Search Engine Optimization And The Ponce

Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Tuesday, 1 of April , 2008 at 1:58 am

Definition:

[source - Wikipedia] A British slang term for a dandy, fop or pimp or weirdo (A strange or unusual person).
A British slang term for someone who does not pay their own way.
A British (verb) slang term for someone getting others to pay their own way, to ponce.

After looking at that definition, I think it is safe to assume that we have all come across individuals from all three when it comes to search engine optimization experts. The term weirdo comes to mind when I read some articles on search engine optimization or anything related to optimizing web pages.

The term expert is too loosely bandied about these days with every Tom, Dick and yes, Mary, claiming to be an expert. Read one paragraph from one of their articles and it quickly becomes apparent they know little on the topic.

My latest run in with a search engine optimization ‘expert’ was when one kindly left some comments on one of my personal blogs. “Your blog is excellent but the search enginn (sic) optimization is very bad.” That was the introductory comment.

There followed a series of emails that culminated in an offer to fix my blog for $500 and put my blog at number one in search engine rankings (my blog is only a PR3). Apparently my ‘Metta (sic)’ tags were not up to scratch and that I should ‘never link from your articles back into older articles’. At that stage I called him a ponce and left him thinking on that - I doubt he had the intelligence to even look it up.

The danger for the un-initiated of course is that they will simply be scammed and scammed badly with their sites often left worse off than before it had been ‘fixed’. Search engine optimization is no longer a job for amateurs. It can be done reasonably easy if you know what you are doing, it is just a matter of gaining that knowledge.

To filter out the quality and the ‘ponces’, do a little checking, ask a few questions and perhaps ask to see a few optimized sites. The one thing I do know, it is very rare that quality search optimization services will go out fishing for work - or should that read, phishing.

Category: Brick Marketing, SEO

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