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Some firms will tell you a load of rubbish
There is no guarantee of a free listing with any major search engine and any web design firm that advises differently is advising you incorrectly.
Webgloss advises that you think very seriously before parting with any money to firms offering wonderful guaranteed results with search engine listings.
Amazingly, even Google receives the spam emails that begin..
"Dear google.com,
I visited your web site and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories..."
Google advises: "Reserve the same scepticism 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."
Be very careful
Cheating doesn't usually pay in the long term and tactics
such as 'hidden text' can cause Google to ban your website from their search engine.
Webgloss will never use 'hidden' text on your website. A few years ago it was common for web designers to design a business site and include all the necessary key phrases many times in text that was white on a white background, or hidden using tags that prevented display. This was in an attempt to fool
the search engines' indexing software and eventually the major search engines all found out about it. Google treats this kind of cheating very seriously and may even remove your business permanently from their search engine if it finds that your site contains hidden key words.
The best way forward is to have a site that faithfully represents your business without using any underhand techniques. There is no reason why your business website, if properly designed, should not receive a good listing by Google and if a web designer suggests techniques such as using hidden text, you should reconsider whether they are really the right design company to entrust your business web presence with.
'Linking' campaigns may also be dangerous
Google also gives this quote they received from a business:
"We have been on the internet since 1996 and had always taken a very conservative approach on our site. For nearly a year though, we were bombarded by emails from third party linking programs, which stressed the importance of linking for relevancy.
Finally, we broke down and joined one of these programs. Unfortunately, the program used hidden links, and Google removed us from the index within a week. I guess it's true that anyone can get fooled into buying snake oil."
- Frank, owner of a limousine services company
Be extremely cautious and don't believe the hype that lands in your email box!
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