Search engine optimization (SEO) is very polarizing.
My opinion on SEO is that it can be effective in the right situation. For instance, for a limo service is a small town, SEO can work due to lack of competition. Or for a machine shop that does precision grinding, they can have success with SEO due to the lack of competition in that niche industry. For a limo service in Los Angeles, SEO will just waste your time and money.
Why do small businesses still have bad experiences with people they hire to do SEO?
In my experience, I’ve found the #1 reason is because small businesses will sometimes hire people that don’t know what they’re doing. For me, I can spot these people very easily when they list what they do in their SEO work and I see techniques they do that real professionals stopped doing years ago because the technique is either obsolete or no longer effective. Unfortunately for the small business, they probably have no idea which techniques are relevant in 2014 and which aren’t.
The 2nd main reason small businesses have bad experiences with people doing SEO is because whoever is doing the SEO doesn’t care if their work has success or not. They look at the business relationship they have with the client as short term. Get as much money as you can, while you can. Then the leach can move on to another host….errrr… I mean then the SEO person can move onto another small business.
So how can small business protect themselves and figure out if the person or company they’re talking to actually knows how to do search engine optimization effectively?
The best way is to ask a lot of questions on what the person is going to do in their SEO work and why they do it. Real professionals will be able to give you a specific list of what they do and articulate the value of each technique. People that don’t know what they’re doing will usually give general, vague answers with not a lot of details. And then when you ask them to articulate the value of each technique, they really struggle.
People that know search engine optimization and how to use it effective know exactly what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.