Buying Search Engine Optimization Services - Some Risky Search Engine Optimization Practices to Avoid
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It's good know as much as you can about SEO. This way you won't be treated like a dumb blonde in a computer store. Before you do ask any questions though, be sure to state your budget. Most good SEOs won't waste their time answering questions if they think you're a small fish. It's a simple time management issue.
Once you meet the minimums, you can probe SEOs about some spammy techniques to see where they stand. An honest SEO will tell you straight up if they use it and when.
Redirects
Some redirects are designed to pass PR value from one unrelated page to another. This is considered sneaky and is punishable.
Link Renting and Buying
Many good firms actually will rent and buy links. This is a practice that should be used with caution, if at all, because Google has been getting much better at spotting this.
Link Farms
Link farms are small sites linked together for manipulation of search results. Search engines can spot link farms very quickly, and it's recommended you stay away from them. A good company will NOT participate in the link farm business.
Cloaking
Cloaking is showing one version of content to search engines and another version to visitors. Cloaking takes on different forms, like cloaking links, text, sites and pages. It's a very risky business because search engines punish severely for cloaking. There are occasionally legitimate reasons for cloaking, however, as long as you're not actually trying to fool the search engines with it. Ask if the company does it, and if so, why and when.
Automated Content
This one is plain spam. A good firm will say NO.
Conclusion
Prepare to spend several thousand dollars for quality search engine optimization. Run away from offers of less than $1000.
If you get people calling you or sending you email with offers to optimize your web site, hang up or delete the message unread. Good SEO professionals are always in demand; they don't need to solicit for service.
Find out how your prospective SEO feels about black hat and white hat SEO practices, and how familiar he is with each. You don't want to risk your business with someone who might get your business banned because of what they've done to your site.
Be prepared for recurring monthly maintenance fees.
Go for small search engine optimization firms over big ones. They tend to have more passion, energy and creativity.
Don't think of SEO as the magic pill. If the business model is wrong, SEO won't help. If, on the other hand, you have creative ideas or a decent business model, SEO will drive good profits.
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