It’s easy to forget sometimes that each of us is at our own point on the path of learning.
While those of us who live/breathe Internet Marketing have come to view certain truths as self-evident and obvious, many people are just starting out, coming to grips with the basics and uncertain about what information they can trust.
We all start there.
And when you’re just starting out it’s tough to separate the scoundrels from the sages.
I’m not one to claim that I’ve “seen it all” in SEO in my 4-5 years of involvement, but I’ve certainly seen my share of scams. And it amazes me: they don’t seem to be going away. Some of the oldest and most ridiculous scams are still being run.
And if they’re still selling that means that there are business owners out there who don’t know better.
It’s sad, but there are those who prey on the uninformed. This isn’t unique to SEO. It’s an unfortunate fact of life in the business world. Honesty isn’t a prerequisite to charge for services.
Here are 8 SEO scams that just don’t seem to go away and an explanation of why each one is simply not worth your money.
1) “X Top Ten Rankings Guaranteed!”
I had the unfortunate experience of working for a company that offered “50 page one Google rankings guaranteed” as an incentive for uncertain prospects. Not to say hard work wasn’t being done – it was. But guaranteed rankings are meaningless.
Why this is a scam
First off, nobody can guarantee a ranking. Secondly, your website already has hundreds of page one rankings. Here’s an example: search for “mike tekula unstuck.” I guarantee you UnstuckDigital.com (my website) is the first result. Shouldn’t it be?
Go through your own website and put together a list of similar ridiculously obscure keywords. Search for them. You’re going to find lots of page one rankings.
Rankings have never been the goal. They’re merely a means to an end. The end is leads/sales/whatever your goal is. Qualified traffic that converts. A ranking by itself means nothing if it refers no qualified traffic.
2) “We’ll submit your website to thousands of search engines!”
Really? Thanks. Thousands of search engines sure is a lot. It would probably take me weeks to do all that myself.
Why this is a scam
How many search engines have you heard of?
How many do you use on a regular basis (at least once per week)?
You’re not unique in this. Most people use Google – about 70% of people in this country as a matter of fact. Something like 20% use Yahoo!. 8% use Microsoft Live. Ask.com, Dogpile, Metacrawler, etc – the handful of remaining search engines collectively get about 2% of search traffic.
There are not thousands of search engines to worry about. There are three. And if you’re really pressed for resources, there is one – Google.
The worst part about scams like this: those “search engines” they’re submitting your website to? They’re mainly SPAM centers. So not only is your money being ill-spent on this “service,” but you’ll be inundated with SPAM emails until the cows come home.
3) “500 Directory Links for $49.95″
Link building is important – links are the most powerful way to outrank your competitors. Link building is also really, really hard.
So when someone comes along offering you 500 links for $50 you might think it’s a good idea – that’s just $.10 per link!
Why this is a scam
Ask yourself: if you were Google would you want it to be this easy for websites to achieve top rankings? Just drop $50 here or there on a few links and bamn, you’re at the top?
Of course not.
There’s a general rule of thumb here: the cheaper the link, the less powerful.
Sometimes, when you’re clever and create great stuff, links come on their own – and these can be very powerful. But the kind of links you’re going to get for nothing more than a $50 upfront investment are worthless.
4) “1st Page of Google in 48 Hours!”
This scam preys on those in a hurry – they’ve got a website, the sales are not coming in and they’re hoping to hire an “expert” to get them visible in search engines quickly.
Why this is a scam
Anybody (yes, anybody) can get to the 1st page of Google almost instantaneously, and you don’t need to hire someone to do it.
- Step 1: Sign up for AdWords
- Step 2: Pick a keyword, any keyword
- Step 3: Pay
You can pay for top placements all you want – that will make Google very happy. Consistent and qualified traffic streams and a positive ROI are another story.
5) “We have an inside man at Google”
Wouldn’t it be cool if your consultant had a “man on the inside?” You’d get your SEO advice straight from the horse’s mouth!
Why this is a scam
You really think Google employees are selling state SEO secrets to John and Jane Q. Consultant? Remember the Rosenbergs?
Google’s ranking algorithm reportedly contains 200+ variables. In short: they could hand the formula to just about anybody – we wouldn’t be able to “crack the code” and start ranking well. Too many of the variables are hard, if not impossible, to game.
