F9 Group Marketing and Technology Blog

There is nothing worse than an SEO scammer.

Being a software developer for over 20 years I have seen plenty of things and a whole lot tricks when it comes to software development. One example is when someone says a software program is too slow. A tricky way to fix this problem and make everyone happier is to take the little “wait” icon and make it move faster. The user gets the perception the program is working faster.

SEO is no exception to this type of trickery. Being the owner of a website, I am constantly bombarded by spam from companies claiming they can boost my ranking, make my company more visible and promote ME, all for a minimal monthly fee or one time payment.

Here are some ways to help distinguish the ethical SEO practitioners from the unethical ones.

• A true SEO practitioner will not guarantee you a #1 ranking in anything.
• A true SEO practitioner wont spam your name all over blogs and forums, and in general wont SPAM at all.
• If someone says they they can put you on hundreds of search engines and websites, and on top of it wants to charge you a monthly minimal fee a red flag should go up for you.
• A true SEO practitioner wants to see your website, know about your business and look at the HTML code on your page.
• A true SEO practitioner after looking at your code should be able to increase your visibility without changing your intended look of the site.
• A real SEO company will not make up news for your company or backlink fake stories from sites you own to boost your visibility. Bragging about how awesome you are on a site you own that links back to another site you own does more harm than good.
• Ask for references, use the wayback machine and utilize google caching to validate these references claims. Some SEO companies references are actually the same companies.
• Do they have another business and SEO is their side job or is SEO all they do? If the company isnt built around website development and SEO, you best just turn away.
• A true SEO company wont guarantee you X number of hits per day.
• A true SEO company wont use a link farm or use spamdexing.

The above is only a SMALL sample of how to distinguish the ethical from the unethical in the world of SEO.

I hope this article serves you well in your quest to promote your site and avoid the scams out there. Below are a couple of good articles that can expand on this much better than I can:

• http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2005/07/01/the-biggest-seo-scam-of-all
• http://webdesign.about.com/b/2008/11/17/seo-promises-are-often-too-good-to-be-true.htm
• http://www.webmaster-talk.com/seo-talk-forum/150384-seo-fraud.html

About F9 Group:
In 2004 a Direct Response Marketing company licensed and private labeled Call-Q Name and Address capture. Through the use of this technology, marketing organizations of all sizes have been able to accept an unlimited amount of phone calls and web leads from their advertising efforts. When dealing with large television budgets, Radio, and IVR Overflow situations, Name and Address Capture (Call-Q) has been able to offer a No Busy Signal Guarantee which gives has given our clients confidence to go big and capture each and every customer that responds.

What marketing efforts are practical investments as opposed to unnecessary expenses?

F9 Group Inc., will ensure that your marketing efforts are practical investments as opposed to unnecessary expenses by tracking responses, capturing data and providing results that are measurable.

With F9 Group Inc’s resources, you can effectively identify revenue streams and eliminate unnecessary expenses that are not delivering profitable results.

Ultimately, we want to make sure our clients have the opportunity to make sound, informed business decisions based on objective data so our clients can enhance their business strategy and align marketing processes with their overall goals.