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6 Signs Your SEO Firm is a Scam

Guest post by: Wendy Suto

Article Overview: Many SEO companies practice unethical SEO techniques. Learn how to discern whether an SEO firm is legit and ethical or not.

6 Signs Your SEO Firm is a Scam

SEO firms are a growing industry today. With billions of Websites on the Internet, how else are you going to get yours ranked on Google without the help of SEO experts? However, there are different ways to go about search engine optimization. The ethical, organic SEO firms, also called white hat SEO firms go about search engine optimization the legal, search engine-approved way, without cutting corners and taking shortcuts. Other SEO firms, known as black hat firms go a different route, taking shortcuts, overloading and hiding keywords and creating doorway sites. The practices of black hat SEO firms also known as spamming or spamdexing will get your website blacklisted and sometimes you won't even see it coming. So how can you tell when to stay away?

1. The SEO firm's WHOIS information looks suspicious or the firm operates with multiple aliases. Any ethical SEO firm that is legit will want to prove themselves and will probably give you a free website analysis report so they can discuss how they can help your search engine rankings grow. They will under no circumstances try to hide information about their practices from you because they want to prove they can help you.

2. The SEO provider promises quick, first page rankings. It is impossible for any SEO firm to know what rank they will get your site to. All they can do optimize your site in attempt to raise your site's page rank, which is a process that can take years. Also watch out if they claim to have a special relationship with Google or any other search engine, they don't.

3. The organization puts links to other clients on doorway pages. Doorway pages are web pages designed and built specifically to lure search engine visitors to your website. These pages usually auto refresh to a second web site. To avoid doorway pages, make sure every page on the site that you want indexed can be accessed by at least two internal links and the pages are relevant to the site visitor.

4. The firm is not listed in the Google index or has had domains removed from the Google index. This is a major red flag, why would a firm that specializes in SEO not be listed in the Google index itself?

5. The SEO company owns shadow domains. Shadow domains are small, optimized Web sites that the firm designed to drive traffic to your site. Shadow domains are highly regarded as shady practices by the search engines and may eventually blacklist the domain from the search engines either temporarily or permanently.

6. The firm uses link farms. A link farm is a site page that contains hundreds of links in one place that aren't relevant to the information and are useless to the site visitor. The only purpose they serve is the reciprocal links will make search engines think more sites are linking to yours, therefore increasing a site's rank. However, this practice won't fool the search engines' Web crawlers forever and the site will be eventually caught and penalized.

While each search engine has different regulations for detecting spam, the results are always the same. A company's Web site will lose its rankings and may be taken out of the index completely. Recovery from being banned or blacklisted can take a long time and sometimes one can never recover. Whether you know about the unethical practices taking place or not, search engines do not care and the penalty will still remain. If a significant part of your business depends on your online marketing and presence, a ban could mean trouble. It can take months to convince the search engine that the problem has been corrected and you deserve another chance. This is why it is so important to know what to look for when dealing with SEO scams and unethical black hat practices.

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Article Tags: search circus, search engine optimization, seo firm, website marketing firm



Related Forum Posts
Re: Quote of the Day - "We are each responsible for our own life - In one of my articles related to "Is It a Scam or is it YOU" most cry Scam when in fact they have done nothing the with the program, havent followed the bluprint or the training, improperly marketed it. etc. "One mans scam may be another mans bonanza" is a quote used. Summing up the article, Do your Own Due Diligence, Make your own decision, and finally "Take Responsibility for your Decision regardless of the outcome Good or Bad"
Re: Profiles on Infamous Entrepreneurs? - Hi Kevin, I guess the point about running a "Scam" thread would be to attract those different opinions so they can be aired on an open forum and responded to fairly. Both sides of the argument could then be seen in one place (here!).
Re: What is your Business? - We are running a Online Marketing Firm and we have some good clients to which we are offering a complete Digital Marketing strategy like Search, Mobile Marketing, Branding and Design. I think in Online Marketing company online presence can be a wining factor for the success of the company.
seeking investors for global finance opportunity - Phoenix Global Funding, Inc. is a Global Commercial Loan Brokerage, Merchant Bank, and a Business Consulting Firm that can work on commercial deals of all sizes. Our greatest strengths are revealed through our superior internet interface and our extensive private network of lenders and equity partners with which we can service any company on the planet by having the ability to broker and coordinate mergers, acquisitions, and funding of all kinds. As a full service commercial financial conduit we also provide valuation, business management, and profitability consulting. I am offering common stock ownership in Phoenix Global Funding, Inc. It is exciting to be in a position to be able to share not only ownership but profit in this latest project. Our business plan was developed from the oldest, most reliable and the most profitable business model ever created, LENDING. This is all about what the big boys do on Wall Street everyday. We are raising US$1,000,000.00 with share prices starting at $1.00. The exit strategy is in 3 years with a minimum 3 to 1 return on capital, plus a 20% profit share annually.
Napoleon on Project Management - Why do I include this in a list of books aimed at female entrepreneurs? Well...in the expectation that there are as many female history buffs as male ones, and in the belief that anyone interested in history will find this book fascinating, while those interested in project management will learn a thing or two. I think this was the first "gimmick" book - an author using a historical figure (usually a male, military figure, it must be admitted) to talk about modern day business management. I refuse to read any of the kind that advocates - even obliquely - the techniques of the Sopranos or the Mossad - but these military ones are pretty fun. Anyway: Only in the understanding of history, Napoleon might say, do we gain an understanding of strategy in the present. In the same spirit, Napoleon on Project Management offers the recipe for successfully managing your commitments using the strategies, tactics and priorities that propelled Napoleon himself to victory. [The book doesn't gloss over how Napolean eventually fell in defeat, of course, and there's lessons to be learned there as well. TOC Foreword by Douglas James Allan (Napoleanic Society of America) 1. The Rise to Power -The Skills to Succeed -A Compelling Vision -Diplomacy and Networking -Lessons from the Great Campaigns 2. Napoleon's 6 Winning Principles -Introduction -Exactitude -Speed -Flexibility -Simplicity -Character -Moral Force 3. The Downfall -What Went Wrong -Lessons from the Russian Invasion and Waterloo -The Four Critical Warning Signs -Napoleon's Legacy


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