SEO Strategies That Will Burn You – Part 2

Posted on | June 30, 2009 | 1 Comment

In Part 1 we discussed the redundancy of search engine submission and the risk of buying into guaranteed search engine optimization results. This week we are going to focus on a few other SEO strategy warning signs.

3. You’re going to do ALL THAT, for how much?
As the saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is! The same goes for SEO services. If your SEO provider is promising monthly link building, content creation for your website and reporting, all for $100 a month, there a few questions you should ask:

So do those monthly services translate to 1 directory link, an automated report and a poorly written, keyword heavy article for my site?
What quality of work can be expected and will there be a tangible, quality SEO result from this?
$100 a month for 12 months is still $1,200 – is this the best way in which to invest that $1,200?

One of the greatest costs of making a poor SEO decision is opportunity cost, all those other things you could have done such as actually ranking higher in the search engines, instead of losing time, money and patience. Do not make the mistake of selecting SEO according to price. The price you paid for the SEO is the least of your costs.

Have you ever thought to yourself:
I could buy the cheap pair of shoes and replace them in 6-12 months, or I could spend some more money, buy quality and only have to replace them in 2 years.

The same analogy works well for SEO. If you buy cheap SEO, you will be replacing that provider faster than you think, but if you opt for quality, the mutually beneficial relationship can last a good few years!

4. Stay away from the usual suspects in black hat SEO
Finally, don’t get drawn into strategies that could potentially penalise your website. These strategies include:
-    Hidden text
-    Cloaking
-    Keyword stuffing
-    Manipulative linking
-    “Low value” pages

These concepts have been discussed in great detail online, so instead of rehashing what has been said quite eloquently before, here’s a link to Rand Fishkin’s updated section in Rewriting the Beginner’s Guide Part IX: Myths, Penalties & Spam.

Category: SEO Strategies
Tags: Search Engine Optimisation

Comments

One Response to “SEO Strategies That Will Burn You – Part 2”

Havok
July 1st, 2009 @ 7:37 am

A reasonable standard is “how much would I pay an employee?” I think

Your example of $100 per month amounts to, roughly, a single person spending a single hour on your site, per month (30 days). likely much less than you might expect, given the “promises”