SEO Scams by Web Design Firms
Search engine optimization can turn a business around if done right. However, there are many rip-off or scam artists out there who have no SEO qualifications or experience. Their so-called "SEO" can do more harm than good to your web site's rankings and your business bottom line. It is unfortunate that many of these SEO frauds are committed by web designers or web design companies. Many business owners who have been victimized by various SEO scam schemes have serious doubt as to whether SEO is a good way to market to their customers. To help you protect your business and investment, we provide some tips on how to spot an SEO scam. 1. An "SEO Add-On" by a web design company is worthless. Most business owners fall for this trap and buy the SEO packages offered by their web designers or web design companies. A web design company is NOT an SEO company. Having your web designer optimize your web site is no different from having your dentist do a liver transplant surgery. Web design is about communicating visually and artistically through layouts, colors, graphics, animations, etc., whereas SEO is about numbers, algorithms, analytics and math. For web design, the right brain is much more involved than the left brain, while the opposite is true for search engine optimization. 2. How to tell a web design company from an SEO company. Many honest web design companies tell their clients that they can't deliver search engine optimization. Some of them help their clients find a quality SEO expert or firm to handle the optimization work. But if your web designer or web design company isn't so upfront their inability to deliver what they promise, what should you do? Check out their web site and see if their primary focus is on web design. Most web design companies have a brief mention of their SEO service. A typical web design company has a portfolio of the web sites they design, but they don't have any top search engine ranking samples to show. That is a sign that the company has NO ideas about search engine optimization 3. Get a clear explanation of how SEO works. Even if you know search engine optimization, pretend that you don't. Ask the SEO provider to explain in layman's language what SEO is all about, what needs to be done and how it is done. If the SEO provider keeps referring "meta tags", it is a sign that all they know is some outdated techniques, or even some banned techniques by major search engines. 4. Be aware of any low-price packages like $99.95 a month. Instead of paying $99.95 for 6 months, you are much better off paying an SEO expert a couple of hours for consultation. Quality search engine optimization services are not cheap, but when you compare SEO to marketing through other media, you will find that SEO is most cost-effective. A half-page ad on the Yellow Pages can cost $5,000 a month in the Minneapolis, St Paul area. If someone tells you that for less than a $100 a month, their SEO can outperform your Yellow Pages ad, doesn't it sound too good to be true? 5. Always find your SEO company at Google. Does 50-pound-overweight person have any credibility in giving out weight loss advice? Does an SEO firm have any credibility if their own web site is not findable at major search engines, especially Google? Do your own homework and check out the rankings of the company you plan to work with. If they can't get their own web site to the top, they can't do yours.
SEO vs Yellow Pages
If you have ever talked with a salesperson from your local Yellow Pages company, you can feel how desperate the industry is. In the old days when every business had to have a presence in the Yellow Pages and companies compete with each other for attention by printing larger ads, Yellow Pages in some locations charge $5,000/month for a half-page ad. That is $60,000 a year! A full-page ad can cost a business over $100,000 a year! Well, as search engines become the place for people to search for products, services and information, smart businesses are putting their money into search engine optimization to make their websites more findable by searchers. When it comes to cost, SEO costs only a fraction of the Yellow Pages ad's. Unlike Yellow Pages charges a fixed price over 12 months, regardless of the results, SEO can be very scalable. The SEO cost can be varied based on the business' needs. Even spending $5,000 on SEO can produce great, long-lasting results. Many business owners are still skeptical about the effectiveness of SEO. Well, if SEO doesn't work, why do you think your competitors are all doing it? Based on the experience of our clients, those who advertised on Yellow Pages have all stopped after they started with our SEO service. In term of the return on investment, SEO outperforms Yellow Pages by 5-10 times. Yellow Pages companies are pulling some "magic" internet tricks, which amount to some worthless advertising. They build a generic website from their standard template so your web site looks identical to your competitors' sites or even sites from another industry. They then use the pay-per-click advertising to get some traffic. Only 20-30% of web users use pay-per-click. The Yellow Pages strategy leaves out the majority of the web audience. No wonder it didn't work, isn't working and will not work. If you are still debating whether to renew your Yellow Pages ads, here is an objective look at this dying industry by The Wall Street Journal: The yellow-pages industry is running out of lifelines.
