Fool me again and I will write an article about it, instead of mending my ways!
Recently, in one of the blogs in the ever readable SEOmoz blog, there was a post which clearly stood out in the page littered with acutely jargoned titles. The post was neatly titled, ‘Don’t like snake-oil? Stop buying it!’ and did display all the exclamations and question marks firmly in place.
The blog was about certain pieces deriding SEO as nothing but daylight hoodwinking. The ‘snake-oil analogy’ was firmly apt. Think about it; can an industry that is worth billions, in anyway be a complete sham? If it were, wouldn’t the various industry heads have ousted it by now?
Salesmen Selling Snake Oil under another Name; Quackery in a Different League Altogether
The blog went on to dole out tips on how to stay clear of fraudulent SEO service providers that do something but end up claiming something else entirely. The measures that should be taken are already competently listed in the above link itself and are worth a dekko for any SEO client. However, the interesting fact about the piece was that its focus was not black-hat techniques.
Black-hat techniques are of course a big blight on the content service and technical writing industries. But since search engines are already systematically disposing of websites employing such techniques, experts and professionals offering such techniques are hardly worth sweating over. These are, of course, technical details, and anything that is in binary always finds itself a solution one way or another.
What About The Other Shady Practices That Website Owners Have To Deal With, On And Off Cyberspace, In Equal Measure?
Sure, SEO is complicated business. Perhaps this is the motivation for all the SEO tricksters out there. The SEO process has so many ins and outs that they can wheedle themselves out with any excuse for their lack of performance. Similarly, they can talk themselves into looking good when all they have done is made up the content numbers on the internet.
Even so, the fault is squarely placed on the client who expects great results without investing any time, effort and money in the process. It is a phenomenon that a lot of SEO administrators have to deal with. The poor results churned out by these administrators could be because they are clueless about SEO, are overburdened with work or are just plain lazy. We won’t place ourselves on a moral pedestal and chastise them. It’s quite understandable. Why waste our time and energy on something that the clients can do way better than us?
Knowing What You Want and How Much Investment Is Needed To Realise Your Own Visions
Spending money quite often saves it too. But your responsibility, as the client, doesn’t end there. The onus is on you to educate yourself about the process that you are delegating to someone, at least, to an elementary extent. Why, you ask? How would you know what you want out of your workers if you know very little about it yourself?
So what will get you your money’s worth? The answer for that in the SEO world is usually a spike in traffic and high SERPs. Then again, readers somewhat versed in the art of SEO would know that it would be the wrong answer. One has to be reminded that SEO as a process goes beyond the concept of SERP’s and web-traffic. Again, as the saying goes; if you go to Disneyland, you don’t spend the whole day on the Materhorn.
And the truth is there are whole lot of legitimate enterprises out there which will provide great services. But again, you wouldn’t be able to use them to their full potential lest you know how. Calling a spade a spade, money is not the only investment in this business.
And those blindly seeking results will most probably barter ‘snake-oil’ and stay oblivious to it.
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