As a web designer, I am appalled by the scare tactics used by the so-called SEO consultants.
My clients call me in distress as they are approached by website cruisers, disguised as “SEO Consultants.” Website owners are told emphatically that if they don’t immediately invest thousands of dollars with SEO’ers, the site will languish in the bowels of page rankings.
Be frightened, be verrry frightened
The hucksters get my client’s attention by attacking their current website SEO structure (which is set up properly and organically). They allege it is insufficient and the site is never going to be a player in the page-ranking wars without immediate intervention by Guess Who.
Then they pitch the site owners for thousands of dollars to offer “proper” SEO set-ups with “virtually guaranteed” optimized page rankings.
In my area (Charleston, SC), I know some of these “consultants” from their unrelated previous professions. Most of them were sales reps in other fields, could not make it there, so they are now “experts” in SEO.
Black hats, indeed. Black hearts also!
This unregulated industry is becoming increasingly under attack by business analysts. A common tactic employed includes providing bogus links and phony blogs sites to “enhance” the inbound links to their victim’s sites. For details on this wild west – and totally unregulated – industry, please read this informative article by Mark Schaefer, a renown business analyst.
My professional opinion: if a business site must survive on being found by search engines, cut to the chase. Buy an ad directly from the search engine ad team. Real numbers don’t lie. You can chart your hits, click-thru’s, and ascertain if this is a good return on investment - instead of using a “consultant’s” smoke, mirrors and deceptive promises.
