Prospective Client Information - SEO Scope of Services

What we do, how we do it, our guarantee, our fees

Prospective Client Overview

Scope of services offered by ArteWorks SEO to achieve organic search engine placement

Synopsis of potential methodologies for your search engine optimization project

Search engine optimization industry overview and common challenges

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www.arteworks.biz
Local: (512) 535-2821
Fax: (512) 535-6714
E-mail: info@arteworks.biz

Mailing Address:
ArteWorks SEO
P.O. Box 1967
Austin, TX 78767

Copyright © 2007 ArteWorks.net, Inc. All rights reserved.
No portion of this document may be reproduced without express written consent from ArteWorks.net, Inc.

Contents

ABOUT ARTEWORKS SEO 3
OUR GUARANTEE 3
WHAT SETS US APART 3
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM SEO 4
SEO CHALLENGES & WHAT TO SEEK IN A FIRM 4
CLIENT REFERENCES 6
SEO MYTHS 6
SERVICES & METHODOLOGIES 8
KEYPHRASE RESEARCH AND COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE 8
“ON PAGE” CODE OPTIMIZATION 9
“OFF PAGE” OPTIMIZATION 9
SEARCH ENGINE COPYWRITING 10
BLOG AND PING 10
CONTENT SYNDICATION 10
ARTICLE DISTRIBUTION 10
SOCIAL MEDIA OPTIMIZATION 11
MANUAL LINK ACQUISITION 11
ADDITIONAL SERVICES 12
BILLING PROCEDURES 12
IN CLOSING… 12

About ArteWorks SEO

ArteWorks SEO was founded by Matt Foster in 2003, although it has existed since 1995 as a sole proprietorship. As the business grew, Mr. Foster decided to incorporate the company. Originally a web design firm (hence the name ArteWorks), Mr. Foster soon found that he had both a keen interest in search engine optimization, an innate understanding of the essential factors that drive search engine rankings and a natural ability to achieve results. The main focus of the company is now organic search engine optimization, although search engine friendly web site design and overhaul as well as other services are offered to our clients as components of a thorough search engine optimization strategy. We are proudly ranked in the top 5 search engine optimization firms in the world by TopSEOs.com. ArteWorks SEO is a Texas C Corporation duly organized under the laws of the Texas Secretary of State. Our legal name is ArteWorks.net, Inc.

Our Guarantee

As no SEO firm controls the search engines, no SEO firm can ethically guarantee any specific ranking for any specific keyphrase on a particular search engine. We at ArteWorks can and do guarantee that our client’s reasonable expectations will be met within the time frame specified if our recommendations are followed. If unsatisfied for any reason, our clients may discontinue services at any time, no questions asked.

Please refer to the next section What to Expect from SEO for a discussion of the benefits you should reasonably expect to receive from an SEO project.

What Sets Us Apart

One question we get asked often is: what sets us apart from the myriad other SEO firms out there-- We pride ourselves as being a standout in the search marketing industry. We are set apart from many other SEO firms as follows:

--We have been independently evaluated. We have been independently evaluated and ranked in the Top 5 search engine optimization firms in the world by TopSEOs.com. Here’s what people are saying:

“ArteWorks SEO has demonstrated that it is a leader in its field, showing superior service levels and performance for their clients. ArteWorks SEO is a standout amongst the many Internet marketing vendors in the $5 billion plus search marketing industry.”
--TopSEOs.com

”Search engine optimization gurus. One of the best in the world.”
--KJCE Radio, Business District Hour, May 6, 2007

--Results. The efficacy of our methodologies and techniques has been proven time and again by the results we achieve for our clients. As our techniques result in a natural increase in search engine visibility, our clients survive algorithm update after algorithm update. Selecting a firm whose methodologies are algorithm independent ensures long term success.

--Personalized attention. Our President Matthew Foster develops a personalized relationship with each client, and acts in the capacity of a project manager, serving as a liaison between clients, software engineers, copywriters, and other staff. You will not be assigned to a junior account representative and will never experience any “passing of the buck” mentality. The buck stops with Mr. Foster, and that is with whom you will be directly dealing.

