Search Engine Optimization: A Black Art?

Getting a Higher Google Ranking

The goal of every Web master is to get a site on the first page of Google or Yahoo search results. Speakers at SEO (search engine optimization conferences) uniformly suggest that their firms have the magic key to a high ranking. Some go so far as promising to make a site number one on Google, MSN, or Yahoo.

The pressure on those involved with Web sites grows with each passing month. The reason is that the cost of maintaining a Web site continues to rise. One Federal Web site cost less than $250,000 to operate in its first full year of operation. This year, the site will cost more than $20 million dollars. This may be an extreme example of Web site cost inflation, but it is an actual situation.

Making a site number one on Google involves far more than submitting a site to “more than 1,000 Web indexes” or “finding the right keywords for metatags.” These quotes come from marketing collateral from software vendors promising a high ranking with little effort.

The reality of getting a high Web site ranking is depicted in the graphic below.

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Let’s look at each of these layers, in what Arnold IT calls the SEO engineering process. The order of these functions is from the task of fixing a broken Web site down to the technology foundation on which the Web site rests.

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Contact Mr. Arnold at:

Postal Box 320
Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky 40027, USA
Voice: (502) 228-1966
Facsimile: (502) 228-0548
Electronic mail: sa@arnoldit.com

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