Search engine optimization strategies are now widely used to increase traffic to websites. Usually, an increase in traffic means an increase in potential business deals. This, in turn, means an increase in possible earnings.
As more and more people are getting internet access and are getting online everyday, there is also a remarkable increase in the manipulation of search engines. Now, more than ever, many businesses seek search engine optimization strategies to increase awareness of their businesses and of course to increase their website revenues.
With the rising demand for various search engine optimization services, the number of companies offering SEO services has also increased. For any business, choosing the right SEO company for their need is a serious matter. It can be quite a challenge to look for the right company that could give you what you are looking for.
When looking for a SEO service provider, be on the look out for unscrupulous entities who practice black hat SEO. If your SEO-based internet marketing campaign is handled by consultants or companies that use black hat SEO techniques, you will surely find yourself in hot water. Your site can get penalized by search engines or be banned from results generated by search engines. That would be money down the drain and your reputation can be hurt in the process.
Be on the look out for these companies and consultants who use black hat SEO tactics. Here are some of the warning signs you should look out for.
- Page One Rankings Guaranteed. Be wary of SEO companies or consultants who guarantee that your site will get page one rankings through their services. This is simply impossible to guarantee. The catch phrase here is “guarantee page one” as there are a lot of factors for a site to get top rankings, many of which are not within the control of the SEO service provider.Though there are indeed SEO companies that have accomplished page one rankings for their clients’ site but most would not guarantee the results.
- Assurance Of Permanent Top Rankings. If it is not possible to guarantee page one rankings, so then is the assurance to be permanently on top of the rankings. As there are no guarantees in almost anything in life, a respectable SEO service provider would not give you this but will instead confer with you about trends and will give you a general estimate on the possible length of time for your site to be indexed. Getting good rankings is an outcome of constant and consistent efforts. Beware of service providers that assure you of permanently good rankings with just one major campaign. To put it in other words, you just can’t expect your cabbage patch to survive if you only water it once a year.
- Link Buyers/Link Farms. Backlinks are important components of any SEO-based internet marketing strategy. You can boost your ratings with search engines and improve your website’s traffic if you build quality backlinks. If you buy links for this purpose, you will find yourself in a quandary. If a SEO service provider tells you that you should buy links, keep your guard up. Also, some links the provider may be talking about can be of poor quality and often come from “free” link farm sites that will not give your site the traffic that it needs nor wants. You could be banned by search engines if you fall for this. Though there are sites that charge for submission like Yahoo directory, buying links in general is not a good practice in Google related SEO.
- The Gateway Pages Advocate. Search engines are pulled towards gateway pages or doorway pages through improper tactics like keyword stuffing. (Rarely works anymore) The user is then redirected to another page by a gateway page. These kinds of pages are considered as spam. If your site is discovered using such tactics, it could get banned by search engines.
Stay away from SEO service providers who advocate the use of gateway pages. Instead of getting favorable rankings, your site can get penalized or, worse, banned.