• Washington Post, Thursday, April 27, 2006 10:46 AM

If the latest Google Dance has left you short of Google juice, or quality linkage, you may need to hire a search engine optimization firm. This little industry has sprung up in response to how major search engines are constantly tweaking their search algorithms. As many of you know, Google ranks sites based on the quantity and quality of the sites that link to it.   SEOs boost natural rankings on Google and Yahoo by optimizing Web site language for search crawlers and mining the Web for links and other little tweaks that help bring more users to your site. It's a sticky business, though, because Google does not appreciate what it calls "illegal" attempts to manipulate its search results. This Washington Post article comes from the trenches; the author spent some time with real-life search engine optimizers to try and understand what they do, what their world is like, and how they adhere to--without stepping over--the lines drawn by Google and Yahoo. 

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