Search Engine Optimization
There are a lot of SEO companies who promise all manner of results,
many of which are just not possible. So how do you tell which can and
which can't? Read the article below by guest columist Jill Whalen,
a highly regarded SEO expert on what to look (and listen) out for.
By Jill Whalen
There are so many SEO/SEM firms cropping up that talk a good game
but don't deliver results. This is in part because there's so much
information that is freely available about search engine optimization.
On the surface, SEO sounds easy -- and it really is -- once you've
had a number of sites to experiment with. What's even easier than SEO,
however, is discussing SEO as if you know what you're actually doing
(when you don’t)!
Here are 10 signs to watch out for that may very well indicate that
your potential SEO is a quack. Please note that one of these individually
may not be bad, but if you notice more than 2 or 3 of these when speaking
with any SEO company, you may just want to head for the hills!
1. Your SEO company talks about Meta tags and Google PageRank (PR)
as if they are the magic bullet to high rankings.
For the most part, there's no reason to even bring up the keyword
Meta tag nor toolbar PR in a discussion about what needs to be done
to get better search engine exposure for your site. Both of them are
issues that quack SEO companies will talk about because they actually
believe they are the key
to SEO success. They are not. I've discussed in previous articles the
Meta
keyword tag’s lack of importance, so I won't go into that again
here. In regards to PageRank, increasing the little green bar graph's
number should never be the ultimate goal of a professional SEO campaign.
A good campaign will automatically increase your real and true PageRank
(as measured by
Google) without your specifically setting out to increasing it on your
own.
Since PR doesn't bring you traffic and sales (nor rankings), increasing
it should not ever be the main goal of your campaign. This fact is
of course lost on SEO quacks.
2. Your SEO company's site (or those of their clients) has the same
Title tags on every page. Sounds crazy I know, but I've seen this more
than once!
I once got a client who had previously used a very major SEO company
that most people have heard of. They had been with this firm for a
whole year, and yet the Title tags on every page of their site were
all the same (the name of the company). Since Title tags are probably
the most important (and
easiest) thing to change on a site, any SEO company that can't do this
one basic thing for their own site or their clients’ is most
definitely a quack!
3. Your SEO company talks only about optimizing for the "long
tail." Now, don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with long-tail
keyword phrases, as they can bring a lot of traffic when all is said
and done. But you don't need an SEO company if those are the only phrases
you're interested in -- you can do it yourself just by writing articles.
Your SEO company should not be afraid to optimize for the actual keyword
phrases that most people would use at the engines to find your site.
Yeah, it's gonna take time and money to go after the most competitive
keyphrases, but there's usually a happy medium. Most sites have plenty
of phrases that are somewhere between long tail and highly competitive.
Those are the ones you definitely want to target.
4. Your SEO company tells you it's ALL about links (or ALL about content).
SEO isn't ALL about anything. It's about lots of things all added together
to make the perfect combination for your site. A linking campaign
alone
will never be as effective if you neglect your on-page content, and
vice versa. Be sure that your SEO company looks at your site from all
angles and
makes sure all your bases are covered. Otherwise, they're probably
a quack!
5. Your SEO company tells you that you need a linking campaign even
though you already have tons of links and are a well-established popular
site in
your niche. Not every site needs every SEO service out there. Just
because
your SEO company likes to sell link-building doesn't mean you actually
need it for your site. Why should you pay for something you don't need?
The same thing goes for sites that already have great, well-written,
optimized content. If you've got that, perhaps you just need a linking
campaign to help boost your traffic and sales. Don't allow an SEO quack
to fix what isn't actually broken.
6. Your SEO company is almost surely 99% quackish if they tell you
that they can rank your brand-new site in Google for keywords that
will bring you traffic within a few months. In fact, if they claim
they can do it in less than 9 months, they’re either inexperienced
or lying. Google has an aging delay that is most certainly related
to the age of the site, as well as a certain trust factor. It is only
the very rare and wonderful site that can
get around this delay. But if your site is like most, you're going
to have
to look to the long term for your Google results, regardless of what
the quacks might try to convince you of.
7. Your SEO company never mentions that they may very well need to
redo your site architecture so that your important pages are prominently
featured within your site navigation. In this case it's very possible
you're dealing with an inexperienced, quack SEO. This is usually something
that is not a quick fix, so most quacks are reluctant to discuss it
with you (if they even know it's important). But if your site architecture
is not search-engine-ready, everything else you do will have much less
impact.
8. Your SEO company can't provide you with any quality references.
This one pretty much goes without saying, but do be sure to get references,
and do be sure to actually call them. Yeah, a reference may very well
turn out to be their cousin, but you should be able to get some feel
for the company you're choosing if you can at least talk to some references.
9. Your SEO company tells you that you have to have a DMOZ listing
or your site will never be able to get high rankings. Sure, a DMOZ
listing is great, but it's a link just like any other. Submit and forget
about it. If you don't get in, it's no big deal -- there are plenty
of other links you can get instead.
10. Your SEO company's site mentions that they'll get you high rankings
in AltaVista, Fast, Inktomi, Lycos, Excite, HotBot and the like. If
it does, you are 100% positively dealing with a quack! 'Nuff said!
Jill Whalen of High Rankings® is an internationally recognized
search engine optimization consultant and host of the free weekly High
Rankings® Advisor search engine marketing newsletter. Jill's handbook, "The
Nitty-gritty of Writing for the Search Engines" teaches business
owners how and where to place relevant keyword phrases on their Web
sites so that they make sense to users and gain high rankings in the
major search engines.
Jill specializes in search engine optimization, SEO consultations,
site analysis reports, SEM seminars and is the co-founder of Search
Engine Marketing New England (SEMNE) a local networking organization.
