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You are here: Home / Archives for mid-month newsletter

For SEO Companies, Two’s a Crowd

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

At Prospect Genius, we’ve seen countless businesses destroy their Internet presence by working with more than one SEO company at the same time. To hardworking small business owners, doubling their efforts just makes sense, especially with the logical assumption that extra manpower and resources will generate even better results. Unfortunately, online advertising is unlike most other business ventures. With more than one SEO company on the job, you could actually be harming your prospects, not helping. Here’s why.

Two Heads Aren’t Better Than One

Think about it this way: You wouldn’t hire two real estate agents to sell your house. You wouldn’t hire two appliance repairmen to fix your broken refrigerator. You wouldn’t hire two moving companies to move boxes and furniture out of your house. The real estate agents would have different marketing strategies in mind, the repairmen would have two different techniques for performing the same job, and the moving companies would literally get in each other’s way. Plus, in each of these scenarios, you would be paying twice as much for a job that could easily be done by just one company.
The same logic applies to hiring two separate SEO companies to advertise your business.
When you have more than one SEO company working on your online advertising campaign, conflicts are inevitable. Why? Because every company has a unique approach to SEO and a rigidly structured process that must be followed in order to support that approach as effectively as possible. An SEO specialist must have unrestricted access to all of your business listings in local directories, social media sites, and local search engines. Having more than one company editing your accounts could lead to inaccurate information, conflicting messaging, and even duplicate content. This is true even if one company does SEO and the other handles social media because, with Google’s latest algorithms, social content is now merging into SEO territory.

A Lot of Risk for No Reward

Conflicting activity is particularly detrimental for listings on Google+ and Google+ Local. As it attempts to prevent spam, fraud, and other black-hat tactics, Google is very watchful of its users’ activity. If your business listing is being edited from multiple IP addresses and is revised too frequently, it will be flagged or, worse, suspended. A penalized or suspended listing is extremely difficult to recover from, and the recovery process usually takes about six to nine months. During that time, your web presence will be virtually nonexistent, and these days, you simply can’t afford for that to happen.
So don’t take your chances—simply stick with one SEO company at a time.

You Have to Commit

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to settling on just one SEO team is the fact that online advertising is not yet a matured market. There’s no standardized SEO method, which means you can’t be certain that you’re going to get an effective Internet marketing campaign. Compare this to a matured market, like appliances. When you go to the store to buy a vacuum cleaner, for example, you can be reasonably confident that the item you end up purchasing will work on a very basic level. But because the online advertising market is still in its infancy, you can’t assume that you’re going to receive quality SEO services from any given company. Instead, you have to hire a company and wait and see if you eventually get your desired results.
This leads many small business owners to experiment with multiple SEO companies. If the first campaign isn’t working, why not add a second one? The “all hands on deck” approach is certainly understandable for business owners and service providers who are accustomed to completing large-scale jobs on a tight deadline—but in the world of Internet marketing, the fewer hands, the better. You have to decide which marketer will provide you with the best results and stay exclusively with them. However, since it’s not a matured market, you can’t just go with the lowest price and expect sufficient results. You actually have to do your research by talking to multiple companies about their services and seeing which one fits your marketing goals best. Honesty and a proven track record should be at the top of your list of traits to look for.

Honesty Is the Best Policy

While adding a second SEO company is a bad idea, it’s not the worst thing you could do. The worst thing you could do is to add a second company to your campaign without disclosing it to either party. We’ve seen this happen numerous times, and it always ends poorly for everyone involved, particularly the business owner. When SEO companies aren’t aware that another team is on the job, they’ll spend extra time and effort combating each other’s work without even knowing it. As we previously explained, each Internet marketer has their own unique plan, and they won’t be able to execute it if another marketer’s plan is inadvertently sabotaging it. That means your waiting period for leads and rankings will last even longer. Plus, if you hide one company from the other company, then they’ll both make mistakes with Google that could have otherwise been avoided. These missteps on Google’s territory will inevitably lead to serious depreciation of your web presence, which will take the better part of a year for you to restore.
Ultimately, with two SEO companies on your payroll, you’re spending twice as much for a greater headache.
So, if you’ve been working with a different Internet marketer for a while and you’re satisfied with their results, then please—please—don’t hire us, too. At the very least, don’t lie to us. On this point, we speak for all honest SEO teams.

