8 SEO Scams that are Alive and Well

8 SEO Scams that are Alive and Well

Contrary to popular belief, scamming in the world of SEO is alive and well. Business owners fall victim to it every day, and good Phoenix SEO firms lose their reputation inch by inch. To fight back, many Phoenix SEO firms, like ourselves, try to dispel the scams and help business owners keep a look out for ref flags that can spell disaster for an SEO campaign. Listen to these tips and you'll not only save time, but save yourself a lot of headaches down the line.

The Gratuitous Guarantee
These top three lies are the most often told, as they are the scams that are the least traceable. You could search to see if a company is associated with Google or if they've publicized cracking the uncrackable algorythm that is Google. But a guarantee? They're just words, and that's all you'll get in the end. Words. Why? Because nobody can guarantee rankings because everybody else is fighting for the top spot. You're bound to run into snags, have to change courses, and perhaps deal with only being on the first page, and not #1 for quite a while. If anybody is offering a guarantee for #1 spot, run for the hills.

The 'Thousands of Search Engines' Ploy
This one is funny, as people hear big numbers and don't use common sense. There are really only 3 major search engines that anyone has heard of. Google - Yahoo - Bing. Can you name any others? If you can you're in the minority, and why would you want to rank on a search engine only 2% of people use?

$50 for 500 Links!This is the pitch we lose clients to. They want to go with the company that's going to give them more for less. Why does it work? Because everybody wants to save money on their business internet marketing, but they know they still have to do it. It's a double edged sword for small business owners wanting to compete online. So when this golden opportunity to gain hundreds of back-links for a mere $49.95 comes along, it sounds too good to be true. At it is. The cheaper the link, the more likely it is to be just that - a cheap link. It will have no weight, most likely not be relevant, and what's more, could be on a website that you just don't want to be advertising on!

It's Friday? You'll be #1 on Monday!
This is the other pitch that people fall for. So you've got a website, and you're not making money off of it. The solution is to start an Phoenix SEO campaign to boost rankings and potential sales, and on top of it, you don't want it to take too long. Well listen up! You can get ranked in 2 days! How? Google AdWords. Why is this a scam? Because you're not getting targeted, consistent traffic to your site. Also - your site is only visible to people who type in that specific keyword, and only if they click in the paid portions of search engines. On top of that, once your budget is used up: your website falls off the face of the earth.

We've got Google in our Back Pocket
No employee at Google is going to risk getting fired and fined till the cows come home to help you get ranked in their search engine. Remember that, and don't ever fall for this. Google is in it for themselves, and they're not going to partner with ONE special Phoenix, AZ SEO company and help them make a profit.

The 'Trade Secret' of SEO
If you've got a contract with hazy deliverables and not a lot of concrete information, someone is hiding something from you. Granted, we have to protect our livelihood and our strategies, but once a contract is signed, you should be able to ask questions and get an answer.

Google's Algorithm? Cracked!
Not so. Engineers are working 'round the clock to keep updating, adding to, and changing the algorithm, so on the off chance that someone who's got enough computer hacking knowledge to even scratch the surface of Google's algorithm, 24 hours later, that information will be old news.

Installing Things on your Website
The only thing someone should be installing on your website is Google Analytics and a sitemap if you don't have one. Anything else and the company probably doesn't know what they're doing. Installing a link directory, or any other type of 'internet widget' probably means all their link building amounts to is a link exchange. The point, gentlemen, is one-way links.

In the end, do your homework. Make sure the company you're paying to do your work isn't just taking money from you and letting a computer program do all the work. SEO takes time, energy and human thought to come up with creative, effective strategies that will be a long-term success solution rather than a quick fix that might land you in hot water.

For more information on our SEO plans (or if you need help fixing an SEO mess!) give us a call at 480.442.6106 or email us directly.

-- Integraphix, an Ethical SEO Firm

Phoenix SEO: Long Term or Short Term SEO?

Phoenix SEO Firm & Internet Marketing Arizona

Before the marketing gurus reading this comment, sit tight and read first. Take a minute and analyze what SEO or Search Engine Optimization means to business owners reading this or considering SEO as a viable business investment.

Businesses are continuously having to cut costs in an ever tight economical environment and all of the marketing and advertising they do has to almost guarantee a result and return on that investment. That marketing needs to grow the business without the long-term marketing costs increasing. Business owners want profits and, in order to be (stay) profitable, expenses need to be kept at a minimum in every area. Even marketing.

Unfortunately, an advertisement in a paper is a tangible object. Phoenix SEO is not. Instead of looking at SEO as an investment, since it is an intangible service, most business owners don't want to pay a lot of money to have their website optimized. But, let's look as some statistics and companies.  

