Top 5 signs that you're being scammed by your "search marketer"
October 10, 2008 · Chris Peters
Nobody likes being scammed. But there are plenty of "professionals" out there that know so little about their craft that they tell you lies without even realizing it. Here are 5 signs that a so-called SEO is taking you for a ride.
Nobody likes being scammed. But there are plenty of “professionals” out there that know so little about their craft that they tell you lies without even realizing it. Search marketing is one such area riddled with scammers because very few understand how it all works.
Without further adieu, here are 5 signs that a so-called SEO is taking you for a ride.
- They use Toolbar PageRank as a metric. Google’s popular browser toolbar has a setting that will show you Google’s perceived “importance,” called PageRank, of the web page that you’re currently looking at. What your search marketer probably didn’t tell you was that this number probably reflects data from several months ago and may even be scewed because Google hates SEO so much.
- Guaranteed rankings. Your SEO should be telling you that they are helping you to influence search engine rankings. They should also be setting the expectation that ranking for key terms is often a long and difficult process.
- Exclusive focus on link-building. Building links from other sites to yours is only one piece of the puzzle. Your SEO should make you aware of work that needs to be done on your own site as well. Want a great screening question? Ask them what the most important element on a webpage is for SEO. If they do not answer “page title” or “title tag,” then you have someone that doesn’t know their stuff and doesn’t have the experience that they claim to have.
- Mentioning of the words “Alexa ranking.” Alexa, owned by Amazon, collects traffic data from users that have installed their Alexa Toolbar. An increase in your Alexa ranking has no direct correlation on search engine results.
- Is reluctant to educate you. Part of any successful SEO strategy is educating everyone who works with the website. If your SEO is reluctant to educate you and your colleagues on how you can help to do your part, then you’re probably smelling foul. There should be no secrets in what your SEO is doing to help you out.
Was this a great post of fearmongering or what? Don’t say that you haven’t been warned!
