My first word of advice is that there is a lot of disinformation about SEO on the web. This is brought about by a serious of unrelated reasons but the vast amount of free information could be largely useless, irrelevant or at worst, even dangerous. Many top SEO's don't reveal their insider knowledge for free - and often they're quite happy to reveal absolute nonsense. Why would they do this? It's interesting to start a web rumour and then see hundreds of would-be SEO's copy these statements onto their own sites.
In the last couple of years we've seen an explosion of want to-be SEO's. This is born out of past SEO successes, claimed past SSEO successes all the way through to just a want to be an SEO or a need to be an SEO because of change in market demand.
So they've run around reading other SEO's sites and setup pages on their web design sites offering an "SEO" service or even offering themselves as "specialising in SEO". In most cases, these websites don't rank or actually exhibit any true SEO techniques but the web designer will offer an excuse, like "We're too busy" or "We don't need to" - to me this is just a cop out. Why would you sell a service you don't implement?
Would you take driving lessons from someone who didn't like driving or didn't like driving or worse - couldn't even drive?
Many top SEO's came from the web design and web development world. It would be pretty hard to understand SEO and not understand how websites are developed. In fact, there is an argument that says why would you use a non-SEO web designer to build your online web site?
Website design and development is not nearly as complicated as it was made out to be years ago. In order to stay in the market place many web designers are now offering SEO-lite or "SEO Ready" websites. I have to admit that in 90% of cases, the SEO was non-existent or even, in too many cases, would have resulted in a penalty.
What has been worse is that there are now so many scams running around where people are being offered guaranteed placements in Google for as little as ?20. I have a 10-minute recording by one such company, most of whom appear to be based in the UK. Some are offering a guaranteed SEO service which is really an AdWords programme and others are just lying out-right.
In many cases where a web-designer or wanna-be SEO has been involved, we would have to take corrective action and preventative action to prevent a Google penalty for spam - or in the worst cases appeal against penalties.
SEO is not necessarily expensive. In some cases, a couple of sale will easily cover the cost of a comprehensive programme. But SEO is not cheap, instant or free. If it is then you need to be very careful.
Things to be wary of when talking to a potential SEO provider:
Also, SEO is often an afterthought - maybe a quick blog or page stating their specialist in SEO services. This should be pretty transparent to anyone with a cursory interest in SEO. Other to avoid items include thin portfolio's and guaranteed positions and timeframes - especially when the timeframes are pretty immediate - hours, days, weeks are quite optimistic for any new or competitive-market site.
In the last couple of years we've seen an explosion of want to-be SEO's. This is born out of past SEO successes, claimed past SSEO successes all the way through to just a want to be an SEO or a need to be an SEO because of change in market demand.
So they've run around reading other SEO's sites and setup pages on their web design sites offering an "SEO" service or even offering themselves as "specialising in SEO". In most cases, these websites don't rank or actually exhibit any true SEO techniques but the web designer will offer an excuse, like "We're too busy" or "We don't need to" - to me this is just a cop out. Why would you sell a service you don't implement?
Would you take driving lessons from someone who didn't like driving or didn't like driving or worse - couldn't even drive?
Many top SEO's came from the web design and web development world. It would be pretty hard to understand SEO and not understand how websites are developed. In fact, there is an argument that says why would you use a non-SEO web designer to build your online web site?
Website design and development is not nearly as complicated as it was made out to be years ago. In order to stay in the market place many web designers are now offering SEO-lite or "SEO Ready" websites. I have to admit that in 90% of cases, the SEO was non-existent or even, in too many cases, would have resulted in a penalty.
What has been worse is that there are now so many scams running around where people are being offered guaranteed placements in Google for as little as ?20. I have a 10-minute recording by one such company, most of whom appear to be based in the UK. Some are offering a guaranteed SEO service which is really an AdWords programme and others are just lying out-right.
In many cases where a web-designer or wanna-be SEO has been involved, we would have to take corrective action and preventative action to prevent a Google penalty for spam - or in the worst cases appeal against penalties.
SEO is not necessarily expensive. In some cases, a couple of sale will easily cover the cost of a comprehensive programme. But SEO is not cheap, instant or free. If it is then you need to be very careful.
Things to be wary of when talking to a potential SEO provider:
- Content poor sites
- SEO as an afterthought
- Heavy focus on on-site SEO
- Guaranteed positions and timeframes
- Thin portfolio
Also, SEO is often an afterthought - maybe a quick blog or page stating their specialist in SEO services. This should be pretty transparent to anyone with a cursory interest in SEO. Other to avoid items include thin portfolio's and guaranteed positions and timeframes - especially when the timeframes are pretty immediate - hours, days, weeks are quite optimistic for any new or competitive-market site.
