Good optimization requires constant monthly updating and monitoring

This is what most SEO companies would like you to believe because it means you will keep paying them monthly fees.  The truth is, if you optimize the site correctly and stick to the search engines rules, there is nothing more you have to do. Search engines are designed for the consumer and not the company.  What this means is, if your site is relevant to the search that the user enters, it will appear in the results.  The more relevant, the higher your site will be listed.

The only recurring fees you should ever pay is for a good link exchange program.  By good, I mean they will check to make sure every site you are linked to does not break any rules.  They will make sure the links back to your site are in a format that helps your ranking and they will monitor the program on an on-going basis.

Our link exchange program is unique because we only have sites include sites that we run or maintain.  What this means is we have total control on how your return link is displayed, the links page is indexed (there is no point sharing links with a site if the search engines don't see the links page) and we also regularly check that the site is not breaking any SEO rules.

The more links to your site the better

This is not the case.  You could have one thousand links to your site, but still have poor ranking.  Links to your site are important.  However, it's not the amount of links.  It's the quality of links.

Using flash and framed pages will result in poor page ranking

That may have been the case five years ago, but not now.  All the large search engine companies like Yahoo, Google and MSN update their web crawlers regularly to compensate for new technologies and techniques.  Google can now even scan the text of a flash site with its crawler.  We have put many flash based or framed sites in the top ten using search engine accepted techniques.

The more keywords you have on the page the better

This is true if you want to have your site barred from the search engines.  This technique is called "keyword flooding", which is frowned upon by Yahoo, Google and MSN.

Multiple domain names will give a site a better chance of showing in the Top 20

This is another method that can get your site barred.  While it is good to have your domain name be a search term, you should try to limit your domain name aliases to less than ten.

Any link exchange is good

No.  You can actually be penalized for linking to a site that uses any frowned upon method of SEO. You should only link exchange with sites that have:

1. A good ranking
2. Are relevant to the content of your site
3. That link to your site
4. That don't break any of the search engine rules

Some SEO companies work with the search engines and can guarantee top placement

Ask yourself:  Why would any search engine company that offers pay-per-click listings work with a SEO company to get websites listed in the top ten?  The truth is this is something no company can guarantee.  What they can guarantee is they will optimize your site to give it the best possible chance in the listings.  There are a lot of factors that you can't avoid.  For example, say you resell Dell computers and you want to be listed in the top ten under the search term "Dell". On Google, you are competing against 153,000,000 results, three of the top ten being Dell.  To get listed in the top ten in the search, you would need to have at least 1,000 links pointing to your site, 25% of which would need to be from a site ranked 4/10 or higher.  Your content would need to be targeted to that single search term and your site would also have to continue with a lot of pages all with unique content targeted at the said search term.  What is more feasible is to have your site appear in a more focused search, i.e., if you are based in California, you could focus your efforts to "Dell resellers California" or, if you stock a specific model, then you could use "XPS resellers California" and so on.  This way, not only are you more likely to be in the top ten, but you will also be targeting your site towards your desired customer.

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