Why SEO Companies are a Complete Waste of Time!





The Daily Moan: This is why I won't bother using another Search Engine Optimisation service ever again!


I started my online business with little knowledge of SEO and most other online marketing principles. So, naturally, I looked for a service that could do two things: Strengthen my website and help it climb the Google rankings. I wasn't expecting miracles, and I am only too aware these things can take time, but I knew that in order to be seen in the vastly competitive online world, I needed professional help for my business to stand any chance of blossoming.

I went through around ten different SEO companies in five years, priced from £300 per month all the way up to £1000 per month, but they all turned out to be the same. Here are the three main reasons I won't be using an SEO company ever again...

First page, no sales!


SEO companies will promise you the world, and one of those promises will be to get your website to the top page of Google for popular search terms that are associated with your business. This is achievable, but how realistic is this? I went through three SEO services and all of them managed to get my website to the top page of Google in and around the three month period. The only problem was, the key word phrase was the wrong one. It's all good and well ranking on the top page of Google for a particular search term, but if that search term isn't generating you visitors, then you may as well not be there at all. The most disappointing aspect of this was that each agency I used convinced me that huge amounts of keyword research would be undertaken in order for my website to rank highly on proven search terms with excellent conversion rates. I got the impression no research was done at all in this regard.

Link building = Website harming


One of the most important aspects of getting your website to the top is back-links. A back link is like a referral, where another website links back to your website. The perfect back link would be from a high page ranked website (PR1) that has huge relevance to your website. The problem I encountered with all the SEO companies I used was that they were getting back links to my website from completely irrelevant sources with very low page rankings. I was getting hundreds of new back links a month, but none of them had any relevance to what I was selling. This clearly demonstrated that all they had done was submit my website to a load of directories with no care or thought. This is a lazy and ineffective way of improving your website's strength and position on the major search engines. My website would have benefited far more if they had generated me just one really good link from a relevant, high-ranking website, rather than hundreds of back links from crappy websites with no relevance to my brand and no online presence. When it comes to back links, it's not the quantity, it's the quality that counts!

Lazy 'feeder sites' with no value


With their glowing list of contacts, each SEO company promised me a good range of well-written, informative and engaging articles across the web that would help my website get exposed to my relevant audience. Now, from what they promised and how I perceived it to be, my expectation was to have a number of well respected bloggers and writers executing engaging articles on their highly-ranked websites that would offer my website excellent exposure and handy back-links as a much welcomed bonus. As it turned out, the SEO companies themselves set up a number of one page websites with a few paragraphs and one back link to my website. They claimed these one page websites were simply used as 'feeder sites' where people would land on them to be directed to my website. In theory this sounded like a good idea, but in reality it was doing my website more harm than good. Firstly, these one page websites contained a lot of spelling mistakes along with sentences that just didn't make any sense. These 'feeder sites' were actually so bad that I was embarrassed to have my website associated with them. Secondly, being new to the web, these 'feeder sites' had no credibility and no page ranking on the major search engines, so how on earth could they be of any benefit to my website? They simply looked and read like spam, which could have harmed my website in the long run.

Effective principles you can do on your own


Now, I understand that time is a major constraint for many business owners, but when it comes to SEO it is necessary to do things right, and if you really want to compete with what the web throws at you, why not take control of your own destiny? After all, no one knows your business quite like you do, so doing as much as you can without SEO companies trying to scam their way into your wallet, would be far more beneficial for your website and your business. Here are three simple principles you should do on your own that have the potential to achieve more than what an SEO company can do for you...

Start a blog. Google ranks high-quality, well- written and engaging content above and beyond anything else, so having a blog that you can regularly update will enhance your website's expose and increase your online traffic. Whether you are linking a blog into your website, or using it as a 'feeder site', this principle offers you an excellent chance to communicate with your audience through your own words and your own knowledge. What's more, it's absolutely free!

Get your service/products reviewed. So you've got the best service in town, or you've got a brilliant range of products that you want the world to see, but how do you get the right people to interact with your brand? If you sell designer clothes, then conduct some research on some of the best and most popular bloggers and writers in this field. Offer them samples or a generous discount code for them to review or feature your brand on their website. If you get featured in the right blogs, this can offer your brand an incredible amount of exposure from a highly trusted source. Also consider submitting your own articles to services such as Ezine, that rank well over time and offer your website excellent feeder sources and lots of valuable exposure.

Social media. Don't ever underestimate the power of social media, it really is quite remarkable - and it's free! Social media powerhouses such as Twitter and Facebook offer you the opportunity to speak to your audience directly and effectively. Run promotions, give-aways and special offers to enhance brand trust and awareness. If you've got a great product or service then let people know about it. Follow the latest trends in your field and use them to interact with your audience. If executed correctly, the amount of success and exposure you can generate from social media is endless. Also, don't forget YouTube - video marketing has never been as big as it is now, and it offers you the opportunity to get your brand across to a wide audience visually. Find a free video creator and get practising.

1 comment:

  1. Most companies don't know how to perform "White Hat" SEO which generates authentic traffic to the business websites. They get engaged themselves in rather "Grey Hat" SEO which never guarantees the top ranking which can sustain for at least a month.

    Regards,
    Jammie
    MultiChannel eCommerce Sales Consultant

    ReplyDelete

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