SEO Scams and Scammers
(caution advised!)
There are very valid and useful SEO service providers, but there are also way too many SEO scammers. Just beware!
What about SEO Services?
Beware of SEO Scams! I often hear horror stories from clients of being sold SEO services that they discovered were a scam after they'd been defrauded for thousands in SEO fees (even held hostage), by their so-called 'search engine optimization companies'.
The SEO scammers are typically sending spam mail, and hard-selling their services. They charge outrageous fees by scaring people into thinking they will never be found on the internet without them.
You need to be aware of what not to fall for. Any offer to optimize your website that comes to you as an unsolicited email is SPAM. Those emails are to be completely ignored. Don't be too proud to ask when you don't understand something they are telling you. Do some research on the web and ask a lot of questions.
Some WEB DESIGNERS deliberately build websites that are inadequately optimized in the 'organic' way a good web design should be... just so they can sell you SEO services. The average person believes and trusts them then are charged so much more than they need to pay for what should have been created as a well-optimized website.
INFORMATION YOU REALLY NEED TO KNOW!
A
well-designed website is most important, and necessary
keywords and relevant keyword phrases are built into all the
sites I design for great organic SEO that my clients rave
about.
That is an important way to
influence your website ranking in Google unless you want to
pay a ton of money as a paid Google advertiser. (A paid
advertiser is up in the shaded area or in the right margin
of a search results page.)
If you want to advertise with
Google you do not have to pay a middle man. Simply deal with
Google direct for paid advertising if that is what you want.
Do not give anyone claiming to
be an SEO expert access to your website. They can easily
damage it because 99% of them are not web designers. They
are merely good salesmen who are promising the moon. They
are people with some tech knowledge that are selling search
engine optimization services whether you need them or not
and they may actually cause your rankings harm. GOOGLE INFO
ON SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION & SEO SCAMS. There is also an
address to report to if you feel you've been the victim of a
SEO Scam.
If you are thinking of hiring
someone for SEO, be sure you get a lot of references, and
examples of work from anyone you plan to use. And, don't
allow them to talk over your head. That's part of their game
plan. It's all very straight forward and you want it
explained in plain language!
The things I do to optimize your website during development are really important for good search engine ranking. In the event you do allow a search engine company access to your website and they make changes to the site, please notify me immediately so I can remove your site from my portfolio as the changes have typically degraded the quality of the site and I do not want your changed website representing my workmanship any longer.