--Firm and fair pricing. We do not ask our clients to write a “blank check”. A monthly budget is set and our hourly based fee structure provides certainty to your billing. In most months we work hours in excess of the amount agreed, however you are not charged for any overage, providing you with certainty and consistency in your budget. Additionally, while we will make recommendations as to your budget, each client determines their own budget for a project, so your monthly fees are always within your comfort zone.

-- No pressure, no contracts. Our services are provided month to month. If you are not happy with them for any reason we will of course do everything to make things right. If that means working extra hours to accommodate you at no extra charge then we will do it. If you are still not happy for any reason, you may quit at anytime, no questions asked.

What to Expect from SEO

At the inception of your search engine optimization project, it is important that all parties have realistic goals and expectations of each other. From the perspective of the client, reasonable expectations from an SEO investment would not include overnight success, one time “on page” optimization or guaranteed #1 placement.

Of course, we understand that our clients rightfully expect results in return for their search marketing investment. What then, is a realistic expectation-- The reasonable expectation of search engine optimization is first page placement for multiple keyphrases on major search engines. By major search engines, we mean Google, Yahoo, and MSN. We understand the factors that influence search engines’ ability to locate the most trustworthy web pages with the most relevant content to the keyphrases for which users are searching. We are so confident in our ability to deliver what we promise that we guarantee it (please see Our Guarantee above).

SEO Challenges & What to Seek in a Firm

If you have realized an interest in obtaining targeted and profitable traffic to your website and sought search engine optimization services, you have likely heard a wide variety of supposed search engine optimization strategies and techniques. There are a number of challenges with the SEO industry which can cause clients confusion and, quite possibly, harm to their business. For instance:

-- The industry is not regulated. There is little accountability or oversight.
It is therefore important to select a firm that belongs to a professional organization such as TopSEOs.com, which organization has independently evaluated the methodologies and efficacy of thousands of firms worldwide. Member firms of such professional organizations have an accountability to those organizations which is far from ubiquitous in the industry yet is highly desirable from a client perspective. Specifically, members of such organizations must follow search engine “best practices” and must adequately respond to any client concerns registered through the organization itself.

-- Ignorance of the public. Use of the word ignorance here is not to imply stupidity;
rather it means naïveté in the sense that most people simply are not familiar with the dynamic components that make a website visible and relevant to search engines. Search engine optimization is rather esoteric and can be difficult to understand when not communicated in common English terms with which the public has everyday associations and experiences. It is therefore important to select a firm which genuinely takes the time to explain to you in understandable language the types of services they will be providing and why such services are effective. Be sure that you obtain an understanding of each service, the relevancy of each element to the success of your project and why it works. Do not be afraid to ask questions. Search engine optimization is a relationship service, and its success depends on consistent communication. If you do not feel comfortable with a firm, trust your gut and move on to a more suitable firm.

-- Measurement of Deliverables. The problem of how to define deliverables
is not banal. It is important to understand what your SEO firm is actually going to accomplish for you in terms of measurable, tangible results. Be sure the firm is clear about how they gauge performance. Is it the raw number of links acquired-- Is it simply hours worked-- Is it sales-- Is it traffic-- Or is it rankings-- The proper measure of effective search engine optimization is increased search engine visibility as measured by improved search engine rankings for specific keyphrases pertinent to your organization’s target audience. Keyphrases should be diligently chosen through keyword research based on what netizens are actively searching for (as determined through keyphrase research), and not “long tail” keyphrases for which there is little or no search volume, making them easy for which to optimize.

-- Guarantee or Not-- Of course you are expecting to benefit from your investment in
search engine optimization, and would like some assurance that results will happen. However, as no SEO firm controls the search engines, no SEO firm can ethically guarantee any specific ranking for any specific keyphrase. This dichotomy between the reasonable expectations of the client and the ethical ability of the SEO firm to not make over reaching promises requires some resolution. It is important to remember that Google itself states in their “Information for Webmasters” that any SEO firm guaranteeing top ranking should be avoided.