6 Common SEO Practices That Will Get You in Trouble

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Day in and day out, we encounter small business owners who are completely misinformed about Google’s policies. In particular, there seems to be a lot of false information about the legitimacy (or lack thereof) of certain online advertising practices. We hate to see trusting business owners get in trouble with Google by making honest, albeit misinformed, mistakes. That’s we’re dedicating this post to highlighting popular online advertising behaviors that are sure to provoke Google’s retribution. Below, we’ve compiled a list of the most illegitimate SEO practices that are somehow still being used.

1. Using a fake address.

Google has street-view images of virtually every U.S. address in existence, so they’ll know immediately whether it’s really your business’s location. Moreover, you must be able to receive mail at the address you give, as Google will send you a postcard to verify your location. If there’s any question about your address, Google might even have someone drive by to check it out in person!

2. Creating multiple listings for the same company. 

Some business owners try to market their company in every surrounding city to optimize their search traffic. Don’t ever do this. More than likely, Google will quickly recognize what you’re doing as spam, and your listings will be suspended. You may even be slapped with a longer-lasting penalty that will haunt you into the future.

3. Using shady back-links. 

Sure, links from elsewhere to your own website are highly valuable as far as search engine optimization goes. But if those links aren’t authentic, or from relevant sites, then they won’t do anything to increase your website’s value. Plus, if Google catches you (which they likely will), your site will be suspended from search results. (J.C. Penney was caught with thousands of shady back-links in 2011. Click here to read the New York Times article with the full scoop.)

4. “Keyword stuffing.” 

Have you ever seen a website jam-packed with what seems like every relevant keyword and nearby location imaginable? This is what’s known as keyword stuffing, and Google views it as spam. It’s obvious and easy for Google to spot, so don’t do it.

5. Using the same address for multiple, related companies. 

Trying to double your traffic by creating two different company listings, both at the same address, will backfire. If you’re the owner of Bob’s Appliance at 123 Main Street, then you can’t also create a listing for Tom’s Appliance at 123 Main Street. This is grounds for suspension of both listings.

6. Publishing deceptive customer reviews. 

That means you should never write reviews of your own company, nor should you pay others to write them. Google tracks the IP addresses of all incoming posts, and they’ll notice if there’s anything unnatural about the “who,” “where,” and “when” of customer reviews. If your reviews are questionable, your listing will probably be suspended.

You Can’t Outsmart Google

Unfortunately, many business owners hear rumors that they can find ways around Google’s guidelines, but the fact remains that Google will always be at least one step ahead. They have superior technology and an incredible amount of manpower, so it’s simply impossible to pull the wool over their eyes—at least, not for long. Your best bet is to study the rules and do your best SEO work without breaking them.
If you need clarification about any of the above points, don’t hesitate to contact a Prospect Genius representative today! We’re here to help.

Page One Guarantee? No, Thanks.

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

“We’ll put your website on the first page of Google!”
“Guaranteed page-one rankings!”
“First-page placement guaranteed!”
You’ve heard it all before.
If you search Google for SEO services, it won’t take long for you to find a slew of SEO companies making these types of guarantees. In fact, these guarantees are so pervasive, you could easily conclude that they’re the basis of most companies’ business plans. However, when it comes down to it, these companies are guaranteeing something that is 100% out of their control. Sure, there are a handful of tricks and paid programs (e.g. AdWords, pay-per-click) that will automatically boost a website’s rankings, but there are too many factors at play for anyone to predict a certain outcome with any accuracy. Yet, that doesn’t stop countless SEO companies and local online marketers from making these empty promises time and time again.

Here’s why you should always be wary of a page-one guarantee.

