Things SEO People Should Never Do
Over the last few years the search engine optimization industry has really taken the business community by storm. Some understand the process, some don’t have a clue and many are still left scratching their heads wondering what it really is and how it can help their business. The industry has become tougher and tougher over the years because there doesn’t seem to be any industry standards in place on how to get from point A to point B making the education process challenging. There are however some things that all search engine optimization people (yes, this includes all SEO experts, consultants, firms, agencies and wanna be SEOs) should never do. This list below may seem like common sense or business 101, but I felt it was time for me to write a post to the SEO industry folks who read this blog on a regular basis!
1. Beat an Effort into the Ground: Over the years we have found things that work and things that don’t work. The worst thing someone can do is to find that one little technique and beat it into the ground over and over. This is not marketing, just manipulation of search results. In today’s market place it takes a variety of efforts at the same time to bring an online marketing campaign together.
2. Focus on Just Rankings: Yes rankings are important but rankings alone don’t grow a business successfully. It is important to focus on marketing a business or website for the sake of growing the business and brand naturally. The goal of every website is to grow as a business should. There are many different ways to build a business online and rankings are just one ingredient. Potential customers and clients need to see you in multiple areas before they actually make that purchase.
3. Blowing Off Clients: You never want to blow off clients for any reason. If you anticipate a not so nice phone call it doesn’t matter. Communication in this industry is very important. Things change very quickly and easily in the internet marketing industry so if you are leaving your clients in the dark you could find yourself without clients very quickly.
4. Be Sneaky: SEO is not a secret sauce anymore. Many industry people have had a hard time revealing their efforts to clients leaving a certain mysterious undertone throughout the entire industry making things worse for everyone. It is not rocket science. Simply put it is quality proactive marketing that ultimately leads to your website being an authority figure in the search engines and as a result achieving high rankings in search results.
5. Give Guarantees: Any established search engine optimization expert will tell you that you cannot give guarantees of rankings in this industry. Things change sometimes over night and at the end of the day nobody has control over the search engines and how they behave except for the search engines themselves. Giving guarantees to people and not following through, which happens very often, only creates jaded businesses and business owners leaving a tainted image of the entire industry in the eyes of those clients.
10 Responses to “Things SEO People Should Never Do”
SEO Journal is Written by
Brick Marketing Founder,
Nick Stamoulis:
Nick Stamoulis - SEO Bio.
Tel. - 877-295-0620
nick@brickmarketing.com
Connect with Nick Stamoulis
Brick Marketing - SEO Company
Hi David,
Thanks for the kind words and for reading! It is really all about search engine marketing not manipulation (well said!)…anyway, thanks again for reading!
Completely agree! Great post!
Thanks for the post- glad to see I’m not the only one saying these things! Another point that I do make to clients about rankings and traffic to their site: I can explode traffic to the site, but if the site is not user friendly or there is no “call to action”, they still will not see the increase in sales which they may be looking for. Clients think that just because people find their site- they will buy… The site itself is key to the client’s willingness to engage a sale or contact.
Love your posts- and Happy New Year to you!
What a great post. Every SEO type firm should hang it on the lunch room wall and make it a part of the employee handbook.
Thank you for these tips, I want to learn how to increase my ranking but to do it the right way. Your advice is always invaluable
Nick ~ As always you provide excellent advice and I really enjoy your honest approach to SEO. One thought, I truly believe a majority of SEO requires the participation of my clients. I encourage them to get involved with content issues and the process where it make sense. What are your thoughts on this?
Thanks and happy holidays!
Hi Nick,
I would say simply awesome post:-) Thanks for putting your efforts.
I agree SEO industry is becoming tougher and tougher day by day and now a day’s many SEO’s(me too) discuss with Client’s not just focus on rankings, SEO is not about rankings only it’s something though to help in improving overall business online visibility.
SEO’s need to think as business marketer and work on metric’s which not only improve site ranking’s but also increases the overall business revenue generation, which I think is the prime objective of every client/site owner.
So better concentrate much on online activities which can bring more business to Client’s site.
Thanks Again!…Merry X’mas & New Year Wishes in advance, hope to see many more interesting articles in 2010.
Hi Nick
Thanks for another great post.
I would say that SEO is now is evolving into something more like search marketing. It’s becoming common knowledge to many that tweaking pages and adding a few back links is simply not enough.
All the items in your list, except number 2, are common to most types of business, and as SEO establishes itself as a mainstream industry, they will become more widely frowned upon and hopefully a thing of the past
A Merry Christmas to you.
Regards
Rifki
Reg
More sage advice from the best SEO authority online.
Thanks Nick! Great list.
I will add that white hat SEO is so rewarding. It is lovely to see your website do well in the ranking, but it is even better to know that it has been done in a way that is sustainable! Google loves me and it is a deep, emotional and intellectual relationship, not a one-night stand! I ain’t that kind of girl!
Merry Christmas!
Lorraine
Thanks everyone for your comments and sharing your thoughts! Happy Holidays & Happy New Year!