where you can have a bit of fun and let your culture show through. Here's an example of that Marketing Position we have open.

To Apply:

* Send a copy of your resume to hiring@verticalresponse.com
* Tell us why you love marketing
* Tell us a funny story or funny joke (yes, we’re testing to see if you actually have a sense of humor)
* Tell us why you’re passionate about helping small businesses grow

Overall you're trying to get a new employee who fits into your culture. You want to match how you position the job opening to the copy you write. So make sure you put a bit of effort into how you market your company to your prospective employees and you'll win in the end.

If anyone has their own template or can improve on our design please share!

Advertising; get out there, and get noticed