In recent years, as its customers migrated to the Web -- flocking to sites like Google -- the telephone-directory business followed, hoping the Internet
would be its salvation.
But that strategy hasn't panned out. Now, the economic downturn is sending the already ailing business into a tailspin.
The audience for online yellow pages remains relatively small, and traffic growth is slowing. So many directory services are vying for the ad dollars of local businesses that no single site has an authoritative roster.
Meanwhile, ad dollars are drying up as small businesses -- the industry's bread and butter -- find it harder to pay bills or have cut their spending sharply.
... ,.. Quoted from Extinction Threatens Yellow-Pages Publishers, by
EMILY STEEL, The Wall Street Journal, Nov 17, 2008
SEO Guarantee
There are several types of "guarantee" offered by some search engine optimization companies. These guarantees include: - 1st-page Google rankings for specific keywords
- No. 1 ranking positions at Google
- xxx% increase of web traffic
- xxx% increase of web leads
- xxx% increase of web sales
No matter how these guarantees are phrased in fine print, they are nothing but a scam. Many businesses fall for these scams and you can be sure that there are plenty of "SEO experts" or "SEO companies" that are not afraid of promising you the sky. The truth of the matter is that no SEO guarantee has ever worked or can ever work because search engines like Google and Yahoo don't take orders from anyone. Search engines play no favor to any sites that are owned, created or optimized by anyone. If an SEO company tells you that they have a special relationship with Google, which guarantees you higher rankings, stay away! Here is a typical SEO guarantee statement: Our SEO Guarantee depends on the number of keywords, competitiveness of the keywords, your current website ranking positions, competitiveness of your market etc. Based on the agreed keywords, we guarantee top 10 Google rankings for 40% of the agreed keywords and top 20 Google rankings for 60% of the agreed keywords. A typical guaranteed SEO package runs for 6 to 9 months. Watch out for the fine print when you sign the contract. You can be sure that most of these "agreed keywords" are worthless long keyword phrases that no one would ever search for. If you are a national marketing agency, would the phrase "cheap powerful effective internet creative marketing firm in America" mean much to you? Does it pay to pay an SEO company to get this long phrase to No. 1 at Google? The answer is "NO", because no one would ever search for a long phrase like this. Another trap of these SEO guarantees is that as long as the "agreed keywords" show up once at their target positions, the "SEO company surely has delivered the guaranteed results." If SEO is your long-term strategy, are you happy with a 1st-page ranking that lasts no longer than a day? Even if you get a No. 1 Google ranking for a day for a desired keyword phrase, will it help your business much in the long run? The worst scams are those that guarantee the number of web leads and sales. Search engine optimization can increase your web traffic, but whether your website can sell depends on many factors, including price, reputation, customer service, and location. These factors are far beyond the control of the SEO company. Not everyone who comes to your website will buy your products or services. Search engine optimization can bring visitors to your website, but their decision to contact you or buy from you has more to do with your business than the SEO company. How can the SEO firm that you barely know guarantee your products and services sell better than your competitors? These lead or sale guarantees are a waste of time. The end result for you is that you lose money to these "SEO firms" and you lose business to your competition. If a search engine optimization firm gives you these "guarantees", you can be sure that you want to stay away from them. But how do you choose the right SEO company? Read our advice here: How to Choose the Right SEO Firm
SEO Cost
How much should you pay for search engine optimization services? This is the question that has baffled most business owners who are new to SEO. There are companies or freelancers who offer $49/month. Some web design firms, including yours perhaps, claim they can provide SEO as an add-on service for $400 a month. Then, there are SEO firms or SEO consultants who charge $5000 a month or $1000 per hour. Which one should you choose? Which one will deliver the results? How much business you need to attract to break even with the SEO expense? How do you justify the cost First of all, forget the $49 per month deal! It is nothing but a scam. Can you get a prime time TV commercial for $100 per minute? Most of these low-priced SEO packages are nothing but some software-automated spams which can end up hurting your SEO campaign and your site's rankings. Services like this don't include any consultation with a real expert. They treat all websites the same. Remember, no two SEO campaigns are the same. A good SEO starts with an in-depth analysis of your business, your competition, your web design, and most importantly, your keywords. Then, a considerable amount of work is done both on your website and off your website. There isn't any software that can substitute the experience and intelligence of a highly trained SEO consultant. Second, SEO should never be an "add-on" service offered by your web design firm or web master. Most of web designers have no training or experience in SEO. SEO and web design require very different skill sets and thought process. Would you think a dentist can do an open heart surgery? Do you see a dental clinic advertising open heart surgery as their "add-on" service? If you see a company that is known mostly for their web design or development services, chances are they have no clues about search engine optimization. These companies often