Search Engine Optimization
Frequently asked questions about SEO . . .

 What is the objective of a search engine optimization campaign?

The objective of search engine optimization is to drive qualified visitors to your web site, by increasing your brand awareness, capturing additional qualified prospects, resulting in additional sales - all of which leverage your existing online investments.


 What's the difference between a search engine optimization "vendor" and a professional search engine optimization services firm?

There are dozens of search engine optimization vendors who can help you obtain better rankings. Remember, one-time, static changes are virtually valueless two to three months after they are initially obtained.

The search engine marketplace is extremely volatile. Web user behavior is a mysterious and complex phenomenon, requiring sophisticated research and analysis to uncover its trends. Furthermore, the major search properties are continually adjusting their inter-relationships and switching search result providers. Consequently, rankings that initially exist on particular search keywords and phrases within the major search engines and directories are likely to vanish without appropriate monitoring, supervision and enhancement.

As a professional services firm, Digital Pipelines provides you with strategic business and marketing advice and support, as well as ongoing marketing consultation geared toward obtaining and maintaining your top rankings over the long-term, thereby maximizing the return on your existing Web investments. To a professional services firm, search engine optimization is not a project; it's a process. It's not one-size-fits-all, but extremely customized to fit your unique web site(s) and your specific online marketing goals.

 Why do I need to be concerned about online branding and acquisition?

Web users are more likely to return to your web site if it has a focused message that is communicated effectively. Brand awareness is one of the top influences on consumers when making online purchases. Consequently, businesses that have a strong online brand identity are more likely to increase customer acquisition, loyalty and retention. On the acquisition side, there are few, if any, categories of prospects that are more qualified than potential consumers searching the Web for products and service solutions which you offer. Failing to expose your web site to this extremely qualified universe is effectively turning your back on a lucrative revenue channel.

 What should I look for when choosing a search engine optimization partner?

The ideal search engine optimization partner is one that understands the dynamics of marketing, business, and technology - and employs the highest levels of integrity in their work. There are a number of unethical practices or shortcuts that can be used in search engine optimization, but the search engines themselves often times will not accept these questionable or "tricky" practices. You should choose a partner that doesn't utilize any of these practices to achieve short-term results for its clients. You should also expect to benefit from the research expertise, customized approached, management expertise, and on-going consultative process from a search engine optimization partner.

 How long does a search engine optimization campaign last? How soon will I see results?

We typically establish 12-month campaigns. There is an enormous amount of education, research, analysis, technical programming, and testing performed in the first 3 months in particular. Natural rankings will begin to appear in select properties within approximately 4 months. The single defining element of this timeline is frankly the speed with which you approve and implement Digital Pipelines's work. Our goal is to exceed your expectations. If a client needs to, and is prepared to, "fast track" this process, we work to bring results as rapidly as possible.

 What's the right time to for me to start a search engine optimization campaign?

Immediately. With 400 million people using the Internet, and therefore using major Internet search properties, the potential Web audience is so large that a strategic approach to capturing your share of that market is critical. Obtaining higher rankings in the major search engines is one of the most effective marketing tools you can implement in today's online world.


 How do I know which search engines and directories to submit my Web pages to?

Digital Pipelines stays abreast of the ever-changing search engine trends on a daily basis. We not only study current strategies and ranking algorithms, we follow the industry trends and can anticipate future changes.

 Why do the search properties keep changing the rules on how they rank sites?

Change is constant on the Internet, and therefore, search properties must constantly keep up with tremendous amounts of new data, the way that data is managed and maintained and additionally, their competition.


 What is cloaking? Does Digital Pipelines utilize this technique?

Cloaking is the technique of delivering a particular Web page to a search engine, while serving a completely different Web page to the end user. Search engines commonly overlook - and in some cases even ban - web sites that employ this practice. Digital Pipelines is aware of the search properties' views on cloaking and therefore does not employ the technique.


 What guarantee do I have that search engine optimization will work?

The results of a search engine optimization campaign are influenced by both controllable, and uncontrollable, factors. Although criteria such as changes in the search property algorithms or shifts in the search property database cannot be controlled, it is possible to manage and influence certain other aspects. Controllable factors include the optimization and submission of your web site, and the strategic formulation of the site descriptions that are submitted to the search directories. A Digital Pipelines search engine optimization and web site promotion campaign works to limit the impact of the uncontrollable factors, while managing all aspects that can be controlled.

 Is my company the right type to engage in search engine optimization?

Any type of company or organization that is serious about growing its online business is the "right" type of company. With more than 80% of Internet users using the major search properties to solve their problems or needs, your web site should be in one of the top 30 listings if potential customers or visitors are to find it. If it isn't, there's a universe of potential customers that remains totally untapped, and your web site is no more effective than the fabled "billboard in the woods."

 How many keywords should I target?

Quality, not quantity, is the focus of keyword strategy - there is no absolute rule for how many keywords and phrases you need to target. And before you even begin developing a list, you must understand your target audience and the language different searchers use when looking for your specific products, services and information online. Digital Pipelines's behavioral and linguistic approach works, first and foremost, to understand your business, your target audience and their search behavior. Understanding the query language of your most qualified prospects is the most important step in developing an effective search engine optimization strategy. How do they use words? What is the intent of their query? If you do not get the language right from the start, qualified visitors will never find your web site


 What is link popularity?

Link popularity is a measure of how many other sites contain a hyper link to your site. Some search properties, most notably Google, use link popularity as one of their most important criteria in determining page rank. A further component of link popularity is the quality of sites linking to yours. A link to your site from the New York Times web site will be regarded as more important than a link from your friend's Wedding web site that's hosted on a free server.

