Question about SEO and SEO companies?

[the_sio_monster]

I am doing some SEO work for a company and I have a few questions. First, there is a company trying to get my boss to pay $11,000 for SEO work. This company says they are doing the SEO by adding links and descriptions to web pages. On one page alone, there are a bunch of links towards the end of the page and this company is telling my boss that this is the "secret" to SEO. Now, the only way I can think how this would be effective, is by actually having the key term and description linked to the page and inserted into the met tag keywords. Whatever this company is doing it works, because one of our competitors is #1 in rankings on Google, Yahoo and others for basically all of the keywords we can think of that have to do with our industry. So, my question is, do these large SEO companies have some sort of agreement with the search engines where they get precedence in the search listings? Or is it more likely to get listed higher in the listings by having the keyword on your website multiple times (what they have is multiple keywords and when you click on one, there is a web page describing the term). I am being pressured to improve our ratings without the use of an SEO company, and I am really unsure of what I can do. Would an SEO program work well for me?

I am not looking for a company to pay thousands of dollars to. I have been hired to do this and am looking for people who are not part of SEO companies to give me tips and advice.

[Michael]

To answer your primary question, No person or company has any kind of "agreement" with Google or Yahoo or MSN, or any search engine to get special treatment.

There is no "one secret" to high rankings. But understand there are two different approaches. One way (black hat) might work in the short run and (White Hat) for the long term.

The KEYS to great SEO are sometimes hard to find because they are hidden in the vast sea of BS that is everywhere on the Internet, from forums and blogs, and "systems" to wanna- be - guru's just take care in who you put your trust in or what method you buy into.

[Online H]

According to big search engines, they do not take any "bribes" for search engine ranking.

First, I would suggest you do some SEO work yourself. It's not even that hard.
What you need to do is join a SEO community to get some fresh hlp
Here is a link to one, I would suggest you join to get some SEO work done.
http://tinyurl.com/5ecprb

[Toronto SEO Geek]

Well, I am part of an SEO firm but I will give you some tips without expecting you to give me any work.

No SEO's have any special relationships with any of the big search engines, including the most important one like Google, Yahoo or MSN - In fact Googles says the following in their guidelines; "Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a "special relationship" with Google, or advertise a "priority submit" to Google. There is no priority submit for Google."

As far as doing something 'secret' it is well-known that links on relevant pages will help increase your link popularity which directly effects your SERP's (search engine rank position).

My advice to you is learn as much as you can about SEO, the basics are quite easy to grasp and if nothing else you can start doing your own SEO for your company and if you end up hiring outside help.

Here is a little plug for my own set of 10 basic SEO tips http://knol.google.com/k/jay-g/top-ten-s...r0y2e8g/2#

[Tushar]

Hi,

You are living in a myth that the rankings in the Major - 3 Search Engines, i.e. Google, Yahoo and MSN, can be purchased.

If that was the case then what SEO's would do. You primarily need to focus the websites linking to your website. Check the quality of inbound links. Gather/collect more links for your website by participating in,

Forums,
Bookmarking,
Do some Press Releases,
If your site publishes content very often the go for RSS Syndication.
Maintain a Blog.
Ask Questions.

Hope this may release your tension.