What then, are you paying for-- It all comes down to reasonable expectations and a guarantee to meet or exceed those reasonable expectations. Please see the sections entitled Our Guarantee and What to Expect from SEO for an explanation of reasonable expectations and how we guarantee those reasonable expectations are met. Make sure to select an SEO firm which does not make over reaching promises or guarantee specific top placement, while at the same time is willing to back up their expertise with a guarantee of fulfilling your reasonable expectations.

-- SEO mythology. There are numerous myths in this field, for brief outlines
of some of the more insidious and pernicious search marketing myths please see the next section entitled SEO Myths. In your quest for successful SEO, it is important to avoid firms whose methodology for success is based upon one or more of these myths.

Client References

It is common for prospective clients to request professional references in order to protect themselves from hiring a charlatan firm, which is encouraged and recommended for any SEO firm which is not a part of a professional organization that has independently evaluated that firm. Due to the large number of inquiries we receive, to protect the privacy of our clients ArteWorks SEO does not disclose client contact information.

We refer requests for references to TopSEOs.com, an organization which has independently evaluated over 1,600 search marketing firms and ranked ArteWorks SEO as one of the top 5 in the world. TopSEOs requires a rigorous evaluation and ranking procedure including production of client lists, with whom they then telephone and conduct an in-depth interview. The evaluation of firms is based on the results of client interviews, client satisfaction, pricing, keyphrase difficulty, efficacy of methodologies and techniques, resolution of problems, search engine “best practices” and other factors.

Please visit www.TopSEOs.com for the detailed evaluation criteria used to rank ArteWorks SEO and other firms, or to view the current rankings of search engine optimization firms.

SEO Myths

Perhaps the greatest problem with the field of search engine optimization is that it abounds in mythology, which creates confusion amongst the consuming public. You have likely heard contradicting information if you have been shopping for search marketing services. It is important to avoid hiring a firm whose methodology is based upon any of these myths:

-- “We will submit your site to 10,000 search engines.” Who cares-- The only search
engines that matter are Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Get your site listed in those, and you are looking at a significant increase in targeted traffic to your site. Submitting your site to 10,000 search engines does nothing for you in the way of improving your placement on the “Big 3.” You might as well throw your money away.

-- “We will submit your site to major search engines each month.” Repeated submissions to the search engines is not only unnecessary (as they are more than capable of crawling your site without your help), but also are a violation of the Terms of Inclusion of major search engines as it eats up their bandwidth. Violating the Terms of Inclusion of search engines can get you gray listed or banned. Don’t be tricked by services that promise the monthly submissions will be “by hand” or “manually.” It is still a repeated submission and should be avoided.

-- “We’ll get you 5,000 (or more) links in 30 days.” What a farce! There are multiple problems with this methodology. First and foremost, beneficial link popularity is not about the raw number of links pointing to your site, it is about the quality of the links. A quality link is a natural link from a relevant, trusted, authority site, and is a one way inbound link (not reciprocated) to fresh, unique, informative and educational content resident on your site.

Avoid link exchange schemes, link triangles, link farms, and reciprocal linking schemes. You can get penalized or banned for linking to sites with which you are not familiar (i.e. if they come from a “bad neighborhood”). It is imperative that you maintain control over your outbound links, as much as it is that your inbound links are of high quality. Additionally, a mass number of links acquired in a short time period can generate a search engine flag, and such mass-obtained links are typically “not counted,” meaning you have paid for nothing - at least nothing of any benefit to you.

-- “Guaranteed #1 on Google.” Avoid this promise like the plague. No firm canethically guarantee you first position on any search engine. They may engage in black hat techniques which get you to the top quickly then get you penalized or banned, or they may optimize for some “long tail” keyphrase for which there is no search volume. You want steady results that stand the test of time, not short term, one time success.

