As most SEO’s do, you probably stumble across a ton of website professing to do SEO with some interesting arguments to back up why they are the ones to go with. Some of what I find may sell well, but only to those client unfortunate enough to not consider some of what really goes into SEO. So, as my title promises, here are 8 really meaningless SEO pitches to watch out for:
1. “We rank #1 on Google out of 92 million search results.”
Who cares what you rank for, what do you clients rank for? And besides that, what difference does it make how many other results there are? Just because you have a lot of “competitors” for a keyword does not mean the keyword is highly competitive. I am pretty sure that even if there were only eleven results that came up for the word ‘Google’ it would be just as hard to be on page 1 for it.
2. “We are a Google AdWords Qualified Company.”
PPC, SEO: not the same thing. There is little that one learns while preparing to become AdWords Qualified that has to do with SEO.
3. “We submit your website to thousands of search engines.”
That’s great, now thousands of search engines that no one uses know about you; it does not mean that they care about your website.
4. “We have been doing SEO for over 10 years.”
This one is tricky. Since the meaning of what SEO is has changed so dramatically in the past ten years, it is difficult to say whether or not experience is a good or bad thing. It could be that an SEO company is using techniques that are ten years old that do little to help, and could get your website banned from Google (i.e. “keyword meta tag optimization”, “hidden keyword text insertion”, “reciprocal links page creation” etc…). On the other hand, if your name is Bruce Clay or Eric Ward, it can be considered a good thing.
5. “We have worked for so-and-so.”
It really does not matter who your clients are. Considering how bad some of the SEO is on major websites, do not be impressed by big names when it comes to SEO. The success of a website is not always due to SEO. Has the company been running a traditional advertising campaign? How much organic traffic are they actually receiving?
6. “We guarantee search engine rankings.”
There are a slew of reasons why not to guarantee results. First of all, rankings are not the end-all of SEO. Secondly, how can you guarantee something that you cannot control? Now that personalization of search results has grown, everyone’s SERP’s do not look alike. And thirdly, even Google warns against it. And Rand said so.
7. “We won the so-and-so award for SEO.”
Unfortunately many awards are attributed on a highest-bidder basis. They are not always awarded based on merit. An SEO company should not be judged on awards alone.
8. “We have software to control search engine positioning.”
Right, that’s why you have taken over every SERP imaginable thanks to the power of your amazing software. I can haz rankings sofwarez?
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