Search Engine Optimization Scams : Avoid Getting Burned by Unethical SEO Companies
A Simpler Time...or Perhaps a More Naive Time
Remember "back
in the day" when
you received perhaps three to five emails per day? They were always
welcomed notes from friends or business related and you spent a considerable
amount of time crafting the perfect response. Spam was almost non-existent,
viruses were rare, and most people were not even thinking about their
"rankings" in search engines. There was no Google, Alta Vista
was the big boy on the block, and Yahoo was a free directory that was
supplemented by results from Inktomi. None the less, the passion and
interest in the web was very high.
Back in those days people understood that they "needed to get a website" or risk being left in dust by their competitors.
It was in this atmosphere of strong demand for web design services and general consumer ignorance about how websites were actually built and maintained, that a new industry was born. Thousands of people, armed with a few community college HTML courses and fueled by the promise of getting rich quick, could command thousands of dollars for substandard web . For a while, many of these new designers could convince naive clients to pony up a small fortune full a modest website full of poorly optimized graphics, broken links and free animated gifs and buttons.
The idea that a website should actually meet specific business goals, as in "make some money", was just in it's infancy and overshadowed by the mantra of "I need a website"
Reality Takes It's Toll and a New Monster is Born
Fortunately the Dot Com crash and the rising sophistication of the average businessperson put an end to most of this nonsense. The Johnny -Come- Latelys found something else to do and the industry matured.
Alas, history is repeating itself, only this time it's SEO. The mantra of "I gotta have a website" has been replaced with "I gotta be number one on Google". It's this demand that is currently fueling the explosion in SEO services available on the web. People of questionable talent and motives are flooding the field, making outlandish and completely false claims, and bullying clients into expensive monthly SEO maintenance programs of little value. They are counting on the public's ignorance about search engines to turn a quick buck.
For someone who's been optimizing websites for six years and had more than my share of gun shy clients who've been burned and bruised by these fly-by-night companies, it's been a bit aggravating.
It is with this in mind that I present you my list of the Top SEO Scams.
1.They state that you will continue to get top rankings as long as you continue to pay them a monthly fee.
Legitimate, proper SEO implementation is a thorough, site-wide venture involving real inbound links, great titles, and top notch page content. It cannot be taken away or held hostage for nonpayment of recurring fees. If they can take away your rankings...then it's not real SEO.
Note: Don't ever sign a contract that gives ownership of your title tags, meta tags or on page copy to anyone. It's your website and you are entitled to own all work performed on it. If an SEO company has a problem with that, then find someone else.
2. You have to become part of their "network" of sites.
This is a nice way of referring to link farms. ( what is a link farm?)
3. Failure to fully disclose and explain everything that is being done to your site.
Run away from anyone who claims it's too complicated to understand, these are trade secrets, they can't discuss their proprietary technology, or speak in quasi-mystical jargon and non-specific terms.
Note: Experienced SEO experts have a real passion and interest in their field and enjoy educating their clients about the details. They are not secretive with their clients nor worried that their clients will leave them once they understand the process to successful SEO.
4. Sells keywords that when typed into the address bar of your browser will take web searchers directly to your site.
These are either some crappy browser plugin that no one would ever install or they are connected to a spyware/malware outfit.
5. Claims you must submit your site regularly to the search engines to get top rankings.
This is completely false. Search engines find you just fine by following inbound links and re indexing a page over and over has never done anything to improve rankings.
Note: Scam SEO companies tout this feature to give the illusion of credibility to their useless automated submission programs.
6. Claims to have a "special relationship" with Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc and this allows them to guarantee you top placement or rankings.
False, Total lie. Nobody has a "special relationship" with the major search engines. They are probably reselling PPC ( Pay Per Click ) sponsored results at a considerable mark up.
7. Guarantees top 10 placements in the major search engines
If not referring to PPC campaigns, these guarantees usually only cover a handful of highly unique, low competition phrases that you'd probable do well with under any circumstances ( example: "DJ's Chicago Style Roasted Chicken" ) Or they have no intention of backing their guarantee and will simply brush you off when you complain.