-- “We’ll optimize your home page and (x) number of additional pages” This is one of
the more notorious myths in the field, specifically that “on page” optimization (such as the pernicious and insidious “Meta tag” optimization) is sufficient to get you to the top. Now stop and think about this – if it were merely a matter of inserting some code or Meta tags, couldn’t anyone easily get to the top-- The reality is that there is only room for one at the top, and “on page” code optimization, while definitely laying a foundation for success, is only one of over 200 factors considered by the search engines. Without fresh content and quality back linkage, you will not fare well in the search engines.

-- “Full site optimization for $2000.00 (or any set, one time, fee)” – Search engine optimization is not a one shot deal. Effective SEO requires ongoing maintenance for a period of at least six months, usually nine to twelve months, and in certain situations such as extremely competitive or large numbers of keyphrases, the process is ongoing and should be considered as business overhead. You can’t get to the top with a one time expenditure and be done with it. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

-- “Our package Y is perfect for your company” This is also known as the choose from the menu approach. Search engine optimization is a professional service involving numerous contributing variables; it is not an “off the shelf” product, despite the fact that many attempt to sell it as such. The “one size fits all” approach may cover basics but is likely not sufficient for your needs. A well developed search engine strategy is custom tailored to your business, your industry, your competition, your budget, and other factors. The Henry Ford philosophy doesn’t work well with search engine optimization (Mr. Ford, while a model entrepreneur and innovator, once famously commented that “You can have any color of Model T that you would like, so long as it is black”).

-- “The higher the Page Rank, the better a site does in the search engines” The concept of Google Page Rank is completely misunderstood. The displayed toolbar Page Rank of a site is not its real Google Page Rank, which remains a secret. In fact, Page Rank doesn’t even mean the “rank of a page” – it is named after Larry Page, one of the founders of Google, and is loosely based on some of the factors in his original algorithm created while a student at Stanford. Focusing on Page Rank as a measure of success is entirely inappropriate – would you rather have a high Page Rank, or would you rather be at the top of Google for your desired keyphrases-- Toolbar Page Rank has nothing to do with search rankings and knowledgeable SEO professionals completely ignore it. To prove this, do a search for any term you would like on Google, and look at the results. You will see that they are not ordered in terms of descending toolbar Page Rank. Additionally, if Page Rank were all that mattered, sites like Wikipedia and even Google itself would be at the top of every search, no matter what the search query! Hence it becomes obvious that what matters for search engine rankings is not Page Rank but rather relevance to any given search query.

Services & Methodologies

In this section we will outline some of the major components that are often incorporated into our clients’ natural search marketing strategies. It is important to remember that search engine optimization is a professional service, and as such each client’s needs are unique. Therefore, an individually tailored strategy to meet the needs of each client will be developed, taking into account the dynamics and parameters of the client’s industry, competition, keyphrases, budget, needs and other factors. As such, all services herein may not be performed for all clients, and additional services not contained herein may also be performed.

-- Keyphrase Research and Competitive Intelligence
This is the absolutely critical first step in any quality SEO project. This step, if either ignored or done incorrectly, often results in clients spending thousands of dollars optimizing for either irrelevant phrases (that will not drive targeted traffic), or keyphrases with little or no search volume (little or no potential traffic). It is absolutely imperative that this aspect of the project be completed by qualified, experienced experts in the field.

We will conduct keyphrase research so as to determine the ideal keyphrases for which to optimize for your business. Keyphrase research will include ascertaining a variety of keyphrases for which there is a high search volume, satisfactory KEI (keyphrase effectiveness index), and which are relevant to your target audience. After all, search engine optimization is not about raw traffic, but rather targeted traffic which will result in conversions. The results of the keyphrase research are then presented to the client for his or her approval – we will not just cherry pick the “easy” unpopular keyphrases, everything is done with your full knowledge and consent.

Some clients choose to pick their own keyphrases or have already done their own keyphrase research. It can be dangerous to rely upon a client’s perception of what their target keyphrases should be, therefore in such situations we are happy to accommodate our client’s requests however we will verify the ROI potential for the suggested keyphrases and discuss the results with our clients prior to proceeding with a project.

