Search engine optimization isn't a simple process, and getting your website to a prime location in Google search is only half the battle.

Consider this scenario - your company hires an ad agency to get your name out all over town. Within months, your firm's name and logo is visible on every billboard, during every television program, and in every phone book in the city. Unfortunately, having spent all your resources on your advertising blitz, your company no longer has the money to remodel its offices. When eager customers show up at your door, they are shocked to see your employees working out of a run-down shack. Disappointed, your potential clients walk away without even bothering to meet you in person.

Doesn't sound like a good scenario, does it? And yet, all too many businesses are finding themselves in this situation with their online marketing campaigns. They spend money, time, and effort on getting their websites to the top of natural search results, but little to no money on designing their websites in ways which appeal to online consumers. The result? Great visibility on major search engines, but no new business, as potential customers are turned away by a poorly-designed or outdated website.

At The Search Engine Guys, LLC, we understand one simple fact - search engine optimization doesn't mean anything unless it gets you actual contacts and actual business. That's why we work with each of our clients to ensure that their growing web presence brings actual benefits to their firm or business. Contact us at 800-220-9341 to learn more about our SEO company.

PageRank is a rough estimate of the value that your website or webpage has in the eyes of Google. It's measured on a scale from 0 to 10, with 10 being the most valuable or relevant, and 0 being the least. For reference, consider that Google.com itself is basically the only site with a PageRank of 10, followed by sites like Yahoo.com at 9. In other words, don't expect your website to achieve a PageRank of 9 or 10 easily - or at all; for most websites, hitting a PageRank of 4 to 6 is very good. 

So how does a website increase its PageRank? Though there are many factors which help determine PageRank, two of the major components are pages and links. Search engines like extensive websites with a lot of information, so a website with 100 pages would probably have a higher PageRank than a site with only 10. PageRank is also influenced by the links coming in to and going out from your website. In general, the more links from other sites that you have, the higher your PageRank. 

PageRank is only one of the many variables that determine where your website shows up in natural search results, and it is only one of the things that a good SEO company will take into account. Having a high PageRank does not guarantee you good search placement, but it can help you get there.

Want to learn more about increasing your website's PageRank? Contact The Search Engine Guys, LLC at 800-267-1704.

If you're looking for an search engine optimization firm to spruce up your website, it's important that you know the difference between "black-hat" and "white-hat" SEO. You may have heard these terms thrown around on internet forums or message boards, often in reference to the world wide web. 

"White-hat" and "black-hat" are unofficial terms used to describe types of search engine optimization techniques. Both types can be effective in terms of getting results, but only white-hat SEO can offer you legitimate sustainability over the long term. In researching search engine marketing, you've probably learned a bit about search engine algorithms. These algorithms are complex formulae that Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and other services use to rank and classify websites. They are closely-guarded trade secrets, and SEO firms can only make educated guesses at the exact way a particular algorithm works.

Black-Hat vs. White-Hat Techniques

All search engine optimization campaigns strive to build sites which cater to these computer algorithms; the difference lies in the way they go about doing so. "Black-hat" SEO firms tend to use "shadier" tactics, such as covering a page with invisible keywords (white text on a white background) or creating networks of links from questionable sources. These strategies tend to pander only to search engine spiders while misleading or ignoring the human user.

"White-hat" SEO strategies, on the other hand, attempt to satisfy both search engine algorithms and search engine users at the same time. These strategies include creating links from other valuable websites, designing user-friendly websites, and expanding sites by adding relevant information. The downside is that "white-hat" SEO techniques take lots of time and effort, unlike "black-hat" techniques, which can be mass-produced nearly overnight.

However, it is very important to remember one thing - search engines do not like "black-hat" techniques. Although "black-hat" SEO is by no means illegal, it is generally frowned upon by major search engines, since such techniques artificially inflate website placement without giving the user any additional value. If a search engine discovers a "black-hat" optimized website, it may very likely remove that site from its searchable index, effectively dropping the site into obscurity. In other words, if you want your site to actually have value, and if you want your site to be valued by search engines over the long term, then white-hat SEO is the way to go.

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Want to learn more about optimizing your site using purely white-hat techniques, contact search engine optimization firm The Search Engine Guys, LLC at 800-267-1704.