If you sent your kid to school and he came home saying that he wasn't the coolest kid, what would you do? You could dress him better, send him back and see what happens. Not working? Get him a better
haircut, send him back and smile at your great parenting. Still not working? Hey, some things were never meant to be. This process of making your kid more hip and cool is kind like the way businesses
with Web sites that need to be on the top of Google search pages approach optimization. Your site is the kid, but besides how dapper you dress it, Google analyzes 197 more characteristics that help
rank it on its search pages. In other words, when you create a site, it has to be optimized so Google can give it a cool-kid sticker (though having a sticker on your shirt was never cool).
But
how do you know what the other 197 characteristics are and what you can do to appeal to Google? A software company called IBP 10 (Internet Business Promoter 10) claims that within 10 minutes it can
analyze a site and compare the search term you would like to be listed for against the current top 10 pages for the search term. So they like the number 10.
In the report of its analysis, the
company tells you where your page ranks and what you can do to optimize it. Maybe there is hope for your kid yet.
It's almost as if I could scan a picture of myself into a computer and get a
report back to where I rank and what I need to do to get a date with Anna Faris. Well, almost. Not convinced? The company that makes IBP 10, Axandra, offers a money-back guarantee if your site does
not appear in Google's top 10 rankings for the selected search term.
Bold? Here's what that guarantee means: You have one year from time of purchase to get your money back and must wait at
least three months from the time you optimize your site as per IBP's report to see if your site ranks within the top 10 results on Google for the search term you requested. A company rep has said that
they've had some 30-day refunds from people who weren't able to edit their sites, but wouldn't elaborate further.
There are two versions of IBP 10, a standard selling for $249.95 and a
business version selling for $449.95. The important difference between the two versions is the tricked-out version supports an unlimited amount of projects (reports by Web site) and has no references
to the software being used (in case you were a Web firm or consultant generating reports for clients) while the standard version supports up to five projects and contains references to IBP 10 being
used as the report generator.
Still, basically the company tells you what you need to do to be Jordan, but the gym time is all on you.