Coca-cola.

Walmart.

JCPenney

Pepsi.

You know of them right? Because they've never stopped advertising. They've never quit their SEO and SMM efforts because the saying goes...out of sight, out of mind. And it's true! You think if Coca-Cola stopped advertising and Pepsi took advantage of it that Coke would survive? Perhaps for a while, due to loyal customers, but what about new customers? Pepsi would win out in the end.

We often talk to business owners that want to invest temporarily in SEO or Social Media Marketing, and just do it until it starts working and then taper off or eliminate it later. Like I said before, if Coke stopped advertising and Pepsi didn't...who gets the new client? Pepsi. 

If you STOP your SEO efforts...your rankings will fall, your traffic will fall and the people who didn't stop WILL take your high ranking from you.

Long Term vs. Short Term
There are techniques that can be done to your website that only need to be done once before moving on such as url structure, image renaming images, alt tags, meta data and general content. But the external process is a perpetual researching of keywords, adding blog posts and continuously making a website more search engine friendly and keyword focused.

When consulting with your SEO Company, get out of the mindset that this is an expense. Look at the return on your investment that a strategic SEO campaign will bring. You'll come to the realization that cutting SEO out of the budget is ultimately cutting into your costs.

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Phoenix SEO: Top 5 Google SEO Ranking Factors

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It's fairly comment to find clients who've worked with SEO firms in the past that really didn't understand all the factors that go into determining where a website ranks in the SERPs. Some people think it's merely a matter of stuffing your title tags and meta data full of random keywords and sitting back. 

A hint: Most of SEO is in the background and you'll never see it unless you look at the source code of a website.

By reading industry blogs, practicing Phoenix, AZ SEO and Internet Marketing since the mid-2000's, we've gathered a massing of data about SEO techniques and have shortened a 5 inch binder full of information down to the top 5 most important Google SEO in Phoenix AZ ranking factors you should be implementing on all of your websites.

Age of Domain

This sometimes can't be helped, especially if you just started a business, but domain age is incredibly important to the search engines. It means you're established, and by association are more trust-worthy. If you have the cash, you can purchase a domain name that's been around a while (for a few grand). Otherwise...you've got a long road ahead of you.

Content, Content, Content.

Content is king, content is king! Hail to the king of Phoenix SEO. If you've got a beautiful website about Shoes, and all your content is about the great sweater you've got for sale, you can say goodbye to rankings for Shoes forever. The jist of the matter is this: write great, unique content using targeted keywords spread out naturally in your paragraphs. Never ever write solely for a search engine spider. It's a great way to lose customers and get black-listed at the same time.

Hidden Tags, Images and Internal Linking

Ok yes, this is three in one, but they're all important! A lot of SEO is unseen or brushed off by the human eye, but spider-bots read them all the time. Hidden tags include Title Tags, H1-H6, Alts, no-index, no-follow, etc. The most important of these are the Title Tags, H1 tags and Alt tags. They tell the spiders and therefore the search engines, what your website is about. Images? Important? Yes! Make very sure, when you upload an image to your website, that you include your keywords in the image name. Don't ever leave it the 'istock number' or the 'straight from the camera' name or even worse... header.jpg. As for Internal Linking, not only does linking internally show your visitors where to go, it tells the spiders where to go as well. Keep the clickable images to a minimum and make sure you incorporate the LEAST amount of flash as possible.

Keywords!!!

Keywords make the world go round. Without keywords, having an optimized website is worthless. Make sure you're doing your research and giving each specific page it's designated keyword based on the content and topic of each page. Example: If your page is about web design, don't talk about graphic design. Don't name your images graphic design related. 

Inbound & Outbound Links

Inbound links are better known as backlinks. Think of them like votes for your website. The key to building great inbound backlinks is to not BUY them. Develop them naturally and more links will follow! Outbound links are links from your website to others. If they're not relevant, don't bother.

For more information on Phoenix Marketing Agency, Phoenix SEO, Phoenix AZ Web Design and Phoenix AZ Graphic Design, call us for a FREE skype consultation at 623.696.0258.

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Phoenix Marketing & SEO: Google Search Enhanced

Phoenix SEO & Phoenix Marketing Agency

Recently, Google launched a new search feature called 'Search by Image'. While experimenting with the feature, we defines 3 places where Google's search by image has a real advantage over traditional ways to find link building opportunities.

What is Search by Image? You can use images (either the url or uploaded) as your search term! The goal of Search by Image is to point you at websites that are related to that image. You can find more at the Google Blog.

