Frequently Asked Questions
About Our Search Engine Positioning

This is a list of the top 20 related search engine positioning and corporate questions that we get asked:

Search Engine Positioning FAQs:

1. What do you do to my website?
   This is perhaps one of the most difficult questions to answer as no two sites are the same. That said, we will evaluate your keywords, your competition and your website structure and content and develop a strategy to get your website top rankings. This can include onsite optimization (the adjustment of your meta tags, link structure and content), link building including submitting your website to applicable directories, reciprocal link building and whatever else may be required.
   
2. Why is link building important for high search engine positioning?
   Link popularity (the number of websites linking to your site) is an extremely important factor in search engine positioning. The more related links pointing to your website and the more valuable the links the stronger your site will be considered by the major search engines. While not a replacement for solid on-site optimization, solid link-building will dramatically enhance the effects of good search engine optimization.
   
3. How important are meta tags?
   Meta tags have lost a lot of their weight in recent years. Since meta tags do not appear as visible text to a site visitor they have been subject to misuse from unethical SEO's and webmasters and thus, the weight they are now given is extremely low. Nonetheless meta tag optimization is a part of a thorough positioning strategy.
   
4. My site is created in Macromedia Flash, will this affect my rankings?
   This question is very difficult to answer. Recent announcements have indicated that Macromedia and Google have worked out a method for indexing Flash sites. That said, if your website is developed in flash it is recommended at this time to create HTML pages with an option on the homepage to go to this version of the site.
   
5. Do you use spam tactics in your optimization?
   The short answer to this question is "no". Short-term gains attained through black-hat search engine positioning tactics will generally be negated by the loss that will be felt when the site gets penalized and/or blacklisted. Depending on the situation we may recommend some of the grey-hat search engine positioning tactics however only when required and legitimate. Our main goal is maintained high search engine positioning for our clients, not a quick hop up to #1 only to drop out of the rankings altogether shortly thereafter.
   
6. How long does the optimization process take?
   This depends on the site we are given to work with and the requirements to reach the top positions. a 5 page site in a low competition area will obviously take less time than a 300 page site competing for highly competitive terms. Generally speaking however, an average promotion (20 page website with moderate competition) would take approximately 2 weeks for site-optimization, a month or so for link-building and up to 3 months or so to attain rankings. You will undoubtedly see improvements after just the optimization alone however the added weight of the incoming links won't be applied for a month or so after they are established.
   
7. Do you submit my site to the search engines as part of your service?
   We most certainly do. Manual search engine and directory submission are included with all of our search engine positioning services.
   
8. What is blacklisting?
   A site can be blacklisted if unethical search engine positioning tactics have been used or if the search engine algorithm determines that it believes they have been. it can be very difficult to recover from a blacklisting, often it is easier to simply use another domain with a new site and move forward from there after cleaning out whatever spam tactic got you banned.
   
9. My competitors are using spam tactics, why is it working for them?
   Not all spam is easily detected by the major search engines. Like hackers, every time a method gets detected a new method is created to bypass this. That said, it is usually a matter of time before the algorithm will be changed to detect new spam tactics and further, sites using spam can be reported and penalized individually. If you choose to use spam tactics to attain high rankings there is a high likelihood that your site will eventually be penalized. That said, if you find that your competitors are succeeding using such tactics do your self a favor and the search engine users at the same time by reporting search engine spam to the engines.
   
10. Will I have to create more content to attain high search engine positioning?
    The answer here is a solid "maybe". Depending on the competition levels, the size of your existing site and the site sized of your main competitors, you may or may not have to develop additional content. If it is necessary, don't think of it as a curse but rather an opportunity to further educate your visitors, show them why your offering is superior, that you know what you're talking about, and also take the opportunity to write this content to target related but slightly different keywords.

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Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning - Corporate FAQs:

1. How long have you been in business?
   You can read all about us and Beanstalk's history on our aptly named, About Us page.
   
2. How does your guarantee work?
   Our 100% money back guarantee applies to the majority of our search engine positioning services. The only services that it does not apply to are those in which we make recommendation but are not actually doing the work. This is the case in our paid review and consulting services. Obviously we can only guarantee the work we have full control of. For more information please visit our Guaranteed Search Engine Positioning page.
   
3. Where are you located?
   Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning is located in beautiful Victoria, BC, Canada. If you would like to contact us please visit our Contact Us page.
   
4. What happens after you've attained top positions for my website?
   Once the guarantee is met the contract is considered complete. At this point you will have a decision to make. You can either chance it hope that these positions are naturally maintained or sign up for on of our maintenance packages and know that you have a company working to maintain and expand on your search engine positioning that has already proven that they can get you the rankings you need for the success of your online presence.
   
5. I've heard that you can't guarantee search engine positioning services. How can Beanstalk do it?
   Of course we too have heard this argument on forums and even on Google's SEO page. While we would never be so bold as to guarantee a specific ranking such as #1, we do know that by following specific rules and studying various tactics and SERPs (search engine results pages) on a regular basis that we can in fact guarantee top rankings by keeping informed as to what is working and why and making sure our client's sites utilize every legitimate search engine positioning tactics available.
   
   
6. Do you use automated software?
   With the single exception of WebPosition Gold which is not used in the optimization but rather in the reporting of rankings (it allows us to check the rankings for many keyword phrases over many engines quickly and easily) the answer is "no". There is no replacement for the human touch in the optimization, the submission and the link-building processes.
   
7. How much are your search engine positioning services?
   You can view our packages on our Search Engine Positioning Services page or contact us for a custom quote.
   
8. Can I do it myself?
   Of course you can. With enough research, testing, and the vast number of hours an effective search engine positioning campaign will take on top of this it is definitely possible to do it yourself. What you have to consider is whether it is worth your time. Generally, if it's a business site you are better off focusing your energy on your business and letting professional SEO's and webmasters work on your site.
   
9. Can using search engine positioning services hurt my rankings?
   Using a search engine positioning firm by itself cannot hurt your rankings HOWEVER the tactics that they use can. If Google is aware that you have hired an SEO firm and you have a nice, well-optimized site with unique content and legitimate incoming links they are certainly not about to penalize you however, if the SEO you have hired is using black-hat tactics or other questionable means to attain rankings then your positioning can be hurt by their efforts.
   
10. Are there any clients that you won't take on?
    There are two sets of website which we will not optimize.
    The first is websites targeting the same keywords as existing clients. We offer an exclusivity agreement to our clients and believe that this is the only ethical way to conduct our business. And our clients agree.
    The only other sites that we will not work with are adult websites. This has nothing to do with the competition levels as there are other, equally competitive industries and keyword targets out there that we are happy to challenge. Quite honestly we're just not interested in looking at adult content all day, nor can we feel good about our work if the most we have done is get yet another porn site marketed to the world.

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