Is SEO a scam?
The truth about the industry
I frequent many SEO and web marketing forums on a daily basis, and quite often there is a discussion about the SEO industry and ethics. After participating in a number of these discussions, it became really clear that the main problems lie in the fact that no two SEO companies are the same and no uniform methodology. It’s very hard to make statements about the industry as a whole because it’s debatable what exactly “search engine optimization” is. Combine the fact that most SEO companies keep their methodology and campaign strategies a secret and we have a situation where every company is
completely different with very different results.
Fact 1: There is no standardized SEO methodology. Wikipedia defines SEO as the process of optimizing traffic from SERPs to a website. Of course, the process is very questionable and controversial.
Fact 2: The effectiveness of an SEO campaign depends on the structure of the site, the content of the site, the keywords, the methodology used and how popular the site is. No site can be ranked for a random keyword. SEO isn’t juggling either. It’s logical, problem solving and web marketing mixed together. If your site doesn’t offer any value to users, it probably won’t rank.
Fact 3: Some SEOs do search engine optimization and some do search engine manipulation. Of course, they are all marketed as SEO. Unethical optimization yields results at all costs and is always short-term (usually ending in a forbidden domain name). Ethical optimization opens up the site to search engines and provides long-term benefits.
Fact 4: Many search engine optimization (SEO) companies get paid regardless of whether or not your website gets the same ranking. Unfortunately, this is the case in the industry. Most SEO companies use A, B, and C and move on to the next client. Hopefully the site will be in order. Otherwise, they always have a lot of customers.
Fact 5: Many SEO companies use ethical and unethical internal linking strategies, to maximize profits it is very common for SEO companies to buy aggregate links in India, links to spammy/scraper websites , or sell packages to send Large indices. It is also common for SEO companies to set up lots of nodes with internal links to compensate for the poor quality of site optimization.
I don’t think it’s fair to describe the industry as a whole without knowing what’s wrong with it and how SEO companies can beat it. So how do we define exactly what’s right and wrong in an industry? I have now been associated with the web for over 10 years, and specifically, in the SEO industry for almost 4 years and have seen how big SEO companies operate and have worked with customers who have been burned by past SEO campaigns. In conjunction with several web posts and forum discussions covering the same basic issues, I have compiled a list of the most common issues.
Problem 1: Reward Responsibility
It’s no secret that the vast majority of SEO companies take no responsibility for the results. It’s the fact that no SEO company can guarantee you results (and if they do, they’re cheating you). It's also the fact that the client is in danger of spending money on an SEO company that basically says "we'll do our best". SEO companies simply guarantee that they will do the work to “optimize” the site, but without fully disclosing their methodology, what is the client really paying for? No other industry sells a product without a warranty and there is no list of tasks to be completed. Of course, the job of SEO is essentially selling information and keeping track of the details of the methodology is important, but the combination of confidentiality and irresponsibility for results makes SEO campaigns really risky. So,
How can an SEO company reduce risk to the client and provide the best level of service?
Answer 1: Referral pricing
The only real way to reduce a client's financial risk is to share that risk. With incentive-based pricing, the SEO company can charge a certain percentage of the total contract (say 70%) to cover IP and time while putting the rest of the contract price (the remaining 30%) with incentives for success. Of course, the incentives and contract percentage will be completely relative depending on the campaign. This first step in risk sharing provides an assurance to the client that the company believes in their methodology and puts some of the financial burden of the campaign on the SEO company. However, at the moment, very few SEO companies are willing to take the risk and charge the same price whether a customer ranks high or not at all (or perhaps ranks low).
Problem Two: Unethical Optimization
Unfortunately, unethical (or black hat) optimization is still very prominent on the web. It is also unfortunate that "SEO" is confused with "Black hat SEO". his is still the biggest problem for SEO companies. Saying that all SEO companies work with black hat optimization is like saying that everyone who sends emails is a spammer. Black hat optimization isn't optimization at all... it's search engine manipulation. With so much money tied up in a high rank, there will always be a market for unethical SEO and search engine spam. Until companies realize what is ethical and unethical and stop supporting these Black hat SEO companies, they will continue to thrive. This makes the industry as a whole look bad and does not reflect the ethics of good SEO companies. Black hat provides quick and short term results, but it is not the best long term option.
The second answer: moral improvement
There is no quick and easy solution to a black hat optimization slick in the SEO industry. I would suggest that all marketing departments research optimization techniques and educate themselves on unethical techniques. No SEO company will say they are doing unethical optimization. It is also wrong to immediately trust a company or product based on their ranking alone. Unethical improvement leads to ratings...not just in the long run.
