This is a warning to all business owners that don’t know anything about the Internet other than that it is were you get your email and porn from.
Self-titled Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Experts are popping up all over the place like Snake Oil Salesmen in the days of Wyatt Earp. These guys will try to sell you on the fact that you NEED to be on the first page of Google and if you’re not, you’ve wasted all your money and could be out of business within the year since you will NEVER be found without their services.
These guys and gals will use their mystic skills of OPTIMIZATION to make your website look more attractive to Google and the other search engines in order for your website to show up on top of every other person’s website when someone searches for your products or services.
Even better yet, if you sign up for a long term monthly Optimization Service Schedule, they will keep your website on top for as long you keep cutting them a check.
Some will even, for a moderate (or extremely large) monthly fee, let YOU do your OWN website optimization with their special high-tech, mystical website optimization software.
I ‘ve even heard that with some of these magical services, little elves will come out at night while you’re sleeping and fix your shoes.
Every Self Proclaimed SEO Expert Should Be Livid By This Point
Obviously, this article is not being written for people in the biz, it is straight advice for business owners that don’t know anything about this stuff. I’ll try not to get too technical and I will definitely try to keep it moving since explaining SEO to someone who doesn’t have a clue is about as entertaining as having to sit through The Notebook with my wife and daughters.
To start out, there are legit companies out there that will help your search engine ranking increase. There are proven practices that actually work. But, there are also a ton of a-hole, scum bags out there that talk a good game and then will proceed to screw you out of every cent you have with minimal (if you are lucky) or zero results. The problem most of you small business owners will encounter is that you have no idea how to differentiate between the pros and jerk-offs. So later on I’m going to give you a list of things to look out for when researching SEO companies.
What in the Hell is SEO and Why Do I Care?
If you’ve made is this far and still have no friggin idea what in the hell I’m writing about here is an explanation from Winkipedia and since everything on Winkipedia is true well accept this as the truth.
‘Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results, or the higher it “ranks,” the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.’
There you go, very technical, nerdy and thorough. Very thorough. (Just a side note, whenever I can drop a reference from The Big Lebowski into an article I will, see if you can find them in future stuff.)
Hey Man Don’t Drink the Kool Aid
Shhhhh – I have a secret – just don’t let anyone in the SEO business hear us. Having your website appear on the first page of a Google search isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. There you go. I said it, even though I’ll probably lose my key to the executive bathroom now.
Don’t let fear based marketing convince you that you need to be on the first page of a search engine result. Would it be nice? Of course it would. Will it help with people being able to find you online. In theory it should, but there are plenty of other ways your website can be found online beyond just search engines. I know the owners of several online companies with tore-up, non-validating, piece of sh!t websites that do plenty of business. They get their traffic through pay-per-click, social networking, You Tube videos and other viral marketing techniques. They could care less about search engine placement because their particular metrics show that the money they would have to spend to “optimize” their crappy websites isn’t worth the cost to get an extra 10, 20 or whatever visitors they could possibly gain per month. Search engine placement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and if you have a limited budget I suggest looking into other options as well as SEO and then weigh the benefits-to-cost for your particular business. Proper SEO should be part of an overall Internet strategy but not the sole thing you drop all your money into.
Things About SEO For The Small Business Owner, That If You Know Them, You’re Chances Of Getting Screwed Dramatically Decrease List
- Take responsibility: just like real life, if you get screwed it’s usually your own damn fault. You can’t blame it on being drunk or, in this case, uninformed.
- Educate yourself: If you don’t know anything about computers or the Internet then talk to someone who does. How can you go through all the bids and make an informed decision if you don’t have any idea what you’re reading.
- Don’t let the guy trying to sell you his service be your only source of information: If you don’t know anything about this stuff and you let the guy trying to sell you his SEO services educate you on SEO then you’re an idiot. Get a second, third, fourth or fifth opinion.
- Search for SEO info on the Internet: It’s free info and will maybe shine some light on the topic for you.
- Ask the person trying to sell you the SEO service to explain exactly what it is they will be doing: If they can’t answer the question in plain English (or whatever language you speak) without getting overly technical and nerdy (so you can understand it) then run for the hills. Many of the guys out there that aren’t legit don’t even understand the service they are trying to sell.
- Do a search for “SEO Experts” in the various search engines: Is the dude trying to sell you his services #1 in Google, Yahoo and MSN. If not, ask them how they can make your website #1 (if that is what they are promising) if they can’t even do it for themselves. (All you people in the biz still reading this are probably cringing by this last statement but some of you will actually get the point I am making).
- If an SEO Expert promises you a #1 ranking in Google, Yahoo or any other search engine they are full of sh!t: Search engine placement can’t be guaranteed. No questions asked. If they guarantee it, they are full of crap and don’t use them.
- If youz don’t know, youz betta ax somebody (hire a consultant): Now I am a consultant so I understand that comes across as self serving since I’m writing this. But I’m not asking you to hire me. Again, if you don’t anything about his stuff and are about to drop some serious coin, then hire someone who knows more about it than you. Having someone on your team that is looking out for your best interests in these manners could save you thousands (or even hundreds of thousands) of dollars in decisions regarding SEO and Internet marketing.
