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09.21.06
SEO Rip Offs - If It Seems Too Good To Be True...
 By
Michael Pedone
Have you ever gotten an e-mail or stumbled across a website that made SEO claims which seemed way too good to be true? There are companies out there that...
promise youll rank #1 in the search engines for your targeted keywords for a small fee. The services they provide are generally automated submissions (often to hundreds of thousands of search engines), submission reports and not much else.
Our advice to our clients who forward e-mails that offer shortcuts to SEO is to stay away. At best, youll end up filling your e-mail with more spam than you can handle. At worst, you may actually hurt your web sites ranking in the search engines.
Case in point - one of our clients just forwarded us an e-mail from a company that provides cheap, easy, and fast web site submission to a whopping 700,000 search engines! This company even has a platinum package which includes submission to these same 700,000 search engines each MONTH for twelve months. Whats the cost? A mere $200.
To the untrained eye, this may look like a sweet deal. You may think itll save you time and money to use a service like this, but in the end youre paying for nothing more than fairy dust and snake oil.
There are two main problems with this type of offer.
1. Your site doesnt need to be listed in more than three, maybe four, search engines - Google, Yahoo and MSN, and you might possibly consider thinking about AOL Search if you have time. Together the top four search engines comprise more than 91% of searches done by US web surfers. The numbers are similar for global usage with Google owning a larger share of the search engine pie compared to the U.S. so even if youre targeting outside the U.S., you dont need to concern yourself with more than a handful of search engines.
2. And speaking of search engine submission, its an archaic practice that is no longer necessary since the rise of a powerful tool called link popularity which is achieved by obtaining incoming links from external web pages (that is, web pages other than those on your own site). Obtaining incoming links to your web site is all you need to do to get listed in Google, Yahoo, MSN or AOL. We promise. Sure 200 bucks isnt that much money, but why spend it if you dont have to?
When it comes to good search engine optimization, there are really no short cuts. Site submission services that advertise via spam tactics such as unsolicited e-mail should at least raise an eyebrow. Likewise, companies that promise #1 search engine positioning for a small fee and no effort on your part (or theirs) may as well be trying to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge.
Spend the $200 on something worthwhile - like hiring an SEO expert to review your web site for a few hours and give you some actionable recommendations that you can use.
About the Author:
Michael Pedone is the President / CEO of eTrafficJams.com. You can catch him blogging at: http://www.etrafficjams.com/blog/.
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