Businesses are becoming ever more eager to make the most of Internet marketing. So eager, in fact, that they often fall prey to the large number of scams in the search engine marketing world. We've all had our inboxes filled with various email offerings, most of which turn out to be scams. There are also SEM specific scams that arrive by email or by telephone. But it is not easy identifying a scam when you don't have the knowledge of the search engine market insiders do.
Keyword Exclusivity
One of the most common scams is an offer to sell people exclusive rights over keywords that are guaranteed to bring in traffic. These people claim that most users search by typing keywords directly in the address bar. They also claim that millions of users have installed a special software on their system. They show you attractive figures that show how many times a keyword is being searched for. While these figures may look impressive they are overly inflated and unrealistic.
When people type in keywords in the address bar the results displayed are those from MSN (if the browser is Internet Explorer and default search engine is MSN). While, at some point, there had been discussions about MSN closing deals with companies to sell "keywords" to them, they have never materialised. The idea, however, has remained and people make a healthy profit from the gullibility of people.
Buying Traffic
Other scams offer to send you thousands and even hundred of thousands of visitors from other websites in exchange for money. The numbers should always be put into perspective. For less than popular sites, high traffic numbers are plainly fake and inaccurate. Ask to see real statistics before you close any deals.
Guaranteed Rankings
One of the most controversial offer in the SEO industry is to achieve guaranteed top 10 positions in major search engines. While this offer satisfies the need for certainty most clients have, it's important to know that no SEO can predict algorithm changes, the state of the search engine market or how competition will evolve. Therefore, they can't and shouldn't guarantee a top 10 position.
Some SEOs will get you top rankings for keywords and you'll think their word is as good as gold. But did you pick those keywords? Do they reflect your business and what you have to offer? For keywords with little competition or no competition, guaranteeing top positions is indeed something that can be easily achieved. However, for more competitive keywords that return 100,000+ results, it's impossible to guarantee a result.
If you're in doubt about any of these offerings then ask a specialised professional for guidance. Alternatively, you can joining specialised forums such as Webmasterworld and ask for professional opinions. Forum members are helpful and are in a position to tell you whether you are wasting your money or not. As rule of thumb, if something sounds too good to be true, then it most probably is.
Search Engine Optimisation Myths
This article was first published on 18 August 2004 and does not necessarily match current events or the current opinions and views of bigmouthmedia ltd.
