Buyer Beware

“We have software that automatically writes copy for your website!” In case you haven’t learned this lesson in life yet, I hate to be the one to break it to you: shortcuts often come at a high cost.  This shortcut your SEO company may be taking is no exception.  As you may be aware, Google…

“We’ll give you a free trial!” This is a scary one.  Search engine optimization entails a lot of work.  There is no one in their right mind who would give it away for free, especially at the beginning of your campaign.   There is a ton of research, analysis and setup required to get your campaign underway, so…

“You got 10,000 Hits this month!” Some of you may remember those old “Hit Counters” that used to be on the bottom of every website.  Ever wonder why Hit Counters went away?  Because it’s not a useful SEO metric!  You should be tracking the number of “Unique Visitors” to your website, not Hits.  That’s because…

“Buy expired domains and point them at your website!” This tactic is frowned upon by the search engines, and Google has vociferously announced their displeasure with this tactic and their plans to change their algorithm to combat it.  The reason it works is because as a website builds history and “trust” with the search engines,…

“I know someone at Google!” Really?  You know someone at Google?  And they feed you proprietary information??  Even though engineers and employees in-the-know at search engine companies sign strict non-disclosure agreements?  And even though they would go to jail for disclosing company trade secrets, they still give you that information??  Wow, what a pal!! True…

“We will get you in all the foreign search engines!” Last week we looked at a common spam email that has been circulating the Internet for years and discussed the fact that Google only has one index.  So if you are in Google in the U.S., you are in Google Spain, Google Germany, etc. This…

“We will get you in all the foreign search engines!” This is a complex topic that requires some extra attention so I am going to break this discussion into two posts.  Here I am going to primarily focus on a spam email that has been making its rounds across the Internet for years.  It is…

“We submit your website to 1000’s of search engines!” Sounds impressive, doesn’t it?  Until you realize there are only a few places you have to submit a new website when it is launched. The major search engines supply most other search engines (e.g., Dogpile, AltaVista, AOL, etc.) with their search results.   For the sake of…

“We’ll have you on the first page of Google in a week!” Companies that promise this are being disingenuous at best.  Typically the way they do this is either by getting you placed in the Google Places (Maps) area, or they put you in the Sponsored Links (Pay-Per-Click) area.  While having your website listed in…