Here at iZIMAX, we take pride in offering all of our clients’ solid, practical SEO advice that can lead to real results. Unfortunately, not all search engine optimization ‘experts’ are as reliable, or as trustworthy. In fact, many of the people who claim to have insider knowledge into the world of this science are just trying to sell you a service that will likely lead you nowhere. If you are actually going to make progress with your online present efforts and make a gain in traffic and conversions, you need to trust an actual expert who knows what they are doing – and won’t make promises that they can’t keep.
Following are ten different claims that you can’t afford to believe when you are looking for a trustworthy source to enlist for their help. If you hear any of these things, quickly turn and go in the other direction.
1. All You Need are Links
Links to your site are important to the success of your optimization process – that much is true. However, the quality of those links is far more important than the sheer number that you are able to get pointed at your site. In fact, just a couple links from high quality, respected sites will do you far more good than hundreds of links from questionable sites. It is not a successful strategy to try to build mass amounts of links on low-reputation sites, and it could even wind up getting you in trouble with Google.
2. I Can’t Tell You What I’m Doing
You should always be skeptical of someone who is unwilling to share with you their strategy. After all, if they won’t tell you what they are doing, how do you know they are doing anything at all? The plan should be clear and upfront regarding what services will be completed, and why. When you are kept in the dark regarding the process taking place on your site, you open yourself up to risk that you shouldn’t have to take. This is your site, and your business, and you shouldn’t take any chances.
3. It Will Only Take a Couple Weeks
Search engine optimization is an ongoing, never-ending battle that you will be engaged in as long as you are a website owner. Anyone who tells you differently is lying. Think about it this way – when you look at the top of the Google rankings for a particular search term, do you see sites with old and outdated content? No. You see sites that are fresh, relevant, and reliable. Just like your website will always be a work in progress, so too will your website constantly need attention and tweaking. Don’t buy a sales line that offers a one-time service to solve your traffic needs for good.
4. Better Optimization Will Fix Your Business
If you have a business that is struggling to stay afloat, SEO is probably not your first concern. The benefits that SEO can bring to your business will be felt in the long term, not the short term. You need to build up a reliable customer base that trusts you and your products or services in order to have a successful business. Optimization can be a powerful marketing tool – but it is just that, a marketing tool. High ranking website alone won’t sell your products. Make sure the rest of your business is in good condition and ready to succeed before you sink time and money into the SEO process.
5. Your Site Needs to Be Submitted to hundreds of Directories
This is one of the worst ‘services’ that you can be sold. Your site doesn’t need to be submitted to hundreds of directories, period. Your site can be submitted to the important search engines, like Google, Yahoo and Bing to make sure they are aware of all of your pages. However, this kind of submission to directories could get you in trouble with Google if they find that you are listing your web address on a large number of directory sites in an effort to gather links. Avoid any kind of service like this completely.
6. You Need More Keywords!
The days of keyword stuffing are gone – long gone. There was a time when you could stack as many keywords as possible into the content of a page and have it help you from an SEO perspective. That won’t work today, and it is another tactic that could result in a Google penalty. That isn’t to say that keywords aren’t important, because they still are. However, you just need to identify a few specific keywords and phrases that are relevant to your business, and use them naturally in your text. There is no need to stuff them to the point of making the text hard to read. Write content with your audience in mind, and the search engines will follow.
7. Unique Content is Not Necessary
If there is one golden rule of optimization in today’s online environment, it is that fresh and unique content is king. When you are able to publish high quality, unique content to your site on a regular basis, you will have a good chance of impressing the search engines. Also, this kind of content is what most web users are looking for, so you will do right by them as well. It is never okay to simply copy the content from another site and use it on your own. That is unethical, possibly illegal, and won’t help you at all in terms of search rankings.
8. #1 Here We Come
Many of the so-called search engine optimization ‘experts’ on the web today will promise to take your site to the number one spot on Google for a specific keyword that you are targeting. Don’t believe them. While it might be possible that your site could someday rise to number one, it isn’t something that anyone can guarantee. There are simply too many variables and unknowns to make such a promise in good faith. Even if everything is done properly on your site from an SEO perspective, there are plenty of elements that are out of your control that could keep you out of the top spot.
9. Experience Not Required
If you do business in a specific niche market that you know well, don’t trust an SEO consultant who knows nothing about the niche, or your business. SEO marketing is no different than any other form of marketing in that an intimate knowledge of the business is required for success. You have to know what you are selling in order to sell it, and an uninformed SEO consultant is sure to do more harm than good. As you are looking around for someone to help you with your SEO efforts, make sure the person you use is someone that has a good understanding of the business you are in and what it will take to succeed.
10. Ignore the Google Algorithm Changes
It is well known that Google is constantly tweaking and adjusting their algorithm in order to better provide relevant search results to users. This is important for web masters to be aware of. If an online marketing firm says that they don’t care about the changes Google has made, you might want to think about finding someone else to work with.
Working with iZIMAX is a sure way to avoid any and all of the problems on the list above. We are an experienced firm that takes pride in doing things the right way to help you find real results without running into trouble with Google. We are a comprehensive internet marketing company with a full complement of services that run beyond search engine optimization and include web development, PPC marketing, social media marketing, and much more. When you are ready to work with an experienced team that will have your best interests in mind throughout the process, please feel free to get in touch. We hope to have the opportunity to work with you soon.
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