charges anywhere from $100 per month to $1000 per month for pretty much nothing. We have seen web design companies that use old spam techniques like doorway pages and keyword stuffing, which can draw penalties by search engines. Third, is the $500 per hour or $1000 per hour SEO consulting fee by SEO firms fair? Yes, if they can deliver the results. Top SEO firms are hard to find and their services are in high demand. How do you tell if an SEO firm is worth the cost? Google them. Use search engine optimization relevant searches and see how their own website ranks. Remember, if an SEO firm or expert can't get their own website ranked at the top, it is a sign that they can't deliver results for you. Another way to assure you are hiring a good service is to check out references. Satisfied SEO clients LOVE tell you their successful stories. How can you afford paying $5000 a month for SEO on top of all your marketing? Many business owners simply reject SEO, reasoning that they can't afford it. However, upon a closer look of their marketing budget, we often find that these companies are flushing money down the drain by spending tens of thousands of dollars every month on Yellow Pages, print ads, billboards, and TV commercials. Every business owner should ask themselves this question: when was the last time you hired a service out of a Yellow Pages ad, newspaper ad, magazine ad, billboard ad, or TV commercial? Compared to the cost of traditional advertising, search engine optimization is still the most cost-effective marketing. Your business doesn't have to spend extra money on marketing - all you need is to re-allocate your marketing dollars from the old advertising venues and invest them in SEO.
How Long Does SEO Take?
How long does it take to see the results of search engine optimization (SEO)? It is a fair and frequent question. The answer depends on many factors, including the website's age, size, complexity and keywords, as well as competition and market focus. The answer also depends on the goals of the SEO campaign. If the goal is to get top rankings for target keywords, some of our clients have seen their rankings reached the page 1 at Google within a week since we started our SEO service. For very competitive keywords, it can take 1-3 months or longer to see dramatic results. If the goal is to get more sales and leads from your web site, it can happen quickly if your web message connects with visitors. The search engine optimization process is like that of training an athlete. How long does it take to train a marathon runner? It depends on the current conditions of the runner - how good of a shape the runner is, how fast he can run, and how much training time he can commit to. It depends on previous training the runner had. It depends on the competition. If the runner is competing for a local city competition, it may not take too long. If the runner is competing for the state championship, it can take quite long. If the runner is competing for the national or world title, it can take much longer, if even possible given what the runner's conditions are. Search engine optimization is more like a long-distance race, rather than a 100-meter dash. Search engine optimization should be regarded as a critical, if not the most important, part of your overall marketing. As long as your business still needs to reach out to potential customers, you will need search engine optimization to stay competitive. Assuming that search engine optimization is a one-week or one-month quick fix can hinder the long-term success of any SEO effort. Like any marketing campaign, search engine optimization may generate immediate results. However, if it does not, you can work with your SEO consultants to find out why. It may be due to the strong competition of your target keywords, or the lack of fresh content of your website, or some bad SEO work done in the past. Depending on how competitive your market and search phrases are, it can take weeks, months or even years to rank at the top. It is even more challenging for a brand-new web site to climb to the top rankings. Search engines tend to have more trust in web sites that have been around longer. Based on our experience, no matter what the circumstances are, you should expect some noticeable progress within 3 months. If not, you may consider getting a second opinion on if your SEO work is on the right track. We offer site audit through our SEO Consulting services. by Minneapolis SEO & Web Design Services
Choose SEO Firm Wisely
Did you hire a search engine optimization (SEO) firm that failed to produce any noticeable results for your website rankings, traffic, conversion and sales? If so, you are not alone. There are many self-claimed SEO "experts" out there who can't get their own websites any decent rankings. Have you noticed that some SEO firms use Google AdWords for SEO related keyword searches? Does the fact that these SEO consulting companies have to resort to paid ads say a lot about the quality of their service? In today's ultra-competitive world of online marketing, SEO is the lifeline of a company's bottomline. SEO improves the visibility of a website at search engines, such as Google or Yahoo!, thus attracts more visitors and sales. Studies show that over 75 percent of web users find products, services and relevant information through search engines. If a search engine can't find your web site, neither can your potential customers. How can business owners know if they are getting their money's worth for true SEO? Here are a must-do list while interviewing the SEO firm. - Ask the SEO company if the service includes a real human consultant. It may sound very obvious that every SEO company should designate a true SEO expert to your project. Unfortunately, the reality is that many so-called "search engine optimization packages" are nothing but some automated search engine submissions and ranking reports. These packages can do more harm than good.
