Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Puts your competition where they belong — below you.

Used by hundreds of companies nationwide, Gaslight Media’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the industry’s leading solution for marketing your Web site on the Internet. It’s imperative that potential customers find your Web site at the top of search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN - not buried in many pages of search results.

Gaslight Media’s SEO programs will increase your site’s visibility on the Internet by improving its placement on search engines.

Search Engine Optimization:

• Increases your Web site’s traffic through target-marketing.
• Boosts your market share.
• Overshadows your competitors with your higher placement.

Search engine optimization is the practice of guiding the development or redevelopment of Web site so that it will naturally attract visitors by winning top ranking on the major search engines for selected search terms and phrases.

Three Types of Search Engines

Web Directories
Think of a Web directory as a subject catalog like the one you would use in a library. The main two directories for this catalog type of searching are Yahoo and DMOZ. They attempt to organize the information on the Web by dividing it into topics, subtopics and regions. There are, however, differences between the two in how they index the information once submitted. This is in large due to the fact that Yahoo employees review pages and decide where they go. Whereas DMOZ, otherwise known as Open Directory, uses volunteers to review and index pages.

Search Engines (Spriders)
A search engine is designed to search a database. In the context of the Internet, this refers to a Web site that contains a database of information from other Web sites. Think of a Web search engine as an index that enables you to seek out specific words and phrases. With the search engine’s help, you can locate individual appearances of such words in documents all over the Web. Meta tags are helpful with search engines because you can tell the spider what your Web site is about. Unfortunately, not all search engines work the same so results vary. Examples of search engines are Lycos, Google and AltaVista.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Another option is sponsored advertising or ‘pay-per-click’ positioning, where an advertiser bids against other advertisers for a position in the ‘sponsored listings’. Search results are returned for a particular keyword or phrase. The bid price is the cost of each click-through by a visitor from the advertiser’s listing to their Web site.

Pay-per-click is a descendant of the original banner advertising used on search engines, where the search query that was typed in determined the banner that was served on the results page. Within this movement there has sprouted a pay-per-click option, the most prevalent of which is Overture. In this particular search engine you may bid for a specific keyword and every time someone clicks through to your Web site, you must pay. Overture supplies PPC results to Yahoo, HotBot, Netscape, Lycos, AltaVista, Ask Jeeves, and Iwon.

About Search Engine Optimization

When the Web first started, the search engines were just informational databases that many thought had no practical business use. Now it’s THE way to spread information. All search engine listings were, at one time, free. As the Internet has grown, the more it has become a business tool, it has become very competitive.

Hundreds of thousands of Web sites are submitted for registration daily, each trying to achieve top rankings. Most search engine (spiders) and web directory companies still have a free submission to their databases, but promote a pay-per-click listing as a way to get listed faster and better. Overall this fee is still nominal in relation to traditional marketing and advertising budgets.

Gaslight Media's Recurring SEO Optimization Cycle

Use your marketing dollars wisely and get yourself found!

Gaslight Media’s Search Engine Optimization is a multi-step, inclusive process, which involves monthly comprehensive analysis of your Web site.

• Step 1: Keyword Phrase Research & Site Content
  Gaslight Media will create an optimal set of targeted keyword phrases and descriptions by researching the most popular and least competitive keywords related to your business. We will also examine the content of your Web site and suggest modifications to increase targeted traffic to your Web site. Our goal is to maximize your quality hits!
  
• Step 2: Web Site Optimization Recommendations
  Gaslight Media will optimize your Web site to fit the always-changing search engine standards. Recommendations to update the Web site structure will be made and implemented (with approved change order). Optimization recommendations can be something as simple as content changes, the inclusion of a site map, or rearranging information to gain visibility within certain search engines or directories based upon their custom algorithms.
  
• Step 3: Initial Registration Process
  This process includes verifying keyword phrases, hand submitting your index page (home page) to all the popular Web directories and search engines. The Enhanced Registration plan also includes the paid inclusions into the search engines/directories that charge to be included in their index.
  
• Step 4: Analyzing Results
  The monthly search engine maintenance program includes a complete ranking report of your Web site’s placement in the search engines along with monitoring and a review of your Web site server statistics that are compiled within Gaslight Media’s advanced statistical program. Keyword phrases that were used within the search engines are captured in a report, giving the experts at Gaslight Media a clear view of how visitors are accessing your Web site within the search engines.
  
• Step 5: Monthly Maintenance
  The experts at Gaslight Media study the results of the ranking and traffic reports to determine if the keyword phases we are targeting for are performing to their potential, or if they should be changed. Gaslight Media also hand submits your Web site on a monthly basis to the all the popular Web directories and search engines, reminding the search engines of your Web site and improving your ranking.

Which Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plan is right for you?