Spotting the Difference: Good vs. Bad SEO

As we have mentioned before, search engine optimization (SEO) can be a beneficial tool for getting your website in front of potential customers. However, many people still have a negative perception of SEO companies, and that’s through no fault of their own. Some companies use what are called black hat techniques, which eventually lead to problems for a website and will leave customers with a bad taste in their mouth about SEO.

Black hat SEO companies can often be spotted just by looking into the claims they make; if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

“We will get your website a first page ranking in 30 days or less!” There is no feasible way for an agency to guarantee that a website will reach a certain ranking or within a certain time frame. Website ranking is done periodically and is dependent upon the crawling and indexing done by the search engines, and the ranking of other websites; all things beyond any SEO company’s control.

Black hat SEO agencies may also try to lure customers in by offering to submit a website to a variety of search engines. First, not many people use the random little guy search engines that these companies will submit to. Second, the big time search engines such as Google and Yahoo advise that submitting a website is unnecessary and can actually be harmful if done incorrectly or too often.

Suggesting to pay for links or backlinks to build a website’s ranking is another black hat technique that a shady company may recommend. It is beneficial for a website to be linked to other reputable websites, and if a website is built with original and meaningful content, there are legitimate ways to link build. Having a website that builds links too quickly will raise a red flag, and buying links will likely get even a good website connected to some less credible sites.

A black hat technique that may even be done unintentionally is keyword stuffing. This happens when search keywords are inappropriately and over placed throughout the content on the website to try to increase the likelihood of the page coming up when those particular keywords are used. While it is important to have pertinent keywords within the content of a website, over doing it makes the website less desirable to read and will lead to the page getting flagged.

When looking for an SEO company to help with your website, it is important to find one that will be upfront and not make empty promises. A reputable SEO company will share analytical reports about your website with you, will provide access to your Google Analytics account, is Google certified (making them more likely to be up to date on changes within Google), and will not only keep up the face of your website but will also maintain all technical back-end.

Contact i3 today and let us correctly handle your search engine optimization.