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What to watch out for with some SEO companies
First of all, when you are choosing a search engine optimization
company you want to find one that has a website with up-to-date
information. If you are on a website and see a company stating
that Yahoo charges $199 per year to index your site, this
is old information. Yahoo now charges $299 per year. If the
SEO website you are on states Alltheweb.com or Altavista.com
have a basic free submit service, this is out-of-date information.
These two search engines have gone over to the "dark
side" and have joined Overture in the pay-per-click business
model.
Of all of the websites on the Internet that should display
the latest information, the SEO companies should be at the
top of this list. This is our game. Old information on any
website is bad news (except for archived information that
is).
Some search engine optimization companies will guarantee
that you see significant results within 15 days for a new
website. This is an unrealistic statement that no reputable
SEO company would make. Most significant results from search
engine optimization and submission will occur in months, not
days. Some search engines like Google and MSN may index your
site within 30 days, but if you have a new site, your search
engine placement will be in a sort of "holding tank"
for a while and may be buried in the search engine database
for another 30-60 days. Sure, your site may be listed, in
short order but it will take additional time to gain prominence
in the search engine rankings.
Also, some search engine optimization companies will guarantee
newbies high-ranking results on low-traffic keywords that
have little competition in the search engines. If you are
an SEO company who is not concerned about your customer, this
approach makes sense. There are fewer high-traffic keywords
than low-traffic keywords and the high-traffic keywords generally
have much more competition.
There is an SEO scam on the Internet that consumers need
to be aware of called the "I'll host your optimized pages"
scam. In the "I'll host your optimized pages" scam
you do not have control of your own web pages and basically
pay ransom to the host company on an ongoing basis. Once you
miss a payment your web pages may disappear or the optimization
you had previous paid for will be wiped clean.
Have you been unfortunate enough to receive the SEO spam
scam? This is the email scam that starts out, "I've
noticed you are not listed on some search engines." You
may have gotten this email even though you are listed number
1 on all of the major search engines. First, any reputable
SEO company will not spam you to gain business. The first
quest of any SEO company is to try to get to the top of the
search engines, not send out spam. Second, this email is not
specific to you or your company. Like all spam, the spammers
send out thousands of emails hoping a small percentage pay
off for big profits. Many of the reputable SEO sites now have
ethics statements on their sites. Ethical website optimization
includes no cloaking, no deceptive practices and no spamming.
This list is not comprehensive so it is a good idea to ask
your SEO company questions upfront and that you receive answers
to your satisfaction before you jump onboard. Also, if you
have had any bad experiences with some SEO companies not covered
here, please send us an email so that we may include what
to watch out for in this section and warn other consumers.
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