Some of the requests for proposals we get for SEO services make it qite clear that there are still many misconceptions and much ignorance about how search engines are evolving and what best practice SEO consists of.
For example, yesterday a company asked us about linkbuilding campaigns. They wanted 100 PR5, 50 PR4 snd 30 PR3 back links. Though they didn't provide a timeframe, their desired spend was $500, which tells me that they wanted a short-term campaign with a large volume of links.
This kind of request tells me right off that this firm doesn't really understand SEM or search engine algorithms. They probably read some half-baked SEO article from some self-proclaimed "SEO expert" who said high rankings are all about links, and they ran with it. The result is: they'll find what they're looking for: some no-name SEO "guru" who'll gladly take their money, get them crappy links, and eventually get them penalized by Google.
Then, in three or six months, when their rankings and PageRank drops like a stone off a cliff, they'll wonder what happened.
So, allow me to clear up some of misunderstandings about SEO that such an RFP entails.
1. First of all, no good SEO is going to generate a large volume of links in a short amount of time. It doesn't work, Google will likely ignore most of them, and you run the risk of being penalized for "link farming." Google's sophisticated spam police is well suited to catch such unnatural increases in links over short periods of time.
2. Even if you could get away with posting that many links, it would cost more than $500, if they were decent links.
3. The fact that this company wants links of a certain PR betrays the fact that they haven't been keping up much with recent trends in SE algorithm changes. Google itself has begun demphasizinh its own PageRank metric in order to dissuade people from trying to "game" the system. Furthermore, all the top SEOs have said not to rely too much on PR anymore as a determinant of website quality or ranking potential, but that a better measure to rely upon is theme-relevance and the "naturalness" of the link acquisition.
4. Finally, the request tells me that the company has little clue of the number one SEO axiom: Content Is King. The fact that there was absolutely no mention of content development means that this company doesn't realize that, no matter how many links you have, without optimized landing page content, you won't get the results you're seeking.
It is important for professional SEOs to spend ample time educating potential clients on Internet marketing principles, and not just do for them whatever they ask. Remember, you are the specialist, not them.
Sent from my T-Mobile Dash - Gnosis Arts - www.gnosisarts.com
2 comments:
You got that right. That client clearly based his decision on one article he might have read that maybe says something like "Inbound Links is King". That's without taking note of the quality of the links.
I hope they understand that getting large amount of backlinks in a short span of time is more of a risk than a benefit to your site.
By the way. here’s an additional list of SEO misconceptions that might just help us be more educated. And not waste our efforts. Link: http://www.squidoo.com/SEOmisconceptions
Thanks, Jimmy K, for the agreement. I'll certainly be checking our the Squidoo lens you posted when I get a chance.
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