Following completion of the keyphrase research we conduct in depth competitive intelligence. Again, this is crucial and a custom SEO strategy cannot be developed without it. In this phase, we will look at the competition for the desired keyphrases, study their sites, back linkage, and other factors so that we fully understand why these guys are ahead of you. Armed with this knowledge, we hone in on the best strategy for your success. Simply put, we find out what your competition is doing, and we do it better.

-- “On Page” Code Optimization
On page code optimization is search engine optimization in the traditional sense. Many people think of SEO as being all about Meta tags, without really knowing what Meta tags are or how they are viewed by the search engines. On page code optimization involves two primary areas of interest: search engine friendliness and search engine relevancy.

Search engine friendliness involves making sure the engines can both find all of your pages as well as crawl their contents. Many dynamically-driven sites may have problems in this area, especially e-commerce sites. Major areas of concern include Google-compliant xml sitemaps, use of Flash, dynamic URLs, drop down or image-swap navigation and the use of session IDs.

Search engine relevance means making each page as relevant to the search engines as possible for the specific contents of that page. Therefore, each page should be individually optimized for its specific content. It would be an egregious error to assume that search engine relevance is about Meta tags. In fact, metadata has little to no import as to search engine rankings due to historical spamming of these elements, which are easily manipulated. “Meta tag optimization” is an absolute farce.

ArteWorks SEO can either correct these problems on your behalf or serve in a consulting capacity to your existing webmaster or IT team so as to make sure that major areas of interest or concern are addressed. In many cases web sites utilize a proprietary e-commerce system or CMS, to which the hosting company or system provider will not allow root level server access or code modifications. In this case, we can take care of major on page elements through your CMS, and still achieve desirable results through aggressive off page optimization.

-- “Off Page” Optimization
Off page search engine optimization is about one thing: building links. Truly benefiting from link building requires natural, quality, one way, inbound links from relevant, trusted, authority sites to useful, original, fresh, informative and educational content on your site. The first step, then, would be the generation of said content. This is known as search engine copywriting.

-- Search Engine Copywriting
Search engine copywriting may not be what you think. Copywriting is not about repeating keyphrases over and over on a web page or keyphrase density (which is yet another search engine myth). Copywriting is about developing rich, fresh, quality content on a regular basis – content to which people will want to naturally link. Such content is exactly what Google and the others are looking for – natural links to rich, fresh content.

We create content in the form of articles – educational, informative, useful articles – that are relevant to your industry or field. The goal here is not to create sales or marketing copy – what we want to do is to generate articles with as much breadth as possible across the widest audience possible. The reason is that these articles are going to be distributed and republished by third party web sites across the Internet, so making them as general as possible ensures the widest redistribution. Our expert copywriters will create fresh content on a regular basis, which is targeted to specific keyphrases and written for search engines.

Each article is published with embedded anchor text links to your web site, with the anchor text of each link containing pertinent keyphrases. Keyphrase embedded links are important as Google looks at not only the links and content of the pages containing links, but also the anchor text of the link itself to ascertain the relevancy of your site to any given search term. Each article is written by one of our expert search engine copywriters and posted onto our client group hub for your review prior to distribution.

-- Blog and Ping
At the beginning of your project, a weblog will be installed on your server. After each article is written, we will post it in your weblog. We then ping all of the major blog directories to let them know that fresh content has been posted on your site. The directories then recrawl your weblog and update their listings with your most recent content. While we manually ping several dozen directories, some examples with which you may be familiar include My Yahoo! and Technorati.

-- Content Syndication
Additionally, we ensure that your fresh content is distributed via RSS and XML news feeds. Your blog will be installed with outbound RSS/XML newsfeeds (in both Atom 1.0 and RSS 2.0 format) so that people can easily subscribe to your blog and either read it in their feed reader software application or better yet post your fresh content in real time on their web site via RSS to HTML conversion applications. Of course, your feed comes with live anchor text links to further propagate your site’s natural link popularity across the web.

