The days when you could jump back in the race any time, run a few hot tricks, and watch your rankings zoom within minutes are over. Tricks are out, and so are fast results from changes you make in your pay per click or "organic" web marketing program.

You wouldn't know this from reading advertising by companies eager to win your business. "We absolutely guarantee Top 10 ranking," says one business. Another promises "10,000 hits for only $7.88." At one site you can purchase a one-size-fits-all "PromoPack," and another offers a free online course to introduce you to "free and low-cost tips, tricks, and tools" to promote your site.

The mechanism all companies offer to propel your site to the top of the rankings is getting your site noticed, or "registered," with key search engines. The more times you are registered, the logic goes, the more people will see your web site. An example is a company promising a software tool with a guarantee that your web site will be registered with hundreds of search engines and directories.

This is a hollow promise from the starting gate because there are not more than a dozen search engines or portals that really matter in your web marketing efforts. Another hitch in the hype is that most search engines ask you to pay a fee for preferential listing. Anyone offering to submit your site to hundreds — or thousands — of search engines for free or nearly so is probably doing nothing more than attaching your website to an email and sending it to hundreds of addresses. Not a recommended route to web marketing success.

The good news is this: Yes, it is possible to achieve a good positioning in the "natural" or "organic" search engines and portals. Possible, but not easy. And not cheap. Call us when you're ready.

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