Bottom line: Nobody controls the search engines, therefore, no one can guarantee specific rankings. Learn About Claytowne's Honesty in SEO Policy >
8. Will submit your site to the top 300, 500, 3,000 or 20,000 search engines and directories.
Hmmmm, let's see...MSN, Google, Yahoo, Gimpsy, Alta Vista, DMOZ, Gigablast, LookSmart...uhhh Lycos...HotBot.. hmmm, AskJeeves...the list gets pretty short very fast. These statements are just nonsense. If they actually did submit to even to even a fraction of their promised 100's of search engines and directories you can bet they are mostly FFA ( Free For All ) junk sites that you'd never want to be associated with. Also, as stated before, submitting to search engines is unnecessary.
9. Sends you unsolicited email (spam) or uses cold call telemarketing techniques to tout their services.
"Pardon me ma'am, if you don't have the latest Nike Air Jordans you may not be jumping as high as you'd like. We can help!"
This is pretty obvious. Have you ever received unsolicited junk emails or cold calls from Nike, Citibank, Toyota or any other any reputable company?
Won't happen. With spam...think scam.
Not All Monthly Fees are Scams
Monthly fees are not always scams. Legitimate reasons to pay monthly fees to an SEO company would include situations where you are regularly generating new content or new features that require the oversight of an SEO expert, managing PPC campaigns, or implementing a *link build campaign.
Other search engine marketing services that may require a monthly fee would be generating and distributing press releases, article placement and promotion, evaluating and tracking your inclusion in paid directories for best ROI (return on investment) and managing email campaigns.
Note: I reluctantly included link building as a legitimate activity. I receive link exchange requests regularly and every single one of them is completely useless at best and sometimes so off the mark that I know they didn't even look at my site. I've never responded to any of them and I don't know of any educated business person who does. None the less, theoretically, it could be a worthwhile investment if done correctly...I've just never been approached by anyone worthwhile in six years.
Buyer Beware
In conclusion, bogus monthly maintenance contracts tend to cover these areas:
1. To regularly resubmit your site to search engines (useless)
2. To tweak your code to keep up with the latest algorithm changes. Pointless...unless your rankings just got creamed because you were spamming the search engines. In that case you shouldn't be using that company anyway and find someone who won't put you at risk. Also, the search engines carefully guard their algorithms and any attempt to "game them" is at best an educated guess. If done correctly, good SEO is largely a "set it and forget it" or "if it aint broke, don't fix it" endeavor.
3. Preparing monthly ranking reports. Most likely just some automated reporst that you could easily generate or view yourself. At any rate, you should be reviewing your stats at least weekly if not daily and you can easily do this yourself by looking at your server logs (site statistics). If your hosting company doesn't provide these in any easily understandable form (awsats, wusage, etc.) then find another host. There also a wide variety of free online tools to evaluate your site. I've found that my clients really enjoy tracking their stats and will spend far more time and care in examining the nuances than some intern generating an automated report ever will.
Disclaimer: If
your are in an extremely competitive and cut throat industry and are
willing to risk anything ( your reputation, your domain, etc. )
to make temporary but huge gains in ranking and traffic then the above
advice will seam hopelessly naive and outdated. If you view your business
as nothing more than an expendable resource to quick profits
there are many high risk and sophisticated means to that end. However,
I work with above the board clients who have long term assets to build
and protect and therefore have pitched the above advice to support
their needs.
How We Improve Your Website's Rankings and Conversions and General SEO Overview >
Claytowne's
Honesty in SEO Policy >
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Today
Call 1-831-477-9029 or email Clay
Butler to start maximizing your site's potential.
Search Engine Optimization SEO Scams : Avoid Getting Burned by Unethical, Dishonest Search Engine Optimization Companies, SEO Scams and How to Spot Them
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