edna.edu.au

SEO_What not to do as an SEO Company

A lot of my time as an SEO consultant has been spent on educating clients ( mostly small business owners ) on the value of Search Engine Optimisation and it is only within the last 18 months have I seen an improvement in the general publics response and business owners receptiveness to this relatively new marketing channel.

It is not surprising to see now, as the SEO industry begins reaching more public awareness and gaining more exposure. Some irresponsible companies jumping onboard the boom, and taking advantage of small business owners have not been educated enough about search engine optimisation, and the benefits it offers.

An example of what NOT to do as an SEO company can be found here;
http://www.searchenginerankings.com.au/seo-blog/

Internet Advancement told to refund clients

SEATTLE  The state attorney general said yesterday Redmond-based Internet Advancement must pay penalties for failing to get its customers top placement on major search engines.

Internet Advancement, which also goes by 4GreatBuys.com, must refund customers, pay $24,432 to the state for costs incurred and a civil penalty of $25,000.

The company had promised to get its customers ranked in the top 10 to 20 results on the search engines for $980 to $1,500 in set-up fees and monthly fees of $79.80 to $89.95.

The case involved "search engine optimization" services, which attempt to get businesses high placement in search-engine results.

"Internet Advancement misrepresented its success rate, promised more than it could deliver, then refused to provide refunds to customers who didn't get what they paid for," said Attorney General Christine Gregoire.

She said the Attorney General's Office, the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau received more than 100 complaints from customers around the country.

It is absolutely essential when been approached or approaching an SEO that business owners are aware of the basic fundamentals on how SEO works, or at least they should ask the SEO in detail what will be done to help them achieve their goals.

It is now a very common practice for juvenile SEO to make claims such as "We guarantee top 3 position in GOOGLE in under 3 weeks", be very weary of such outlandish claims any SEO that has been involved in the industry for over 5 years will tell you this is utter nonsense, and company that guarantee you a particular position in a short amount of time, should be treated the same way as those emails claiming your long lost royal relatives from X country has left huge sums of money to you.

SEO | Suggested reading

I offer to you below a list of bookmarks that I personally recommend every business owner to read before or after talking to an SEO, this will help save time, money and a level expectation between you and the SEO.

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/introduction-to-google-ranking.html
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/  ( a gold mine for those that can handle the reading)
http://www.diggy.com.au ( my current employer, an ethical and valuable partner to any business, big or small ) 

Summary

SEO just like any other marketing tool, is NOT the golden egg, if you do not have a solid business plan, or your product is not competitive within the market, no amount of SEO will help improve your business.

If however your business is simply struggling to get more clients / sales or you are wanting to expand your brand's exposure ( world wide or interstate ), SEO is can be an effective channel and cost effective method to help grow your business. 

If you have questions or comments, please feel free to post them in the comment box or email me directly.

Tags: small busines online marketing seo general consumer awareness law su
Posted at 03:18PM Sep 21, 2008 by John Chen  |