It would also be beneficial for the major search engines to be more transparent and accessible to SEO companies. Now, the major search engines and SEO companies are not doing things to each other and they have formed a kind of love-hate relationship. For this reason, many ethical SEOs have gradually moved into obscure territory. Ethical optimization seeks to make websites accessible to engines and helps improve engine search results. The problem is that, in particular, search engines bring all the SEO companies together in the same way that informed users do: manipulating the search engine. This is not just that. Search engines don't want to disclose what they consider unethical because they will essentially provide a list of holes in their algorithms that black hat SEOs can address further, but the specific list of "what not to do" will provide a specific list for companies looking for an SEO company search.
Basic Principles of Ethical Improvement
Any campaign that does not adhere to the following rules deals with unethical optimization techniques and should be avoided.
Problem 3: Assembly Line / Software SEO
As the SEO industry has grown, so has SEO automation. The first thing any potential SEO client should know is that all effective SEO campaigns are customized. There is no list of features that will work exactly the same way on every site. If the SEO company says it is, it means that they are not doing an overall optimization and the campaign is minimal. A good optimization campaign improves site structure, text content and site code. The SEO assembly line does not take into account the unique needs/design of the site and may even work with black hat optimization. SEO software in particular needs to be looked at carefully. There are really only two things that SEO software can do with any site: portal pages (showing engines one thing and users another; this is unethical) or a system of pages designed exclusively for search engines (often called info pages or information and limited to the off-page section). Door pages are 100% unethical and information pages are deep in the grey area. None of these strategies involve website design, keyword analysis, or high-quality text content. The following links are examples of automated SEO software that is freely available on the web. All links are set to "no follow" to prevent sites from receiving link credit on our site. Treehouse SEM does not recommend these sites.
Answer 3: Customized campaign and evaluation
SEO Software may be cheap and inexpensive, but you get what you pay for. Any campaign that will slap on additional pages is just selling you links not an effective SEO campaign. Any SEO effort that consists only of adding a few "optimized" pages to your website will not be optimal. If you want to turn a street car into a racing car, you don't just add racing wires to it. Don't assume that throwing a few pages on your site to target some random keyword is the same as a real SEO campaign.
If your SEO company isn't going to sit down and discuss the layout, architecture, and purpose of the site, it's not providing a quality service. Remember that the vast majority of SEO software is aimed at creating internal / landing pages or simply providing you with data about your site (this data is already free for everyone on the web). Good SEO campaigns take into account both the user and the search engines...not one or the other. An SEO company needs a solid understanding of user experience and search engine optimization and use them together to create a campaign that delivers the best possible return on investment. The end goal should always be customers/sales. Carrying heaps of untargeted traffic often results in very high turnover rates and very low lead conversion.
conclusion
Do your research. Figure out what you want from a positive campaign and then ask the right questions. Make sure the salesperson you're talking to knows what they're selling. If they don't, they are definitely not someone you should get information from. Lots of SEO companies use hard selling tactics and reps are less aware of what they are selling. Ask the following questions and see what they say.
1.) How do you rate the keywords? If an SEO company optimizes all the keywords a customer submits to it, the SEO campaign starts on very shaky ground. Keyword analysis should be done that takes into account the number of searches on all major search engines and the relative competition for these terms. The site should also be compared to the keywords to see if they support each other.
4.) Does my revenue model affect keyword selection and overall optimization? Any SEO company that does not optimize based on the target audience does not provide the most effective campaign. The marketing of a comparison e-commerce site for buyers will want to improve the performance of product names and model numbers. An online magazine that wants to increase repeat visits will want to improve its article titles and specific topics. Local businesses will want to optimize for geo-targeted keywords.
5.) I want to improve my website, but I don't want to change any of the existing content or layout... How are you going to do that? Any SEO company that says they will only add to landing pages or hide text sells Black hat. This goes back to the first measurement. You actually say you have a car that you want to modify to make it very fast, but you don't want to modify the engine and the mechanic adds rack lines and charges you the full price.
Thank you for reading Treehouse SEM articles . If you would like to know more about any of these, please feel free to contact us.
About the author: Steve comes from an extensive internet background where he has designed, developed and marketed hundreds of websites. Long from Mississippi where he joined Ole Miss, Steve has moved to San Diego to pursue other challenges in the field of web marketing.
To compete in the rapidly growing search engine marketing market, Treehouse immediately distinguished itself by appointing Chief Technology Officer Davies to head the company, who is one of the most sought after experts in the industry today. DeVries previously worked as a lead technology advisor to a local competitor company, achieving top ratings for major clients such as Entrepreneur, Vegas.com, Viacom, Workopolis and Ziff Davis Media. Davies' experience has brought him a lot of industry attention and made him in growing demand as a speaker at industry events by those looking to pick his brain.
