A Guest Post : Beware the SEO Snake Oil: Are SEO Solicitations Real?

Our guest blogger, John Scilipote, Founder and President, Babyface Interactive 

We all get them - constant email solicitations for SEO, (Search Engine Optimization) services. The email usually starts out with someone named Joe or Amy claiming they "came across" your website and noticed it wasn't listed on the first page of Google.

They make all kinds of claims but often they’ll say things like:

1.     Your site needs to be optimized

2.     They know Google's secret or have a unique process that will guarantee page one placement on Google

3.     They guarantee more site traffic

Is there any truth behind these claims? Is this legit?

First off, notice they’ll never mention what keyword they used to ascertain your non-page-one ranking. How exactly did they "come across" your site? Most likely they didn’t. They probably have never seen your site. Your email address is on someone’s list and you’re being spammed.

As to the veracity of their claims?

1. Your website needs to be optimized: True

But this is the case with almost any business' website.

If your web strategy relies to any degree on traffic generated by search engines then your site needs to be optimized. Some sites need it more than others but even if yours has been optimized by the best, website optimization is an ongoing process that lasts as long as you’re .in business.

Thorough website optimization takes into account a constellation of elements that are in constant flux. These elements include your company’s marketing objectives, the market environment, your target customers, the competition and the ever evolving algorithms search engines employ. An SEO professional takes into consideration of all these factors and adjusts your website in an ongoing process as these conditions inevitably change over time.

2. They know Google's secret or have a unique process that will guarantee page one placement on Google: False

The only secret in website optimization is the algorithms that search engines use to evaluate and rank websites for specific keywords. Other than that, there are no secrets. Google's entire business model relies on the integrity of their organic search results and the even playing field that results when their process remains a secret. Anyone who claims they have an inside advantage with Google or that they have some unique process no one else has, is lying.

Page one placement can only be guaranteed by paying enough money so that paid advertisements (e.g. Google Adwords) rank high enough to appear on page one in the paid placement regions of the search results page. Some of these email solicitors bait and switch selling you a paid advertising campaign rather than true SEO. Paid ads are not the same as organic search results nor do they have any effect on your site’s search engine rankings. SEO is about improving organic search results and helping your target customers find you.

That being said, the techniques used in SEO are public knowledge available to anyone. As a matter of fact, Google publishes their own recommendations for SEO best practices on their Webmasters Central Blog (http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/). This is just one of numerous resources on the web espousing techniques and best practices. While these techniques and practices are not necessarily easy to effectively execute well, they inevitably are based on logic and therefore, make sense.

A legitimate SEO professional should be able to explain in plain English what they’re going do and why. If they decline to reveal their ‘secret’ methods or if their explanations don’t make sense you’re probably better off without them.

3. They guarantee more site traffic: Maybe, but is that what you want?

More traffic is nice but quality traffic is better.

I’d rather have one thousand visitors a month generating a healthy percentage of genuine prospects than ten thousand generating none.

Quality traffic is generated by optimizing your site for well chosen keywords that target search engine users who are seeking your products or services and are most likely to become your customers.

Quality traffic is important because as desirable as quantity is, ultimately it’s about conversions. A conversion is when a site visitor completes a task you’ve identified as a goal, such as making an online purchase, calling your office or signing up for a newsletter. You might have top rankings and tons of traffic but if your visitors don't buy what you’re selling or pick up the phone then all your efforts are for naught.

Conversions are created by making sure your site is optimized for humans. That is, once we get someone to visit your site, we want to fulfill their expectations, deliver what they were looking for and provide them with a compelling reason to become your customer.

Yes, everybody gets these solicitations and you’re going to get a lot more. Your best defense is to educate yourself on the basics of SEO and familiarize yourself with analytics enough so you have a basic understanding of who your site visitors are and what they’re doing (or not doing) on your site. You’ll be in a better position to vet SEO snake oil salesmen and to discuss your objectives and options intelligently with those you can trust.

John Scilipote is founder and president of Babyface Interactive. Babyface provides web development, training and support to marketing professionals like The Byne Group helping integrate and execute the web-based components of the campaigns they’ve crafted for their clients.