SEO Snake Oil Salesmen, & How to Avoid Them

By Stephen Palmer • May 25th, 2009 • Email This Post • Print This Post

Every industry has its low-lifes, but the Search Engine Optimization industry is particularly saturated with deceivers. My blood boils when I find despicable schemers taking advantage of naive individuals and businesses.

I’m going to tell you a story about my dad to illustrate this point. Stick with me, because the story highlights some critical aspects of the industry. Afterward, I’ll give you specific advice on how to avoid such awful scenarios.

My dad is a non-tech savvy real estate broker. A sleazy company approached him and promised him a top search engine ranking for $250 per month. He was paying that for a couple years until he told me about it, and I uncovered the shameful truth.

The truth is that they were doing absolutely zero legitimate search engine optimization. Instead, they were using Google Adwords, which generates paid text ads on Google searches. In other words, they did nothing to help my dad’s site organically — they were simply paying for a few ads.

When I do a Google search for “search engine optimization,” here’s what comes up:

See the top section with the light tan background? Look very carefully on the top right of that section and you’ll see two very important words: “Sponsored Links.” Now, see the right side column? Once again, you’ll find those two revealing words.

“Sponsored links” means that those are paid ads, which are generated by Google Adwords. The companies creating them are NOT receiving an organic top search engine ranking — they’re simply paying (and, in this case, paying dearly) for the privilege to appear on the first page of this particular search.

So in the case of my dad’s website, the corrupt company was picking specific keywords and phrases in a Google Adwords campaign, such as “deer park, wa” + “real estate.” When people would enter in such searches, their Google ad would appear on the front page, and thus they were claiming a top page ranking.

You might be wondering why this is so contemptible if my dad’s website was, in fact, being advertised on the front page. Here’s why: As I mentioned, he was paying $250 per month, ostensibly for “seo work.” After analyzing the keywords the company was targeting, I realized that they would have to be getting at least 500 clicks per month from their Google ads for it to be worth $250. My dad’s website wasn’t even getting that many total hits per month.

With Adwords, specific search terms cost more or less, depending on their popularity. You’re charged by Adwords every time someone clicks on one of your ads. Some keywords cost $.50 per click; others can cost $50, or even more.

It boiled down to this: Had my dad done his own Adwords campaign, I calculated that he would have paid $50 per month to receive the exact same results that his ridiculous “seo” company was producing. Adwords charges are based on results — in other words, you only get charged if people click on your ads. This company was charging a flat fee completely removed from results. It cost them about $50 per month in actual clicks, and they were pocketing the $200 difference.

Now, helping people set up Google Adwords campaigns is actually a valuable service. What chaps my hide about my dad’s scenario is that they were advertising for search engine optimization. SEO and Adwords are entirely different things. The goal of SEO is to achieve an organic ranking, not get a paid ad to appear.

How to Avoid SEO Snake Oil Salesman

If you’re ever approached by anyone claiming that they can help you with SEO, ask them these questions and listen carefully to their responses:

Do you do actual organic seo, or do you simply use Google Adwords? (If they use Adwords, call them out on deceiving you and drop them like a bad habit. Unless they’ve approached you to help you with Adwords campaigns specifically.)
How quickly can you get me a top ranking? (Beware if they respond with anything less than two months. SEO is hard, painstaking work that can often take months, depending on the keywords and phrases you’re targeting.)
What keywords and phrases do you have in mind for our company? (It’s easy to get a top ranking for words that nobody searches for.)
Can you show me how popular those keywords and phrases are? Can I see evidence of how much traffic they are receiving on a monthly basis? (There are tools that display this, such as Google’s Keyword tool — if they don’t know about these tools, they don’t know what they’re talking about.)
What’s the process you use? Please describe it in detail. (Make them explain it until you understand it — do NOT take action until you do. If they know what they’re doing, they’ll be able to explain it to you plainly. If they don’t, they’ll probably use convoluted, technical descriptions to pull the wool over your eyes.)
What’s your process for securing backlinks to my website? (This is probably the most important component of SEO — the more websites that link to yours, the higher your ranking. However, these links must be associated with specific anchor tags for them to be meaningful. As a follow-up question, ask them which keywords they would use as anchor text for their backlinks to your website. Also, ask them if they do article directory marketing, which is one of the best and easiest ways to secure backlinks. )
How do you charge for your services? (Insist that their compensation be tied to results.)

You may be worried that asking these questions won’t help if you have little or no knowledge of the industry. That’s true to a certain extent, but with the tips I’ve given you here, you should be able to read between the lines as the prospective SEO company answers.

Also, asking these questions will make it seem like you know what you’re talking about, so they’ll be much less likely to pursue your business if they are deceivers — they’ll move on to easier suckers.

The bottom line is this:

SEO is a highly technical and complex world. Those who know its depths are few and far between. It takes time, effort, patience, and a depth of knowledge to get top search engine rankings that really make a difference in your website traffic.

People who promise you quick and easy results should be avoided like the plague. People who can’t explain what they do and how in plain English are most likely deceiving you.

Anyone can get you a top search engine ranking for discreet keywords that nobody searches for — the only SEO firms worth their services are those who will identify the best words and phrases for your particular business and location, then lay out a comprehensive campaign for getting you a top ranking for those search terms. If they can’t prove to you the value of the keywords their targeting, give them the boot.

If a firm is unwilling to tie their compensation to results, leave them in the dust. You’re not paying them for time and effort — you’re paying them to actually get you a top ranking. If they can’t do that, they shouldn’t get paid.

Don’t be hyped, manipulated, propagandized, or cheated into drinking the sugar water elixirs of SEO deceivers. Whenever you’re approached by supposed SEO practitioners, put them to the test and make them prove their legitimacy.

Image Credit: Tennessee Wanderer

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Stephen Palmer is a marketing consultant and persuasive writer with KGaps Consulting, a co-founder of The Center for Social Leadership, and the New York Times best-selling co-author of Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity.

He is a liberal-arts graduate of George Wythe University and a graduate of the “non-traditional business school” Wizard Academy.

Stephen resides in Round Rock, Texas with his gorgeous wife Karina, awesome son Alex, and princess daughters Libby, Avery, and Laela. Stephen and Karina blog about their magical life on Palmer Journeys.