I've been on a seesaw for the last year. I have a client who, for almost 12 months, has been asking me to rewrite their home-page copy because they dropped from the top 10 to position #11 (the dreaded second page!). My question to her was always, "Is your copy still converting the way you want it to?" She answered yes every time, to which I advised, "Leave the copy alone."

Before outsourcing work to a search engine optimization company and signing a contract, there are a few things you need to consider. Evaluating who has control to certain elements of the site, staying aware of code limitations, and keeping track of your own time can save you both money and resources in the long run and can help you reach your goals much faster.

How Google views your site does matter if you want to succeed online because Google has become the dominant search engine on the web. It now has over 60% of the U.S. search engine market. In other countries around the world that percentage rises to 80% or more. In addition, the Google Brand Name has solidly permeated the popular psyche and any top rankings within Google will bring much weight and prestige along with all that traffic.

2 Domains, 1 Website

Dear Jill,

I have a client who has 2 domain names: namehere.com and differentnamehere.us pointing at the same IP address. Is it bad SEO to have multiple domain names for the same site? And will this negatively impact search engine results for each?

It happens more frequently than you might think. People spend a lot of time and money getting their sites ranked highly in the search engines, but give little or no attention to converting their visitors into paying customers. What's their logic? From what copywriting prospects tell me, "I wanted to get my rankings in place before working on my conversions."

What is Universal Search and Why Should You Care?

Universal Search combines all the information within its Vertical engines/databases into one index to serve a single set of SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

When the local search feature was introduced about a year ago, companies were excited to take advantage of these tools to enhance local or regional business, but have since begun to wonder about its usefulness. However, local search engine optimization has benefitted many businesses who wish to draw consumers to their doors by emphasizing the fact that they have a local address and can provide more direct, specialized assistance.

In Part 1 and Part 2 of How to Optimize for Google I discussed general website optimization, links, and Google webmaster tools. In Part 3 we will look at a number of other considerations which play a role in successful rankings in Google, and also touch on some tactics which are best avoided.

After twelve years on the scene, the Ask.com search engine is trying to stand its ground. Over its years as one of the top Internet search engines, Ask.com has shown continuous innovation in search. Two of the Internet’s big contenders -- Yahoo! and Google -- are in a race to be the best, and Ask.com has struggled to keep abreast of their movements. The future of the company ultimately depends on Ask.com finding a niche or a suitable direction.

Optimizing for top Google rankings includes a number of factors. In Part 1 of 3 we discussed onsite optimization. In Part 2 we will touch on incoming links as well as using Google Webmaster Tools.