Re: Coastal Sites

From: Read Vanderbilt <rvanderbilt_at_bgrove.com>
Date: Wed 06 Oct 1999 16:36:20 -0700

HAVAH HOPE WROTE:
>Has anyone heard of Coastal Sites in N.C. They claim they
>can get the major search engines except Yahoo to change the
>ranking of a site on the results page when a key word search
>is done.

This message follows up on the October 22 posed by Havah
Hope, who asked about a search engine optimization service
called Coastal Sites. (I apologize for the delay -- I was
away from email for two weeks while moving across country.)

We have had one experience with search optimization
services, with a company we have hired named Did It, who
creates pass-through window pages based on selected keyword
phrases. Although we are generating well focused hits via
Alta Vista, MSN, and Yahoo-Inktomi, I am not thrilled with
the service for three reasons:

(1) after 8 weeks they have been unable to become listed
with many of the major engines, including Excite, Lycos,
and Infoseek. Is that common, or are other services better?

(2) I fear that their technique of creating window pages
might backfire as search engines counterattack these games.
A worst case scenario:could our base domain (the site to
which the window pages link) be blackballed by Infoseek or
others because we have hired an optimizing service?

(3) I agree with Jim Reardon that most optimizing services
engage in practices that at best are deceptive, and at worst
are immoral.

To help us improve our positioning, I will welcome advice
regarding:

1. Software packages, services, and other ways
that help us to improve our site's search engine and
directory visibility (we haven't used any of them yet).
There are a zillion of these, out there, so it is difficult
to differentiate and select a good one.

2. Companies that help achieve prominent search engine
rankings in a superior manner, either because they deliver
better results than their competitors, or because they use
methods that are less aggressive or spam-like than their
competitors.

Read Vanderbilt

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Received on Wed Oct 06 1999 - 18:36:20 CDT