6) “Our methods are a trade secret – we can’t tell you what we’re doing”
Of course some things are proprietary – you can’t expect companies and consultants to give up all their goodies.
Why this is a scam
The minute you’re paying someone for a fuzzy list of deliverables you’ve entered the twilight zone of the B2B services universe – where the basic trade of money for actual work unravels.
I wouldn’t expect your SEO to tell you everything about their research methods, tools and software, but then your mechanic doesn’t turn over a work order with one line item titled, “secret car repair service” and expect you to pay, does he?
7) “We’ve studied and cracked Google’s algorithm”
Similar to #5, this one is equally absurd. It sounds very nerdy and scientific – and we all like the idea of being in on top secret info, especially when it makes us money.
Why this is a scam
Not even Google employees have “cracked” the algorithm. It’s handled by a team of engineers and is updated sometimes several times per week. In other words, a minute after someone “cracked” the algorithm their information would be outdated.
8) “We just need to install this link directory on your website”
Sounds simple enough – and they’ll usually offer to do it for a low upfront price.
Why this is a scam
Your SEO consultant/company is basically telling you that their link building strategy amounts to nothing more than a thin link exchange program. Run screaming. They might not be knowingly scamming their clients, but they don’t know SEO.
This method was already stale and fruitless when people were still listening to Creed (isn’t it nice to let the past die?).
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
#1 is the hardest one to compete against. Of course clients want a guarantee that what they’re spending their money on is going to get them something valuable, and they think ranking first on google is the thing to have. We really have to educate our clients that what we’re aiming for is an improvement in rankings, and more importantly an improvement in traffic & conversions.
Also, if they’re guaranteeing #1 in Google for anything relatively competitive? They’re probably doing #8 to get there…
It’s tough for sure – people like guarantees. But when I think about guaranteed rankings I think about the quote from Tommy Boy,
One of the first things I teach new prospective clients is that rankings have zero value – only traffic (and qualified, converting traffic) has value. Once you explain it using simple examples people grasp the concept – the problem is that you have to get to them before the scammers do.
I like to think we’re getting closer to being able to calculate the true ROI of SEO – Enquisite Campaign sure looks interesting in that regard. I’m planning to give it a trial run…
Mike,
What do you know about outrank.com? Is that a scam, too?
Not looking to buy anything, just assessing the company as a potential employer…
@J S – It’s hard to evaluate a company’s practices from the outside looking in, but their “Front Page Position within 60 Days” guarantee raises all the wrong alarms.
I would never say arbitrarily that they don’t do legitimate work, but those guarantees, in my experience, are thin and low-value at best.
And what’s wrong with a business BUYING PAGE ONE? Not anyone can do SEM management properly. It’s obvious you are clueless about PAGE ONE SEM.
Try to buy a MAJOR KEYWORD, if the seo of the page is off or if the ads CTR and the QS are off, you end up paying a fortune for PPC.
PPC and SEM management is a SKILL, that’s why the top IT positions in many corporate IT centers are the VP’s of SEM.
Anyone can BUY PAGE ONE?
Spoken like an ignoramus, I have a ton of clients, they thought like you, they could BUY PAGE ONE, after they tried and had 10 buck PPC rates, they HIRED ME to manage their PAGE ONE SEM, then they get real SEO work and bingo, before you know it, THEY ARE TOP OF PAGE ONE once I get involved.
If you KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING, you get PAGE ONE pretty quickly, sure SEM is instant, but REAL SEO doesn’t take months like the novices say.
THE PROS DO IT FAST
I pop PAGE ONE for clients usually in a week with PURE SEO SKILLS
And what I do, is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS nor my clients business
I show them PAGE ONE SERPS one after another
Tons of keywords where ONLY DIRECTORIES ARE PAGE ONE
Yet, the only business clients on the serp’s ARE MINE
How come?
