Description

If you own a website, chances are, you have been contacted by one of these idiots. They call every month promising the “number one spot” on Google!They tell you that your site is not showing up in searches…and THEY can help (for a small price). Before you sign up for their GUARANTEED RESULTS, watch this video.

Warning: Signing up with the wrong company can cause Google to DE-LIST your site completely!

Transcript

Note from Eric: Below, you will find a word-for-word transcript of this video. I provide this as an aid for the hearing-impaired and for those who might just want to read it rather than watch the video. This conversational style is not reflective of how I write.  Be nice! Welcome back to ericspellmann.com. And today we’re going to be talking about how to avoid SEO scams. Now remember SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization. So what we’re talking about is people calling you usually every month, if you have a website and guaranteeing you the number 1 spot on Google. Let’s talk about whether that’s even possible or not.

First we need to understand what is SEO? Like I said, it’s short for Search Engine Optimization. In other words, we’re trying to rank better on Google for certain keywords. I mean that’s the big goal right. There are basically 3 keys that it’s a scam. 3 keys that if someone gives you a call and promises you something, theres a scam.

Number 1, misrepresentation. There you go, wolf in sheep’s clothing there. First thing is if they ever say “Hi I’m with Google” Hang up! They’re not from Google. Google does not call you. Trust me you’re not on their radar. And their goal is not to rank everyone at number 1. Think about that for a second. Google doesn’t care where you rank.

Second, vague search queries. In other words, they say something to the effect of “Well you do not show up when I do a search!” What do you mean by that? I mean think about it. What keyword phrase were they even using? You’ve got to look at the search engine results and figure out are we talking organic, are we talking paid, are we talking local results? Theres a whole bunch of differences here. And when they say you don’t show up, exactly what does that mean?

Guarantees of success. Anyone guarantees you anything in SEO, you hang up. If they say “We can get you at number 1”. Noone can guarantee that! Keep in mind, and I’ve said this before in other talks that the way search engines work is they have an algorithm that ranks everybody and its top secret.

Because if it wasn’t top secret, everyone like me would be able to adjust mathematically your website to be number 1. And Google can’t do that for everybody and so it’s top secret. So when someone says they can guarantee you number 1, they are lying!

Theres also no guarantee of time. Theres customers of mine where I’ve made changes and they got to number 1 within a week. Theres other customers where I made changes and they climbed to number 3 and eventually number 1, but it took a few months. There is no guarantee of time because you never know when Google is going to be updating itself, when it’s going to be indexing the site.

Theres basically 3 types of SEO companies out there. Basically, the largest proportion of them are Black Hat. In other words, they try to trick Google and break the rules. And if Google finds out, your website will be punished! And I mean PUNISHED! It will be de-listed. Heck, people if you get de-listed from Google, you might as well not even exist on the internet.

Grey Hat. They’re not really breaking Google’s rules, but they are trying to trick Google a little bit. In other words, they’re trying to misrepresent what rank they should be.

White Hat. These people follow the rules. These people watch Google. These people ask Google what are the rules? We wanna follow them. And sometimes these results take a little bit longer, but it’s exactly what Google wants you to do. Make sure you find an SEO company that follows the rules and is a white hat company. And like I said, the punishments are severe. De-listing is a death sentence!

Ask for proof. If you think the SEO company might be legit, ask for proof. In other words do they rank well on different searches? Do their customers rank well? Be sure and watch my video “How to Rank Well on Google” for some good examples.

And in fact, if you go to Google right now and type How to Rank Well on Google, you’ll see that I’m number 2, right behind number 1 who happens to be Google! And I’m not trying to brag here, I’m just saying that it’s possible, even for a firm like ours to practically be number 1 for a very important phrase globally. And it can happen for you too but you have to follow the rules.

How do they handle 2 similar clients? Always ask that. In other words, let’s say you’re a real estate firm and you want to come up number 1 organically for houses for sale. Well, your SEO firm can’t guarantee both real estate firms the number 1 spot, right. That would mean putting em in competition with each other.

So, ask them how do they handle 2 clients who want the same phrase. Now I can tell you how my firm does it. When a firm approaches us and wants a very specific phrase, then we lock that phrase to them and another client can’t have it. And so it’s basically first come first serve.

Well as always, if you have any questions give me a call or email me or post on facebook, I’d love to hear from you. And if you want to find out how you can rank a little better in Google, let me know. I can’t guarantee anything, but I can definitely make sure that you do better than you are now. I am Eric Spellmann; I’ll see you in cyberspace.