Be Aware of Guarantees

by Carla Reis | September, 2006

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Just like stockbrokers who can’t predict how future markets will perform, no Search Engine Optimizer knows what the future holds for search engines and their results. Experienced, knowledgeable and credible SEO consultants can demonstrate results from past performance but they cannot guarantee the same results for the future.
The idea of guaranteed positioning is appealing to Web site owners, however no SEO firm can legitimately guarantee results that are out of their control, since no SEO firm owns a search engine. Most guarantees result in spam techniques that will get your site penalized or banned from the search engines.

Unfortunately, there are many unethical SEO companies that sell their services by making false promises. Watch for these red flags.

Misleading Point 1: High Visibility

Top visibility positions can only be guaranteed by pay-for-placement advertising (the results that show up as “Sponsored Links” on the right side of your screen). SEO consultants have no means to give you the same guarantee with “organic” results (the larger portion of the results that appear on the left side of your screen) because only the search engines decide which Web sites will be included on their database.

Having said that, beware of companies offering guaranteed results and positions. Most of the SEO firms that promise these are spammers. Spamming the search engines goes against the rules of search engines – a Web site must be built for visitors and must not include tricks to elude the search engines robots. When a SEO firm uses such tricks it is considered spamming, a crime with penalties ranging from losing the top position to having the Web site completely removed from a search engine database.

Misleading Point 2: Permanent Top Positions

Search engines are constantly changing and so are their results. Search positions, visibility and Web site traffic fluctuations are perfectly normal. Millions of pages with unique content are added to the Web every day; old pages are deleted or updated. Link structure, incoming and outgoing links to a Web site also change frequently. Therefore there can be no permanent top position.

Misleading Point 3: You Don't Have to Change Your Web Site

First of all, a Web site that will be used to promote a company online should be built with search engine algorithms in mind. If you haven't written your content using the right keyword phrases or the right keyword density on your copy, your pages won't rank well.

A Web site should always be a work in progress because the Internet is constantly evolving. Browsers are frequently updated to support improved HTML, CSS, scripting, and multimedia files. Be prepared to modify your content at least on specific pages related to the services or products you market online. That includes writing specific title tags and visible text paying close attention to headings, paragraph tags, hyperlinks, ordered and unordered lists, and so on.

Misleading Point 4: Create New Micro sites

Optimization should always be performed on Web site that resides on your domain. In specific and well handled cases, experienced SEO firms will advise you to divide the Web site into more specific, product or service centered sites.

However, you should beware of SEO firms that advise of Micro site creation just for the sake of high rankings. If there isn’t a legitimate reason to develop new sites or sub-domains, then it is more likely that the new Micro site will be used for spamming.

Summary: Unfortunately, the SEO industry is full of unethical firms that will offer you heaven and earth to have a contract signed. Before you sign up, check their references carefully and make sure that any changes they promise to perform on your Web site have the sole intention of enhancing your visitors’ experience and improving indexing with search engines.

Carla Reis
President
Quest Quality Solutions
www.questqualitysolutions.com
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