Get Background on Industry Influencers

As we've often discussed, pinpointing the mass internet user's interests using them to creative connections, is an amazing way to get in influential people and businesses radar. If you do this correctly, using Twitter, Facebook or Phoenix SEO Marketing Agency, this can produce exposure and links to your website.

Not surprisingly, the most successful SEO consultants, are also the best at personal online branding. We've written a post or two about making your brand more consistent online and offline. Being very consistent in your use of logos in blogging websites, social media and in your marketing materials is extremely important.

When testing the new Google features using a our logo, I found an enormous amount of image results attached to comments and similar images (Dontcha love how BMW pops in there?).

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This also gave us a view of all the blogs we've commented on in the past few months. If used on a competitor, it could give you a distinct advantage because you can filter results by simply using their logo. 

Identifying Link Building Opportunities

Search for Popular Guest Posters! In the SEO community, Ann Smarty is THE person that is most synonymous with guest posting on blogs. Not simply because her over her website, myblogguest.com, but because she's a prolific guest poster in her own right. Regardless of this, she's very good at maintaining her personal brand. So using Google Search by Image, you can search her profile image to look for guest posting opportunities, and link building opportunities on top of that.

Find Coverage That Didn't Result in a Link

Another great technique to find PR opportunities is to mine for stock CEO photos and participation that didn't result in a link for that company. Search branded logos and photos to find great pages where companies and employees are getting spotlighted.

Try it with any Fortune 500 Company and you'll find significant RP presence that can result in you getting a backlink.

Another way you can use Search By Image is to mine for press coverage and participation in offline activities that didn't result in a link. Searching by brand logos and "stock" CEO photos are a great way to find pages where a company or employee is getting highlighted.

For more information on Google Image Search, contact us at 847.537.0067 or visit us online at the following:

- Phoenix Marketing Agency

- Website Marketing Phoenix

- Phoenix Creative Agency

- Phoenix SEO Company

SEO Phoenix: How to Choose!

Phoenix SEO

With so many SEO Specialists in Phoenix, AZ, how do you choose the right one for your company? There are several factors to consider when you approach an SEO Specialist for the first time. Below we will break these factors down for you so you can go into a meeting with knowledge, and avoid getting scammed.

Research
Typically, when you approach a company that specializes in something, they'll know far more about the topic than you. They're good at it and you rely on them to produce results for you. Our recommendation is to do your research before you go into a meeting with an SEO specialist. As with any specialized area, one bad egg can make it hard for the rest of us to keep our good name. Researching before walking into a meeting with minimize the possibility of being taken advantage of or signing a contract with a company that uses unethical practices. There are plenty of blogs and advices from other business owners that you can look at. SEOmoz is a great resource, though the blog is full of SEO lingo that might be a little over the head of an untrained person. A little knowledge will stop you being completely baffled about what your Phoenix SEO Specialist is talking about and trying to sell you.

Terminology
As with any business there is technical jargon for the products or services that are offered. Your SEO Specialist should be able to deliver a strategy in laymen's terms for you. A few industry terms are as follows:
Backlinks: Links from one website that pointing to your website.
Keywords: Words that are used by search engines to determine the topic of a given web page.
Organic Search:Search results in a search engine that are not paid advertisements.
White Hat SEO: The use of accepted SEO practices in order to get higher rankings, more traffic, etc.
Be sure to look at a great glossary of SEO Terms, and take a look at some of our previous posts including Why SEO should be important to you, Optimizing your Website for Local Search, When to Fire your SEO Firm, and How to Optimize your Social Media.

SEO Strategy
No business is creative equal. Following that, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to SEO. If your SEO Firm is trying to sell you the same strategy they sold to someone else, not only will it not work, but it's unethical on their part to be working for two competing companies. In addition to demanding a unique strategy, never ever buy an SEO package online from a company you've never met with.

Results
As with any business, success is measured by results. If your SEO firm can't show you real, current results, run away quickly. Depending on client confidentiality, ask your chosen SEO firm to show you a few results pages in Google to see the current positions they've achieved. Ask to see their social media and Google Place page. Ask to see the SEO Firms's Place page. Make sure people are saying GOOD things about them. Do a little research on your own as well - don't ever take a company's website as the gospel truth. People can lie! It's helpful to type in the company's name and add 'scam' to it in a Google search. If there've been problems, they'll show their ugly face soon enough.

If you need more information on SEO and Internet Marketing, call Integraphix, a Phoenix SEO Firm at 847.537.0067 to set up a Free Internet Marketing appointment.

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Integraphix | Phoenix SEO Firm

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