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Quasi SEOs
December 15, 2006
I had a nice chat this morning with an industry friend of mine in the sports information field. Aside from our typical banter about blogs, SEO & other geeky stuff as it relates to online marketing, we discussed something that bothers both of us as well as other reputable SEOs out there – quasi SEOs.
It all starts with a cold call to a prospect in desperate need of SEO assistance. The prospect knows they need help in positioning their site for targeted traffic, but knows little to nothing about what it actually takes to garner the top real estate on SERPs. The sales guy does a good job boggling the mind of the prospect with verbiage consisting of SEO acronyms and such, to the point where the prospect gives his or her credit card number or overnights a check to get something going. What the client doesn’t know is that the sales person (and the company he represents) that just sold the account knows little to nothing about SEO.
Segue quasi SEO.
The SEO wannabe does some title tagging, meta tagging and perhaps even goes so far as to write SEO copy. Hell, they read a thread on a board on this stuff and now they’re an expert. Keep in mind the SEO really doesn’t know what they’re doing and probably don’t have the slightest clue how to write effective tags and content to begin with for their client.
Months go by and the client is seeing good results in terms of increased rankings. AWESOME!! But why hasn’t the client’s site seen increased traffic? Sigh…I guess the SEO firm forgot to do something incredibly fundamental. Something called keyword research. I’ve seen and have heard this scenario time and time again.
Was the keyword research an accidental oversight? Maybe. Was it intentional? Most likely.
Beyond basic SEO tactics like tagging and SEO copywriting, there is a slew of other variables that should tied into a campaign for any given client which should also include consultation. Quality inbound link popularity building, keyword rich navigation structure, custom error pages, optimized site map, proper use of 301s, and content creation & management are just a few of the items that should be addressed in every campaign.
For those companies out there seeking assistance, be careful not to get sucked in by the “Quasi SEO�. They’re typically companies set up overnight to get rich quick and know plenty about fear-based selling, but little to nothing about best practices search engine optimization. Make sure you don’t fall victim to these sleazy wannabe SEOs and always, always, always check references.
see all posts by Sean Bolton
posted by Sean Bolton at December 15, 2006 10:02 AM
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