- Make the person selling you the service show you, oh let’s say, 20 different examples of websites they have maneuvered to the first page of Google, Yahoo and MSN: Now this is sort of a “dick move” to do to someone but (especially if they are guaranteeing results) in theory, every client they have ever worked with should be on the first page of every relevant search result. The point, again, is that this stuff can’t be guaranteed.
- In some cases, proper SEO won’t do a damn thing to your placement: There is always a chance that your website is already coming up as high as it will for certain search terms. You could have the #1 SEO expert in the world personally work on your site and it may not do jack sh!t. Because of your competition, area and other factors your site may already be performing as well as it can. In some searches showing up on page 4 may be as high as you’ll ever go. That’s why you shouldn’t put all your eggs into the SEO basket. Sometimes this SEO stuff just won’t work the way you want it to or give you the results you are hoping for no matter what anyone tells you.
There you go. Now did I cover every possible question you should ask? No, but hopefully this should at least get you to start questioning all these so called experts. Like I stated above, there are good legit people out there that can help your website perform to it’s potential. Educate yourselves. Do you really need SEO service or could you be better served with a different Internet strategy? Just make sure that you ask questions and challenge anyone that promises results that seem too good to be true.
About the Author
Jayme Ward owns Digi Donkey, an Internet Consulting Firm located in Historic Cocoa Village, Florida. You think this blog is something you should hear him speak. He can be contacted at info@digidonkey.com
Filed under: Internet | Tagged: design, Internet, Marketing, search engine optimization, seo, web design |
Internet Marketing Success 
Well put. It is amazing to me that an invention (the web) ideal for housing and communicating information in an instant has become what it has in terms of being able to find that information. Another way to beat SEO is to rely on directories (but of course you need SEO to find them . . . )
Your entire blog should be required reading for every college senior BEFORE they graduate, every marketing and advertising “expert” and every entrepreneur on the planet.
People get so caught up in the “hype” of the latest craze without looking beyond the surface to discover the real facts that it causes more effort and expense in the long run than realizing that “if it’s too good to be true — it probably is!”
Hysterical post; unfortunate it has to be true.
I’m consistently amazed at the “experts” who try to sell me services and are freaked out when they realize I know more about SEO than they do.
As an SEO service provider I found your article to be well put; a little profane and aggressive in tone but well put nonetheless. The biggest obstacle in our marketing and sales efforts is not getting the potential client to bite at a guarantee (we provide none) rather it is making sure the potential client is informed enough about the process, goals, and realistic results to make an informed yes or no decision.
The reality is that any good SEO company or consultant should be willing and ready to reject an ill informed client. If a client is seeing and acting only on hype they will surely be disappointed with the results.
To provide a specific example. we were approached by a company that owns and operates a number of sleep centers. They were interested in SEO, PPC, and lead gen. As we qualified the client we discovered that they believed that there was this huge untapped market of people searching the internet for sleep centers. With some upfront market research we found just the opposite; in fact we identified that their best marketing efforts could be spent focusing on building referrals from local doctors (usually the first to diagnose potential sleep disorders). Although we could have sold them on a targeted SEO campaign the dollars and cents did not pan out in their favor. In the end we rejected the client.
In conclusion, I think your readers should add one final set of questions for their potential SEO providers: Have you ever rejected a potential customer? If, so for what reason?
P.S. – this post was sent to me by one of our newer customers who is really doing a good job of understanding the process of SEO. Thanks for the quality info.
Nice read and 100% right on target, I don’t know how many SEO experts that I have meet and they all seem to an important point. Why do we want to buy from you just because your page is number one in goggle in the first place.
Ranking high doesn’t hurt but Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not the do all end all solution to everything that those “Snake Oil Salesmen” we lead you to believe.
I definitely feel that your blog should be a good read for all small businesses that are hoping to bring in clients. I wish I had read your article before I came across the so called SEO expert who did mine. He has turned out to be a very changed person after being paid. After I questioned him on what he, he sent me a list of my placings on different search engines and explained that it gets time to be listed at least 6 months. If there is an alternative to SEO optimization for site visibility please let us know I am very dubious about guys who set themselves up as experts.
Well put. My first job out of college needed to find an SEO expert and I finally needed to let my boss know that he would be better off using interns and giving them the opportunity than spending loads of money on someone who will take your money just to give excuses like “Google changes their algorithm almost daily”.
Jayme, thanks for making your blunt points on the challenges professional SEO experts face every day. We all know that the barriers to entry to this field are low and because SEO is one of the most misunderstood online tactics, people can easily be fooled by someone who talks the talk.
I believe however, that the even more critical issue of these snake oil SEO experts is not the fact that they are not delivering, but that they are charging exceptionally low fees. This gives the client an immediate bad taste for SEO as a tactic and one that is often difficult to overcome.
In the days of tight budgets, everyone is looking to save money. I can’t tell you how many prospects tell us that someone is willing to do full SEO for $300 a month. So my question to Jayme and all the group is how do we continue to make prospects aware of the rampant misinformation about SEO and what it can do for them as well as help them understand what the real value of truly expert SEO is?
Our industry is under assult by these less than reputable providers. Those of us who have been in the industry for years know the value, deliver it to our clients and can prove our results (and do).
We need more posts like this. Bullet #6 is right on target.