 How do you increase a web site's link popularity?

You might think that logic dictates that you can increase link popularity by undertaking an effort to get as many links to your site as possible. However, search properties, in their constant efforts to produce the most relevant results, are aware of and penalize for such tactics. Having links to your site from "link farms" or "free-for-alls" can actually be counterproductive.

There are valid and effective ways of increasing link popularity. The process begins in your own backyard -- proper optimization involves maximization of the internal linking structure of your site, having keyword-rich link text, and increasing the number of relevant outbound links. From there, Digital Pipelines builds upon this internal strength to focus our efforts on establishment and cultivation of valuable external linking relationships.

 We have a global site with multi-language requirements. Will the keywords and phrases apply to all languages and search properties in other countries?

Global companies require an international presence within the major search engines and directories in order to target their audience across the world. Digital Pipelines understands that international Web users typically search in their native language and often use country-specific search engines. Consequently, Digital Pipelines conducts thorough investigations of each targeted country, studying language preferences and searching habits.

 What's the difference between a search engine and a directory?

Search directories, such as Yahoo!, LookSmart and the Open Directory, allow a user to either conduct a search or browse by category. Human editors construct search directories. These editors have final say as to what category and description each web site within their subject-based organizational structure will have. Search directories are unlikely to include every page of a web site, typically listing only the main page.

Search engines or 'spider-based' search engines, on the other hand, do not use editors to verify submissions; they typically use automated programs, also known as spiders, to continually scan and index the Web's immense content. These tools travel page-by-page, storing all of the content and information they discover along their path.

Although the two are quite different, most of the major search engines, as well as search directories, provide search results from both types of search property. For example, the search directory Yahoo! currently provides search directory results from Yahoo! as well as search engine results from Google.

 Can I just use software to achieve better rankings in search engines?

Submission software may assist in having your site indexed by some of the major search engines. However, if the site is not optimized properly using focused keywords and phrases, there is little or no chance it will rank highly for targeted search terms.

 Is utilizing meta tags enough?

When the Web was in its infancy, search engines depended profoundly on the meta tag for search result relevancy, giving this piece of code high prominence in their ranking algorithms. However, as the Web has matured and search technology has become more sophisticated, meta tags have lost significance. Although they are still a factor considered in most of the major search engines' ranking algorithms, they no longer carry the weight they once did. As a result, novel factors, including off-the-page considerations, now have higher weight in determining the relevancy of a search result.

 Can I promote my site if I'm using FRAMES or JAVA?

Many of the technologies in use on web sites today are visually appealing; however, they are also indecipherable by search engine spiders. Although Web technologies and design considerations such as Frames and Java impair search visibility, there are technical workarounds to get these sites indexed. Digital Pipelines understands the need to have a visually appealing, yet search friendly site. Consequently, our strategic approach for dealing with search-unfriendly technologies and design techniques - developed over our years of experience with hundreds of sites - maximizes both the appearance of the site and its potential for search visibility.

 Is having a popular company name or well-known brand enough so that customers and prospects will find my site?

Certainly the stronger and more recognizable your brand name, the better the chance that Web users will find you - IF your URL reads exactly the same as your branded company or product name. But Web users don't always remember the exact spelling or phraseology of company names, or they refer to your products and services using different language than you do.

 Are search engine optimization programs used only for selling products?

Although companies that sell their products online can profit from search engine optimization, web sites with all sorts of distinct business models can also greatly benefit. Whether your goal is to inform visitors, make contact with customers, or support your offline channel, search engine optimization efforts assists in driving qualified traffic to your site or reaching your existing audience and customer base. By targeting relevant and focused keywords and phrases, a comprehensive Digital Pipelines search engine optimization strategy can help you meet a wide variety of objectives.

 How can search engine optimization strategies impact my business?

The goal of effective search engine optimization is not just adding traffic - it's about growing your online business by reaching qualified consumers of your products and services. Digital Pipelines has built its proprietary processes around sound business principles. We employ best business practices, benchmarking, predictive modeling and forecasting to help you understand and obtain your growth potential. With 400 million people using the Internet and using search properties, the potential online audience is so large for businesses that a strategic and sustainable approach to capturing that market is vital.

 How does search engine optimization compare to my other marketing investments?

Companies continually re-evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing programs against changing buying patterns, but never before has there been such a rapid and intense change as the onset of the Internet. Search engine optimization is still relatively new and within the past five years, only the largest and most aggressive companies have incorporated it into their strategic marketing plans. Today, the science of search engine optimization is becoming an integral and dominant aspect of any company doing business online. Given the size of the potential market available via the Internet and the ability to intantly reach potential customers anywhere in the world, at any time, search engine optimization has leaped ahead to become a critical marketing tool. No longer can companies ignore its effectiveness if done strategically, and done right.

 How will I know if my business increases as a result of top rankings?

The Digital Pipelines staff work daily, hand-in-hand with a designated team within your company, to monitor the results of our collective effort. Updates on the campaign progress and results are provided continuously. By the end of the first twelve months, Digital Pipelines will provide you with a full analysis of your rankings on all search properties, and as well as an analysis of how your activity at the end of the campaign compares to the baseline established at the beginning of the campaign.

 How do I ensure that I stay ahead of my competition when it comes to online visibility?

As we said earlier, search engine optimization is not a one-time project. It must be seen as an ongoing strategic business process if you want to continually stay ahead of the competition. To that end, part of our consultative process is to assess the activities, strengths and weaknesses of your major competitors' sites, and devising appropriate strategies for netting superior visibility for your site.