I often receive questions from clients who have received an email from a company guaranteeing them a #1 ranking on Google or from a company that will submit their site to 5000 search engines for $20 or less and want to know if these offers are legitimate.
Top Rankings For Key Phrases Are Only Useful If People Are Searching For That Key Phrase
Today, for instance, I saw a company that advertised its proprietary technology to guarantee you a ranking at the top of search results. Go to any search engine and search for this specific key phrase, they say, and our site will show up at the top of search results for it. That key phrase is made up of 5 words. What they don’t tell you is that you need quotes around the phrase for it to actually show up in Google search results – ie you must type in “my five word key phrase” exactly (note: that’s obviously not the phrase they were advertising – I just don’t want to give fraudulent companies more traffic.) The facts about this: there are about 85 pages with that exact key phrase indexed with Google and there are exactly ZERO people that search for that page each month according to Wordtracker.com.
The bottom line is that anyone can get listed for obscure terms that no one is searching for. But that doesn’t help you! That key phrase they list might sound good in principle, but search engine optimization is about getting found for key words and phrases that people are actually searching for.
If A Company Promises You A #1 Position On Google, Be Skeptical
In other words, you should be skeptical about any company that claims a guaranteed ranking on search engines. I know, most people are attracted to guarantees, but even Google states under its “Search Engine Optimizers” section of its website “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.”
While firms often ask SEM firms for some kind of guarantee for the money they pay, the reality is that search engine algorithms change frequently and are managed by search engines, themselves, not the marketers, who have no say in how or when changes might occur. Realistically, no one can promise that a #1 ranked site today will have the same rank after the next update. Achieving and sustaining top positions is an ongoing battle of successes and failures, and SEM can only follow “best practice” techniques. Most SEM firms use quality traffic, lead generation, or conversion rate as proof of success rather than site ranking.
Two Things To Look For When Evaluating Search Engine Optimization Companies
However, you may get emails from companies that promise money-back guarantees, so here are two things to look for when evaluating whether the company is legitimate.
- The guarantee is for non-competitive phrases. Anyone can get a site ranked for a keyword/phrase that no one is bidding on or has no competition. The key to SEO is to get your site ranked high for specific, highly targeted, and relevant keywords/phrases that will drive qualified traffic to your website.
- The company offering the guarantee uses fraudulent or Blackhat SEO practices. There are a number of companies out there that are scams. If they require you to pay upfront or download their software or link back to them, be very cautious about doing business with them.
Additionally, there simply aren’t thousands of search engines out there that are meaningful. About 90% of all searches come through Google, Yahoo, MSN, and AOL. Those are the search engines that matter most.
That said, there are literally thousands of link submission pages, directories, guestbooks, blog comments pages and other sites where you can add a link back to your site. Some of these can be beneficial, but many aren’t.
The idea of getting links from a number of different sites sounds like a good idea because Google uses the number of other sites that link to yours when it determines your search engine rank. But you must be careful which sites link to yours. Many links pages will tell you that by signing up with them, you will be linked to thousands of pages, boosting your ranking. This is simply not true. Major search engines actually ban these types of “link farms” and by participating, you’re more likely to get your site banned rather than boosted in search results. Google and Yahoo like legitimate links to from other sites of quality content back to yours.
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