Phony SEO companies boasting sensational claims

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It’s well known that the Search Engine Optimization industry has a dark side. The dark side of course being the companies who boast sensational claims that give us true SEO organization’s a bad name. These companies try to sell services that are unfounded or have little to know true effect on search ranking. To many search engine marketing experts we can identify these pretty easily but to the average webmaster these sensational claims could lead them down the wrong path.

When searching for “internet marketing”, “SEO” or “boost traffic” you will come across advertisements that might say something like “10,000 unique visitors for only 12.99” or “Guaranteed top 3 ranking for $50 a month”.  As a search engine marketer there are many things in these statements that help’s me identify a phony SEO company. Firstly, the amount of traffic promised for only 12.99. Driving traffic is a very dynamic process which involves creating link bait, creating content, purchasing ad space, utilizing PPC and email and print campaigns. As you might expect all of these steps take time, development and research to build proper, targeted and long term traffic.  Another red flag in these ads is the word guaranteed. No legitimate SEO or SEM will make such a boast as there is truly no guarantee that what we do will land someone’s site in a certain position. What ethical SEO’s will tell you is that we can improve your rankings but no guarantee will be given as we do not control the search engines we “optimize” you for them.

Submission’s to search engines is a way to let the search engines know about a new site but once you are submitted ONCE you do NOT need to be resubmitted. Many phony SEO companies will claim to submit you to over 40,000 search engines for a low price per month. This is a HUGE red flag because there are simply not 40,000 search engines on the net. These outrageous claims  are usually justified by these companies using automated submission software which normally do more harm then good.

Here is a top 10 list of what to look for when considering an seo or sem company:

1.    How long has this company been around?
2.    Do they list their clientele or show results?
3.    Can you find reviews or information about the seo company?
4.    Do they have a phone number or live person to speak with?
5.    Are they sensationalizing results or guaranteeing anything?
6.    Do they have a trust worthy site design or does it look  low budget?
7.    See what the industry is saying about them
8.    Call them and ask them some questions to test their knowledge
9.    Ask for a free site evaluation and compare that with other companies cliam
10.    Doe’s the company itself have ranking and PR

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