Magic Cures Don’t Exist in the World of SEO

Online marketers are like doctors. Does that sound like a stretch? Maybe. After all, marketers aren’t required to endure eight years of rigorous medical training and they certainly don’t save lives on a regular basis. But they’re similar to doctors in one fundamental way: They prescribe treatments but cannot guarantee a cure.
There are a couple of reasons for this. First…

The Solution Relies Heavily on Your Participation

Think about the last time you visited the doctor’s office. Did you expect a guarantee that you would be restored to full health by the time you left? No, of course not. No doctor is all powerful, and the success of the treatment relies heavily on your earnest participation in it. You must be 100% honest about your medical history and your symptoms before the doctor can make any diagnosis.

In that same vein, an online marketer must get the full picture of your web presence and history before devising any sort of SEO plan. If you were experiencing chest pains, wouldn’t you tell the doctor about your heart condition? By the same logic, if you’re having trouble ranking on Google, then you should notify your online marketer about any previous missteps, particularly any penalties or suspensions that you’ve been slapped with. These types of run-ins with Google will certainly affect your website’s rankings, and no SEO specialist is able to counteract them—whether they’ve made a guarantee or not. When it comes to SEO, Google’s word is law.

It Also Demands Time

But let’s say that you don’t have any strikes against you. If your SEO specialist checks out your website and decides that top-to-bottom revisions are necessary to increase your content’s relevance and readability—which is usually what happens—you’ll still be left with a sizable waiting period before your site will show any progress in the rankings. For most small business websites, changes aren’t detected by Google for 30 to 60 days. Some changes to your website or to directory listings can even take 120 days or more to be detected!

Once changes have been made, your specialist will have to wait until they take shape before any outcome can be determined. From there, you’ll be able to take the next steps. Medical treatments work the same way: A doctor assesses your ailment, provides you with medicine, and then waits to see if the problem clears up. If that rash or cough goes away, great. If not, then the doctor will need to adjust the diagnosis and start treatment again. Likewise, the ideal situation is that your online marketer improves your Google ranking within those first 60 days; however, if the original plan doesn’t work, then your SEO professional will need to reassess your keywords, targeted search terms, accuracy of information, and other factors before moving forward.
In other words, there are many moving parts that all contribute to your search engine rankings, and many of them are completely hidden to anyone outside of Google and Bing themselves. This means that there is always an element of trial and error in SEO.

Guarantees Are Ambiguous

When an online marketer guarantees page-one rankings for your website, several questions should come to mind:

  • For which search terms?
  • In what time frame?
  • Who is performing the search?
    • Is this person logged in to a Google account?
    • Does his/her IP address have an extensive search history?
  • Will this search be conducted on Google, Bing, Yahoo!, AOL, Ask.com, Best of the Web, or another minor search engine?
  • Does “page one” refer to maps, pay-per-click, or organic results?

Online marketers who have no qualms about making bogus guarantees also have no problem leaving the details as vague as possible. Your website might show up on page one after their IP address is associated with countless searches for the same keywords. The keywords that you rank highly for might be super specific and not very valuable. You might have to pay additional exorbitant fees for clicks or AdWords. Or they might deliver first-page rankings, but on some third-rate search engine that means nothing for your actual web presence.
Speaking of things that mean nothing…

Rankings Aren’t As Important As They’d Have You Think

When it comes down to it, what are you really spending all that money on an online marketer for? Is it so that you can see your company’s website jump to the top of a very narrow search results page? Or is it so that you can ultimately generate more leads, find more business, and increase your revenue? As business owners ourselves, we’re betting it’s the latter.
If your goal is to get more prospective customers to call your business and book services, then it won’t help you to pour all of your time and money into getting a first-page ranking while ignoring every other platform out there. You need to find an online marketer who will utilize popular business directories like Yelp and Angie’s List and promote your company all over social media, namely Facebook and Twitter.

SEO companies that understand just how much goes into effective lead generation will never guarantee a first-page ranking for your business. It would be a guarantee of something outside of their control, and it’s dishonest to pretend otherwise.

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