- Ask for real client ranking samples. Please be aware that top Yahoo and MSN rankings are not worth as much as top Google rankings. High Google rankings are much more difficult to achieve, plus top Google rankings can bring as much as 10x the traffic over top Yahoo or top MSN rankings. See our top rankings at Minneapolis SEO
- Google the SEO firm's rankings yourself. If an SEO company can't get their own website ranked at the top, do you believe they can optimize your website? When you Google your local SEO companies, stay away from those that use paid ads like Google AdWords, unless they have top natural rankings.
- Ask for references. Search engine optimization isn't just about increasing rankings or traffic. The ultimate goal is to generate leads and sales. The number of leads and sales isn't included in the web traffic analysis. Only the client company can testify the effectiveness of the search engine marketing. If a client is very satisfied with their SEO firm, they would love to provide references.
SEO service fees vary dramatically and stay away from those "fixed fee packages". Any reputable search engine company would quote a reasonable fee based on factors like the size of the website, the competitiveness of the keywords and the aggressiveness of the SEO campaign. A 100-page website takes a lot more time for keyword research and optimization tune-up. Some industries, like real estate, are much more competitive than others, therefore, more aggressive SEO effort is needed. The competitiveness of keywords also depends on if the keywords are location specific. Getting top rankings for "real estate agent" is much more difficult than getting top rankings for "real estate agent Chicago". Don't choose the lowest bidder! Working with the wrong search engine optimization company can be worse than throwing money down the drain. We have met several business owners who had made such a mistake. Their websites were poorly handled by SEO "experts" who either had no clue about what their doing or had used questionable or even unethical tactics. Your web rankings can be much worse off if the optimization is not done correctly. A good SEO firm is hard to come by. Sometimes it may seem like their fee is quite high. However, based on our experience, SEO pays for itself in the long term. All of our clients get their investment back within 3-6 months.
Good Web Design
What is the biggest problem that Web sites have these days?
In the early days, the biggest problems sites had was with value. They just weren't delivering value. Now that's improved, but over the last few years, the bigger problem has become navigation. As sites get bigger and more complex, they have much more value, but it's harder to have people get to what they want.
Say you are an insurance company that wants to provide information to users looking for coverage. In the same place where users are asked what kind of coverage they want, there should be information about what the right coverage ought to be. But often, you'll find the information isn't available on that page. You might be able to find it somewhere else, if you look through several layers, but it's not available where it's most appropriate. ... ... How do well-designed sites happen? The really good sites are designed by groups that ask and answer three questions: Who are your target users? What are their goals? And how are you going to help them achieve those goals? How about bad sites? Some companies have a very internal or self-centered view of design. Lacking a focus on customers, they'll be trying to make design decisions in a committee, and a VP of marketing will come into the room and say, 'I like that one,' or 'That one works for me.' When I am sitting in on these meetings, I always say, 'I don't care what any of you like. This isn't about satisfying your needs. It's about satisfying your customers' needs.' Quoted from The Wall Street Journal, "Good Site, Bad Site: Evolving Web Design", 06/12/2007
Some business owners tend to think that what they like is exactly what their customers or potential customers like. So, they decide what to put on to the web site solely based on their personal preferences. The purpose of a web site is to provide valuable information to its visitors and give them what they are looking for. Here are a few things that a business owner could do to facilitate the design of a visitor-friendly website: - Study competing websites and list what you like and what you don't like about these sites.
- Having a brainstorm session with the web design team often yields good results.
- Survey your customers about what they want to see on your website.
- Monitor visitors' behavior at the site, such as how long they stay, how many pages they view, which pages are viewed more often, etc.
- Collect feedback from customers about how to make improvement. Sometimes it helps by providing some incentives, like a discount or prize drawing, to encourage customers to give honest feedback.
It is very important to keep in mind that your website ISN'T about what you like. It is about what your customers like!
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