• Run For Your Life (Grab Your Money, Too!) •
• Another Real Life SEO Con Job •

I posted the other day about an SEO firm that got fined by a Washington judge for ripping off clients because they “guaranteed” top ranking positions.

As I stated in that post … RUN FOR YOUR LIFE if any SEO consultant or agency promises you top rankings. NOBODY on this earth can ETHICALLY promise you that your targeted keywords will obtain top rankings! Plus, month after continuous month as so many of these unscrupulous people will claim.

Yes, it IS POSSIBLE to maintain top rankings (I have examples that I provide where I have accomplished that) for a very long time, but no ethical SEO consultant will ever make a flat-out promise like that.

Well … lookee here my friends … look what I innocently stumbled upon this morning while doing my usual research:

Take a CLOSE look at these screenshots. Take a CLOSE look at what is stated and what the monthly fees are. Do you think this reeks of a con job?? I sure do.

The only thing I don’t get is the fact that top rankings (especially for keywords that really do receive traffic) cannot be guaranteed, thusly within a very short amount of time, clients will likely see a drastic drop or total disappearance of their rankings. I know WHY he has to offer a guarantee (builds a comfort level for the potential client), but how CAN he offer a money back guarantee and stay in business very long?? Get my drift here?

I would think every (smart) client would end up DEMANDING a refund rather quickly!! Maybe there are enough gullible people out there that will continue to pay month after month, so he makes more money than he has to refund?? Beats me!!

Anyway … all he will be able to achieve for the long term is possibly top rankings for obscure keywords that have basically little to no competiton (and also not being worth anything as far as generating traffic to the client’s website). Who is going to continue to pay for that month after month?

This has GOT to be a fly-by-night type operation. You know, I am almost tempted to call this guy and see exactly what he is promising. I’d like to see how he will make this blog rank highly over-night! And month after month, too! After all, this niche I’m in, the niche of SEO, is brutal competition-wise. (I cannot brag to you yet of top rankings. I am being honest with you!)

Anyway, I just had to show this to you. This site looks genuine enough, but there isn’t one other page of information to it. Whatever link you click on, you stay on the same page. That kind of sends up a red flag, too.

And I too can write the most glowing of testimonials in a matter of minutes if need be (hint-hint).

Because I don’t want to see any new web owner get taken by SEO con artists like this guy … I am posting this to educate that whatever SEO consultant you are thinking about using, please make sure “top ranking guarantees” are NOT in that consultant’s vocabulary.

• Unethical Washington-Based Company Gets Big Hand Slap •
• Cannot Offer SEO Services Anymore •

I just had to post this. YOO HOO! A Washington State judge has slapped the hands of a [expletive not inserted] web design firm that has bilked un-godly amounts of money from honest clients by promising top search engine rankings thru their SEO ‘magical’ services. Their poor clients believed the hype that for XX-amount of dollars, this firm could GUARANTEE top rankings. Read all about it here.

Oh, boy, this makes me sick as an ethical SEO consultant! RUN… do you hear me? RUN away from any firm or any SEO consultant that promises you this!! Nobody, do you hear me, NO BODY  can promise top rankings.

We have no control over the algorithms that the search engines use to determine ranking positions.

If I only had a tiny portion of the clients (and the money they paid for the deceitful SEO service), I’d be rich. I’d be sitting on a sandy white beach on a gorgeous island, sipping an iced tea.

Sigh … if you want ethical, honest, no-hype SEO services, then please contact me. I’ll be most happy to answer all your questions and even give you a brief overview of how we could work together to improve your website.

• You’ve Paid Good Money For A Custom Designed Website Template …
And There Are NO SEO Tags In The Template’s Coding! •

OK, I had to stop what I was doing this morning (working on a mini-site for a new client) and write this post. I am astounded gang! Really … astounded. Why? I’ll tell you …

While doing research on the competition to my client’s niche, I was of course clicking on the competitors sites. Often, if I see a design I like, I’ll click on the designers link too, just to check them out. In addition, I am paying close attention to the search engine optimization of the competitors sites.

What made me stop to write this post is this … I found a particularly pleasantly designed site that was 100% missing the SEO of the Title tags and Description META tags on every page. (I find it amazing in today’s world of internet marketing, that a site designer could be ignorant of the need to include the HTML coded tags for optimization of the pages!)

Since There Was A Link At The Bottom Of The Pages For The Designer, I Clicked On It …

I was taken to a website boasting of the “fantastic” templates you could have designed for you, for a mere $199.00. OK … that’s darn reasonable, BUT!!  How could these designers overlook the simple insertion of the Title and Description tags in the template’s coding?

I guess once more the statement “you get what you pay for” holds true! lol

Egads! I’m going to say it again … in this day and age, how can anyone who claims to be a website designer not be aware of the proper coding needed in the HEAD section of the template? Come on! This is 2008, not 1998!

Well, once again everybody, my words of support continue to hold true to those of you who do pay attention to even the most basic steps of search engine optimization on your site. You WILL be ahead of 90% of the rest of your competition through the attention to SEO.

You know, I come across too many poor floundering sites every day during my SEO research. It really pains me at times when I find another sad site.  Normally, just by looking at the content and presentation, I can tell it is a very sincere person trying to be an internet marketer.  But they’re limping horribly with a totally unoptimized site.  I have to sigh, as I wonder how long it will be before either: (a) they give up (because they have no online presence); or (b) hopefully, the light goes on and they realize they are in desperate need of SEO attention.

Oh well … I’d better get back to my client’s site. And with a smile on my face, I know that by the time I am done putting my SEO magic to it, this client will be leading in the top-ten organic rankings in the very near future.