Lies about Birmingham Advertising and Internet Marketing

There's something in medical circles called a 'self limiting affliction'. Essentially, this is something like acne, or a cold or a bruise that if left alone the body will heal itself and no medication is required. Some areas of alternative medicine do very well at curing these ailments because no cure is required. But that's a different rant. However the same thing can be applied to SEO. If you do nothing at all, your website will probably rank eventually for some decent keywords, even if you get all your on-page SEO completely wrong. Google is only a little bit stupid and will eventually find that your site is relevant - if it is of course. It will take a long time (I mean, a *very* long time) but it will get there because Google tries to discover what your site is about without any sneaky techniques. So this is where my gripe with many companies starts to take hold. They push their services as if SEO is some massively technical and complex task that required a PHD to complete. I mean, come on, it's just common sense!

SEO is the process of making your site become more relevant to people who are searching for your stuff. That's pretty much it. There are obviously some ways you can do this to get there quicker or beat the competition better, but really, it's all about doing easy things more than your competitors. It's a race. Beat them, you'll win.

So here are a few things that you should be wary of when choosing a company to do your SEO for you. SEO requires complex back-end programming to promote your site correctly

No, no it doesn't. SEO is dead easy, you just need to know a) where to link, b) how to link and c)how many times to link and the answer to all of that is: a) To your relevant pages, b) using keywords in your anchor text and c) more than the other guy.

You can fool Google by hiding some text

NO! If you fool Google in this way and they find out, they will ban you and you deserve it. Goodbye website, it was nice to know you on the index.

We can get you into the top ten for all these keywords Possibly my most hated practice and one that deserves some discussion. You see, it's very easy to rank in the top ten for some keywords. If you choose keywords that nobody's using then it's a breeze, but that's utterly pointless. Some companies promote themselves with guarantees that say "we promise to get you into the top ten". Nobody can offer a guarantee but the reason they get round this is because they get to top ten for a keyword that nobody is using!

The key to good SEO is to use keywords that will eventually turn into money, but it might take a year. Sorry, yes, it might take a year and then you'll start raking it in, but if you think you can take some quick short-cuts, feel free. Google might not like it and if Google don't like it, well, it's goodbye. So, buyer beware - if you want to check out the credentials of your SEO company, make sure they're not telling you all the nonsense above and they tell you the truth - SEO is easy, but it's long-term and there are no short cuts.

Andy Calloway is the director of SEO Training at Calloway Green Ltd, a web development and SEO consultancy in the West Midlands, UK. We provide a wide range of SEO services and search engine optimisation to businesses of all sizes.

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