Ianmaco's Blog

Beware the SEO Conman! April 9, 2010

As an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) consultant, the most important thing to me is to be completely open and honest with my clients and, of course, prospective clients.  I make absolutely sure that if I promise something, I can and will deliver on that promise.

It is old news that SEO consultants cannot guarantee a position on first page or top spot on Google.  It is simply impossible to make this claim.  Google are regularly adjusting and modifying their algorithms to ensure that the user has the best possible experience when searching.  Other major search engines tend to follow Google’s lead.

Why then, do certain “SEO Consultants” find it necessary to make claims to prospective clients that they cannot possibly deliver upon?

For example, a client told me that a fairly reputable web design and hosting company in South Africa had promised them the first position on Google, but for only two hours a day.  Another client said that they were promised top position on Google, but for only 30 impressions, also by a well-known web design company.

Say what????

Looking at these claims (and I am sure there are many more) I can only assume that they think the client is an absolute moron and will believe anything.  Also, they can only be interested in the short term rewards, instead of the long term, mutually beneficial relationship.

If the client says that their website is not in first position, they can quickly respond by saying that the 30 impressions were used up within a couple of minutes.  Or they can say that the 2 hours first position was between midnight and two in the morning when everyone was asleep.  Either way, the client doesn’t have a leg to stand on.  While the “SEO Consultant” can’t prove his claim, the client also has no way of proving otherwise.

Let the buyer beware!

Make sure that the consultant you are dealing with can deliver on his/her promises.  Check references and also check their position on Google, Yahoo and Bing.  If they are making claims of being able to move your website up on search engines, then they should also be moving their own website up in the same way.  They don’t have to be on top position, but they need to show you where they were in the past and where they are now.  And they need to explain to you how they got these results.

Check their website content.  Do they offer lots of information on SEO or do they keep you in the dark?  Get them to explain how they plan to get the results you are looking for.  If they make guarantees, show them the door – they are lying.

Ask them about things like keyword analysis, on page factors, link building etc.  See what the response is.  If you are uncomfortable with the answer, kick them out.

Check out my website for the kind of information you need before meeting with the SEO consultant.  Click on Wizard Marketing

Don’t let these sort of sales tactics put you off SEO.  SEO is fast becoming an essential service and is a complicated and lengthy process, but the rewards are outstanding.

To MetaTag or not to MetaTag, that is the question… March 16, 2010

There seems to be a lot of indecision about metatags on websites. Many website developers are of the opinion that website metatags have no value for search engine spiders. In my opinion, this could not be further from the truth.

Metatags are essential for spiders to get valuable information about your website. Since the internet is about information then, logically, a website should offer as much “invisible” information as possible. When the spiders crawl your website, they pick up the information from the source code and relay that info back to the search engine itself. Metatags provide invaluable information for this purpose.

The Title metatags provide the search engine with the actual heading of your listing. Without a title metatag, the listing simply shows your URL, eg. “http://yourwebsite.com” which is confusing to the visitor and they will tend to look at the next listing, which has a decent title.

The Description metatag provides the information about your website immediately below the title on the search engine page. With no description metatag, the spiders simply grab the first 150 or so characters from your webpage and display that. If it happens to be menu items, then that is what will be displayed, confusing the visitor once again.

The Keywords metatag is important from an optimization perspective and allows you to cater for not your desired keywords, but also misspelled keywords. Populating the keywords metatag with keyword variations and incorrect spellings will improve your chances of ranking on the search engine for a wider range of user search terms.

A word of caution on the keywords metatag: do not repeat keywords unless they are contained in separate keyword phrase. For example, “drilling machine”, “machine tools”, “boring machine” is acceptable; “machine”, “machine”, “machine” is DEFINITELY NOT acceptable and is classed by search engines as keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing will get you slapped off the search engine before you can say “Google”! And once you have had the slap, getting back can be described as nearly impossible. You have been warned.

In conclusion, use metatags as they will provide the search engines and, ultimately, visitors the information you want them to know about. The major search engines all provide useful guidelines on the correct application of metatags, so look it up and apply it.

I would like to hear your ideas on this subject.

Cheers for now…

Wizard Marketing