The SEO business is no stranger to the phrase 'snake oil'.
02/13/2010
This, of course, doesn't mean that SEO efforts aren't legitimate and that there aren't reputable SEOs; SEO is extremely important for most online businesses and there are plenty of competent practitioners .
While there have always been plenty of inexperienced and incompetent practitioners passing themselves off as experts, I have noticed that there seems to be more snake oil than ever. The prevalence of snake oil SEOs and the disinformation they spread can mislead and confuse clients who need to be re-educated as part of the selling process.
So what to do? :
Pull out the track record. Nothing sells like results. Ask the person/company for their track record. Get them to show you who they’ve worked for and explain what they have done for their clients. Get the names and phone numbers of those clients so that you can make a quick phone call to see what the customer experience was like. Nothing exposes a hit-and-run practitioners quicker than asking these questions.
Challenge. If a person/company is selling results using the most measureable media on the planet, within a specific amount of time, and they are truly “experts” then arriving at a first time customers guarantee should not be unreasonable. The guarantee should be structured something like” X” dollars to generate “Y” traffic within “Z” amount of time and it should achieve a specific result – either A) a specific conversion percentage if you are selling a product/service or B) another agreed upon goal. The defined specific result is usually the final nail in the coffin for the scammers.
Compare the Cost of PPC vs. SEO. Ask the person/company to produce a comparison with their SEO plan to a PPC plan. You may be pleasantly surprised that PPC (Pay Per Click) can offer much quicker results and it will let you see if the search terms that the person/company is recommending are targeted to reach your audience.
Every graphic artist, web designer, next door neighbor, the IT guy at your buddy’s business, even the guy at the grocery store who does websites out of his bedroom during his spare time has an opinion about what is the right color, the right way to display information, what is more intuitive or user friendly. It is very subjective and while there are many sites that could use an overhaul re-designing your site is not going to be the answer by itself. There is no question that your site must be well designed, and your site must present information clearly and have intuitive navigation so that people can easily find the information you want them to have. All of your marketing efforts logo, collateral material, and website need to be cohesive, but that answer is so “yesterday”, and today’s businesses that want to thrive and not just survive need a business tool , and that tool needs to offer a little bit more.