-- Article Distribution
Each article is then manually submitted to over two dozen article directories. These directories are distribution channels similar to press release distribution channels. Articles on these sites are available for free republication providing anchor text links embedded within the articles remain intact and do not contain the rel=”nofollow” attribute. Your fresh content is then picked up by third party web sites hungry for content, each republication containing anchor text links with your keyphrases in the anchor text, the links of course pointing to your web site. As generally speaking only sites in related fields or industries would be interested in your content (as it is industry or field specific), the links obtained via this methodology are from reputable, related sites within your field, major factors in adjudging link quality.

Furthermore, articles posted to these sites get republished in newsletters that are sent to thousands or tens of thousands of opt in individuals, and while such republication has no effect on search engine optimization, it without a doubt generates residual traffic to your site, which is always a good thing and carries with it benefits of its own.

-- Social Media Optimization
Everyone is always searching for the “next big thing” in SEO. We, along with other experts in the field, believe this to be social media, viral marketing and vertical search. Not many people are familiar with these terms, yet they are increasingly powerful tools in search engine marketing. Social media optimization is a form of viral marketing which generates high quality links (which benefit search engine placement) with the rather pleasant side effect of generating a “buzz” about your site pushed by residual link traffic. Viral marketing, if you are not familiar with the term, is a fancy way of saying “word of mouth”.

Social media sites which we target are also known as social bookmarking sites. Imagine your Favorites folder on your computer, which contains links to all of your favorite or frequently visited sites. Now imagine making this folder public. This is what social bookmarking is – simply bookmarking relevant web pages in a public forum for all the world to see. Social bookmarking is an extremely powerful and effective method of both driving traffic and increasing search rankings. Not many SEO firms currently utilize this technique (in fact many SEO firms are still stuck in the 1990s doing nothing more than meta tag optimization!).

Each article in your weblog is bookmarked to approximately three dozen major social media sites, a couple with which you may be familiar include Digg and del.icio.us.

People use these sites to search other people’s bookmarks. They can then bookmark your site themselves – and the more bookmarks a site receives the better. This is the viral marketing aspect of this phase – we tell the world about your site via social bookmarking, others see it, like it, and spread the word, and so on and so forth. It works. It works well.

-- Manual Link Acquisition
Manual link acquisition is typically sold as a separate service as it is performed by a senior member of our staff. This service requires much experience as one way manual links are difficult to obtain. Links obtained in this manner would include links from such authority sites as Wikis and About.com, as well as vertical search machines (topic-specific or niche-specific search engines – examples might include WebMD or FindLaw). As this service is labor intensive and is manually performed by senior staff, it is billed as a separate service at a separate billing rate.

This form of link building is highly effective when combined with the other services described in this section, but generally should not be attempted on its own (i.e. without the services previously described). Therefore it is a wonderful “add on” to any SEO project, but is not typically offered as a “stand alone” service.

Additional Services

ArteWorks SEO offers a number of additional services ancillary to our primary business of search engine optimization:

-- Search engine friendly web site design
-- Search engine friendly e-commerce (please visit www.primecart.com for more
information)
-- Pay-per-click campaign management
-- Application development and more

Please contact us for specific information regarding any of these additional services.

Billing Procedures

Billing is typically handled via monthly retainer paid in advance. Our current billing rates are $175 per hour for all services except for manual link acquisition, which is billed at $300 per hour. We accept MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover, and PayPal payments as well as check or money order via “snail mail.”

In Closing…

We have attempted to provide a fairly exhaustive overview of the services and methodologies which we will perform to achieve your search engine visibility goals. Our team of SEO professionals is ready to begin immediately on your project. Please feel free to contact our President Matthew Foster personally with any questions, or to begin your project. Mr. Foster is available at the telephone numbers provided at the bottom of each page of this document, as well as via direct email to matt@ArteWorks.biz.

We sincerely appreciate your consideration and interest in ArteWorks SEO and we look forward to a lasting and successful professional relationship with your company.

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