As I have looked at all the companies that work on SEO and seen the tactics and methods they use for their clients I have found there are very, very few reputable seo companies that actually get results. My theory? Well, I think that most of those people that are really good at SEO and Internet marketing have successful companies that used the knowledge they learned and are not running SEO companies, and that the people running these SEO firms just picked something that was easy to fake and charge through the nose. So many times I have asked SEO companies to give me a quick analysis of why our pages might not be ranking high enough for certain terms, and every time it is like a machine is talking back to me. “Well you need the title, and the meta tags, and the h1 tags and the keyword density”….Thank you, I could have learned that by searching on Google for one minute. To be good at diagnosing and fixing some SEO problems you have to have tenacity and patience, which these companies definitely don’t have. It is all about the quick buck and hoping that the clients don’t realize they are getting ripped off.
Nice post, trent. Couldn’t agree more. Nearly all SEO companies are bunk and don’t know what they are doing. Just start asking them how to link building, and they just stare at you. The social web is really going to put a wrench in their business model, at least those that don’t provide value.
Blake
March 31st, 2006