“You can be a part of our network of clients!”
We frequently talk to our clients about short-term gains vs. long-term benefits. Consumers don’t realize many tactics used by their SEO
company is focused on the short-term. Don’t be confused by what I’m saying here: Search Engine Optimization is a long-term commitment that requires a lot of work. But you should be certain that if you’re paying your SEO company good money, the tactics they use should not be temporary, or dependent upon your continued relationship with them.
Some SEO companies target a specific industry, such as realtors, and begin building a network of realty clients across the country. They add a “Resource” or “Links” page to each of the realtors’ websites and list all of their clients on that page, linking to each others’ websites.
Each realtor website would contain a page similar to the simplified example below:
“Here are affiliated realtors throughout North America who provide great realty services:
- Mary is the best Dallas realtor.
- John is the best Phoenix realtor.
- Tom is the best Los Angeles realtor.“
As we have discussed in the past, having other websites link to your website will help your rankings, and is especially important to the Google algorithm. But the practice described above is frowned upon by Google and they have been taking steps to eradicate such schemes. So, if you’re Mary, John or Tom Realtor featured above, you’re living on borrowed time because as Google continually adjusts their algorithm their websites will eventually be devalued.
But here is an even more important point: If Mary, John or Tom Realtor stop paying their SEO company, the first thing their SEO company is going to do is remove their links from their entire network of websites. That means they paid all that money to their SEO company to simply “rent” links from the SEO company’s network of websites, and as soon as they stop paying the SEO company they will “take all their toys and go home” as they say.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again: As a business owner, does it make more sense to spend thousands of dollars on a short-term strategy that won’t work in the near future, or to spend your budget developing engaging content for your website and social media platforms that will attract an audience and make your website more sticky and position you as an expert in your field?
Watch our Facebook page for the next installment of our Series.
