At this stage, we have done all we can do to effectively market your website on the Internet. Lets be honest, real search engine optimisation is not just about gaining a high ranking in the search engines, its about gaining a substantial foothold on the World Wide Web as a whole. Everywhere a person clicks within a relevant niche, you want to be seen, that's the ultimate goal. Search engine optimisation is one aspect of a total Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaign.
Honestly, every good campaign is limited overall by the marketing budget. The difference is where you spend that budget to achieve your marketing goals. As I said earlier, most websites will only ever require a full optimisation service to have traffic delivered from the search engines only. For those who want to be as large as they can be, require a larger presence, and are not satisfied with just being found in the search engines, then push your marketing potential to the outer limits with a complete regional or global marketing solution.
My recommendation to anyone who is looking to employ SEO / SEM services, ensure they have the goods to deliver what they say. Don't be fooled by scams, don't go against the search engines policies, don't be tricked into believing emails spammed to your inbox, and the list goes on. Think for yourself, ask many SEO's instead of just one and don't necessarily go to the cheapest or think your website will be marketed for $99.95 a month.
Many SEO's provide useful services for website owners, from writing copy to giving advice on site architecture and helping to find relevant directories to which a site can be submitted. However, there are a few unethical SEO's who have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to unfairly manipulate search engine results.
While Google does not have relationships with any SEO's and does not offer recommendations, we do have a few tips that may help you distinguish between an SEO that will improve your site and one that will only improve your chances of being dropped from search engine results altogether.
Be wary of SEO firms that send you email out of the blue.
Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:
"Dear google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most
of the major search engines and directories..."
Reserve the same scepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for "burn fat at night" diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.
If you feel you were deceived by an SEO in some way, you may want to report it.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) handles complaints about
deceptive or unfair business practices. To file a complaint, visit:
http://www.ftc.gov/ and click on "File a Complaint Online", call
1-877-FTC-HELP, or write to:
Federal Trade Commission
CRC-240
Washington, D.C. 20580
If your complaint is against a company in another country, please file it at http://www.econsumer.gov/.
Copyright © 2004 - 2005 anthonyparsons.com
No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
Beware of SEO's that claim to guarantee rankings, or that claim a "special relationship" with Google, or that claim to have a "priority submit" to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is by using the page at http://www.google.com/addurl.html. You can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.
Be careful if a company is secretive or won't clearly explain what they intend to do.
Ask for explanations if something is unclear. If an SEO creates
deceptive or misleading content on your behalf, such as doorway
pages or "throwaway" domains, your site could [Pullout:No one can guarantee a #1
ranking on Google.]be removed entirely from Google's
index. Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any
companies you hire, so it's best to be sure you know exactly how
they intend to "help" you.
Avoid SEO's that talk about the power of "free-for-all" links, link popularity schemes, or submitting your site to thousands of search engines. These are typically useless exercises that do not affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines. At least, not in a way you would likely consider to be positive.
Some SEO's may try to sell you the ability to type keywords
directly into the browser address bar. Most such proposals require
users to install extra software, and very few users do so. Evaluate
such proposals with extreme care and be sceptical about the
self-reported number of users who have downloaded the required
applications.
Choose wisely
While you consider whether to go with an SEO, you may want to do some research on the industry. Google is one way to do that of course. You might also seek out a few of the cautionary tales that have appeared in the press, including this article on one particularly aggressive SEO:
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/07/01/spyware_inc/index.html While Google does not comment on specific companies, we have encountered firms calling themselves SEO's who follow practices that are clearly beyond the pale of accepted business behaviour. Be careful.
What are the most common abuses a website owner is likely to
encounter?
One common scam is the creation of "shadow" domains that funnel
users to a site by using deceptive redirects. These shadow domains
often will be owned by the SEO who claims to be working on a
client's behalf. However, if the relationship sours, the SEO may
point the domain to a different site, or even to a competitor's
domain. If that happens, the client has paid to develop a competing
site owned entirely by the SEO.
Another illicit practice is to place "doorway" pages loaded with keywords on the client's site somewhere. The SEO promises this will make the page more relevant for more queries. This is inherently false since individual pages are rarely relevant for a wide range of keywords. More insidious however, is that these doorway pages often contain hidden links to the SEO's other clients as well. Such doorway pages drain away the link popularity of a site and route it to the SEO and its other clients, which may include sites with unsavory or illegal content.
What are some other things to look out for?
There are a few warning signs you may be dealing with a rogue SEO.
It's far from a comprehensive list, so if you have any doubts, you
should trust your instincts. By all means, feel free to walk away
if the SEO:
# owns shadow domains
# puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
# offers to sell keywords in the address bar
# doesn't distinguish between actual search results and ads that
appear in search results
# guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you
would get anyway
# operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info
# gets traffic from "fake" search engines, spyware, or
scumware
# has had domains removed from Google's index or is not itself
listed in Google
Source: Google Information for Webmasters
