Positioning Companies

Aren't they doing the same thing?

[nathan_ali]

When looking into hiring an outside company to do our promotion we have found that everything they offer we already do. They also clearly state that part of their promotion technique is the creation of optimized doorway pages. We have done this ourselves and been 50/50 successful. We are wondering:

a. Is it the promotion technique you're paying for when using an outside source, or is there a relationship between some of these companies and the search engines themselves, giving them a "leg up" so to speak, and;

b. Is it worth it? Has anyone found a good "legit" company that does a good job placing their site in the search engines?

Any input would be greatly appreciated. We also wanted to thank everyone who responded to us previously about log analysis tools.

[Mike_Mackin]

Welcome to WmW

One of the things firms pay for is clean code.
It can give you the edge you need to rise to the top.

imho

[nathan_ali]

Thanks for your help. If anyone else has any input on this we'd appreciate it. We're just starting out with our marketing campaign, just getting our feet wet so to speak.

[engine]

Hi Nathan_ali
I've recently been speaking to a firm that "...does their own..." in house. They admitted they found it difficult to keep up with the changes involved in a successful site. That's where the SEO firm comes in. The SEO firm should be up-to-speed with changes and should spend less time achieving the results.
If you're succesful doing it yourself, and can spend the time required, then, by all means continue.
Ask yourself the question: How much more could I achieve by subcontracting SEO, and focusing spending "quality time" on strategy?

[nathan_ali]

Well thanks to all at WMW. After much deliberation and screening of about 30 promotion companies we decided to go it alone. Much of what we've learned has been here at WMW and we now find ourselves somewhat addicted and very thankful for finding this forum. We just got listed in Yahoo yesterday so we're off to a good start!

I know this is the wrong topic area but we just noticed that our biggest competitor is kicking our a** on MSN. Any suggestions on getting good listings there? I know they're pulling from LookSmart, Ink and DH, but don't they have their own index too?

Thanks once again to WMW! The beginners couldn't do it without you.
nathan_ali

[Mike_Mackin]

REPEAT
"One of the things firms pay for is clean code. "

[mivox]

I don't think MSN maintains their own index anymore... It's almost all Ink and Looksmart if I'm not mistaken.

[BoneHeadicus]

Msn is Ink plus title tag, title tag, title tag.

A good keyword laden listing at Look$mart is worth its weight in gold at MSN too.

[nathan_ali]

Thanks so much. So LookSmart should really be the target as well as Ink?

[Mike_Mackin]

>got listed in Yahoo yesterday so we're off to a good start!

[search.yahoo.com...]

I thought you sold Airbeds and airbed products.

[nathan_ali]

Yes. SleepZone is the name of his "brick and mortar" which is a bedding store. He only sells the airbeds online due to shipping contraints.

[nathan_ali]

We just built another site and got it listed in Yahoo under airbeds yesterday (a few more days will be in directory, for now listed as new).

[Mike_Mackin]

ahhhhhhh
there ya go

[nathan_ali]

Thanks boneheadicus. Is LookSmart fairly difficult to get into without doing their PTP?

[nathan_ali]

clean code>

Mike, I know this is a stupid question and we've gone over it before but when you say "clean code" do you mean they go in and make sure everything's SE kosher before submission? Is there any "hidden" meaning to 'clean code' or is it just face value?
Thanks in advance.

[mivox]

Looksmart is not known for adding a lot of non-paying sites. I'd definitely recommend just forking over the money for your LS listing. Once you get listed well in all the major directories and free search engines, then you can decide whether paying to get into Inktomi is really necessary.

[nathan_ali]

Good to know, we paid for LS yesterday. Unfortunately we also just gave Ink a small fortune.

[mivox]

LOL... well, better safe than sorry, eh? :)

[nathan_ali]

Yep, trying to make sure we "stick" this time. I had a lot of trial and error with the last site. More error than anything LOL

[paynt]

>>… do you mean they go in and make sure everything's SE kosher before submission? Is there any "hidden" meaning to 'clean code' or is it just face value? …>

nathan_ali, Mike is so right to tell you this and it’s a very special key to optimization today. You can not under value the importance of cleaning up the code of your site, all the way down to redundant tags and duplicate font tags. Use what you need and leave the rest. How many nested tables do you need and are all your links working? We get so busy figuring out how many times to repeat the keywords in a keyword meta tag that doesn’t matter that much these days, and not enough time looking at how clean our code is. Clean house first and this is one of the first things a truly excellent SEO firm will do for someone today. If not the foundation then what?