« Selecting Quality Keywords for Qualified Traffic — SEO Industry Survey » 23 April 2007

Poking around my usual blogs brought me to Aaron Wall, who in turn wrote on an article by John Andrews (both incredible SEO’s and business men in many respects).

The gist is, that because there are so many firms out there offering a much lower priced, lower quality service, that the industry as a whole suffers, and will continue to do so. John cites that:

“…As “boiler-room” SEO firms cold-call companies and pitch ridiculously low prices for SEO contracts, based on old and incorrect SEO information readily accessible to consumers, high quality SEO firms start looking “too expensive”…”

On this point I can’t agree more. It’s very obvious, from our clients’ stories alone, that there are a plethora of ill-advised/ill-advising SEO firms out there raking in clients by the loads.

Think about how nice “The top of Google in days for only $39.95!” sounds. Pretty nice.

However, in regard to the industry as a whole, John also stated:

“This puts the prospective SEO client at a distinct disadvantage, and provides an opportunity for the contract-seeking “snake oil SEO salesman” to close a deal at a good profit, often without realistic accountability or other consumer safeguards in place.”

This is the part I have to disagree with. Yes, there are a lot of companies and freelancers alike providing a bad service. Again, I get stories everyday about “such-and-such company that ripped me off.” And some of them are pretty bad. But our industry is a new one. It was just 1995 that Danny Sullivan opened the world’s eyes to the idea of search and it’s technology; and I can remember 3 years ago trying to explain what SEO was in the first place. 2 years ago I had to fight how SEO was important. Last year, we started to not only get into the SEO with a client, but discussions on online marketing and Internet exposure as a full on business strategy.

Maybe we are very lucky (and believe me, that’s not it) but I’ve seen clients that are pretty savvy themselves. As time goes on, and more attention is given to the idea that there are firms out there that offer a dis-service, I think our clients will also become more aware. I don’t believe SEO will be it’s own downfall, but I do believe that SEO’s will be forced to offer services on more than a fake contract basis. There better be some return for our clients.

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