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Beware when choosing an SEO company:
SEO is an abbreviation for "Search Engine Optimizer." Many SEOs provide excellent services for website owners, from writing copy text to useful advice on site architecture and helping to find the right directories for you to submit your site to. However, there are a few unethical SEOs who have given the industry a bad name through their aggressive "marketing techniques" and attempts to unfairly change a Search Engine's results.
Although you may not choose Piko Technologies to do your Search Engine Optimization for you, we do have a some tips that may help you distinguish between an SEO that will improve your site and one that will only improve your chances of being removed from Search Engines completely:
- Beware of SEO companies that send you emails for no apparent reason:
We even get these spam emails too:
"Dear piko-technologies.com,
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major Search Engines and directories..."
- No company can guarantee a number 1 ranking on any major Search Engine:
Beware of SEO's that guarantee rankings, or that claim to have a "special relationship" with any Search Engine, or claim to have a "priority submit" to major Search Engines such as Google. There is no priority submit for Google and many other major Search Engines. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is by using the page at http://www.google.com/addurl.html.
You can do this yourself at no cost at all!
- Be careful if a company is very secretive and / or won't explain exactly what they intend to do with your website.
Don't be afraid to ask for explanations if something doesn't make sense. If an SEO creates deceptive or misleading content on your behalf, such as doorway pages or "throwaway" domains, your site could be removed entirely from some major Search Engines and it is very difficult to get back in. Really, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you work with, so it is best to be sure you know exactly what they are going to do in order to "help you".
- You should never have to link to an SEO:
Stay away from SEOs that talk about "free-for-all" (FFA) links, sites, link popularity schemes, or submitting your site to masses of Search Engines.
These are usually useless exercises that don't affect your ranking in the results of any of the major Search Engines.
Or at least, not in a way you would consider to be positive at all.
- Choose wisely:
While you consider whether to use an SEO's services, you may want to do some research on the industry. Search Engines are a great way to do that. You might also seek out a few of the nasty tales that have appeared in the press. Here is one such article on a rather bad SEO: http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/07/01/spyware_inc/index.html?x
- Be sure to know where your money goes exactly:
Some search engines will not sell better ranking in search results themselves but other major Search Engines combine "pay-per-click" or "pay-for-inclusion" results with their normal results.
Some SEO's promise to get you to rank highly in a Search Engine, but only place you in the advertising section of that Search Engine rather instead of the usual Search Results. Some of these SEO's will even change their prices in real-time to let you think they are "in control" of other Search Engines and can put your site in any slot they choose.
This may be fine for a few days or weeks but what about when the money runs out? Be sure to ask any SEO you're considering what fees go toward permanent results and which are only for temporary advertising.
What are the most common abuses a website owner is you are likely to find in the industry?
One of the more common scams is the building of "shadow domains" that send users to a site by using deceptive redirects on its pages. These "shadow domains" will usually be owned by an SEO who claims to be working on someone else's behalf. However, if the relationship gets nasty, the SEO may point the domain to a different site or to a competitor's domain.
If this happens, you will have paid to develop a competing site owned entirely by the SEO itself.
Another rather abusive "technique" is to use "doorway pages" loaded with keywords on your site somewhere. The SEO promises this will make the page more relevant for these keywords. This is usually lies since individual pages are rarely useful for a wide range of keywords and can often get you banned form major Search Engines.
Other things to look out for:
There are a few warning signs you may find when dealing with a bad SEO company. If you have any doubts, you should trust your instincts. By all means, feel free to walk away from an SEO at any time if:
- They own shadow-type domains
- They put links to their other clients on doorway-type pages or websites
- They offer to sell your keywords in the address bar
- They won't distinguish between real Search Engine results and adverts that appear in Search Engine results aswell
- They guarantee ranking, but only on useless, long keyword phrases you wouldn't expect people to search for anyway
- They operate under multiple names or different domain names
- They have had domains removed from Search Engines or are not listed in Google, MSN and Yahoo! themselves
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