I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING
I wrote one of the first books on SEO over 10 years ago
Wow, you’ve been doing SEO for 4 to 5 years…
hahaha
yeah, so what
your information shows how little you know
scams are scams
no one buys the submit to X thousands SE’s, and no one buys the 500 backlinks for 10 cents a link garbage
that’s not SEO
it’s SCAMS
Real SEO Guru’s walk into a client, they go to google, they show MAJOR KEYWORDS IN BUSINESS
Words with millions of pages in serps
BINGO their work is PAGE ONE
When you have that in your arsenal, the client shuts up and whips out the check book
SEO IS RESULTS DRIVEN
You have PAGE ONE SERPS for major terms, you have real business clients, you are a REAL SEO GURU
BOTTOM LINE IS ALL BUSINESSES WANT
You show them PAGE ONE for major words and they hire you
BUSINESSES PAY A LOT FOR REAL SEO RESULTS
All this garbage I see on sites like this is well, GARBAGE
show your client list
show your serp’s
that’s who you are
SEO is real simple
you either deliver PAGE ONE or you don’t
if you do for REAL BUSINESS WORDS, then you have a ton of clients
you get referrals all the time
you drive a ferrari or lambo
you make a ton of cash
YOU THE MAN
Life of a SEO GURU…
Dear Readers,
I think we can all learn something important from the above comment. When you’ve been drinking heavily it’s a good idea to stay away from the keyboard.
Best,
Mike
I want to know why our resident SEO GURU couldn’t be bothered to give his real name or provide any proof that he’s written a book 10 years ago. Probably because, frankly, he’s full of crap.
His website also has a total of 9 inbound links according to Yahoo! – and all from domains he owns. Clearly this guy has talent and experience.
Edit: Oh, my mistake – I was looking at the wrong version of his website. With so many mirror sites at various domains it got confusing.
Why of course he has talent and experience, he *is* a guru after all!
Yes, and that is no title to take lightly. Gurus have to traverse the roughest paths, climb the highest peaks and slay beasts of unmentionable fury before they are granted the title by the SEO gods.
Thank you so much for the info…..I only wish i saw this site before i purchased services from an SEO company…Oh and on top of that i wish i heeded the suggestions!!!! Sometimes some sales people can really be convincing….when your hungry for the gold, that mirage they create can suck you in if you let em…thats why its really important for folks to be a little educated…..here’s a site i feel can be effective that also shares some tips: http://www.seoincscam.com another site that i put together for conumer protection is http://www.seoscaminc.com
Hi Ari, thanks for the kind words. It’s angering to come across people who’ve been wronged or feel that way such as yourself – but unfortunately not uncommon.
You’re spot-on – all we can do is promote education, and I applaud you for sharing your story in hopes that others might avoid similar woes.
Outrank.com is not a scam. They gurantee they can get your site on the first page or stop billing you until they do (think of it as a set up fee for the SEO work).
Took them about 40 days to get me there, I’ve seen a noticeable increase in business since I implemented this solution.
I certainly wouldn’t call any businesses’s offerings a “scam” without ample evidence to support that kind of claim.
If Outrank.com truly does work for “free” until they’ve secured the listings they’ve promised then I certainly wouldn’t call that a scam.
However, whether a “first page” position directly equates to value for your business is another question – I personally don’t recommend correlating rankings to success and prefer to tie it all back to verifiable ROI metrics (such as sales or conversions) whenever possible.
I used Outrank.com, They charged $595 upfront to get you on page one within 60 days. I later found other companies doing the same for half or less with no upfront, (don’t know if they are any good). Cancelled my contract, tried to get out but they charged my card again, (30 day written notice required) I think we have received a total of 2 leads for all this trouble. Oh, and when I tried to discuss it with them they got hostile and hung up the phone. This is a real classless operation that you should stay for away from.
While I can’t comment on Outrank.com and their services, my basic question is this: “page one” for what? What keyword(s)?
And the follow-up question: does that “page one” placement actually amount to anything?
I once worked with a company who guaranteed 100 “page one” listings in six months.
Guess what: that’s incredibly easy to achieve. I detailed the process, and why it was a scam, in this SEOmoz post.
The point: rankings have zero value unless they send you targeted traffic – measuring that is where you should be focused.
Mike:
Did you ever try Enquisite Campaign, and if so, how did it fare?
I have not had the chance to work with Enquisite Campaign as of yet – but I was intrigued when I first learned about it. I’ve been impressed by what Enquisite has done in the past – so I would certainly consider Campaign worth a try.