Today’s market is flooded with SEO service companies making incredibly bold claims like, “First page results for any keyword of your choice GUARANTEED!”. Of course this is a promise that short of millions of dollars in infrastructure and paid for marketing investments, is simply not possible.

Quoted from: “Google Webmaster Tools Help: [Search Engine Optimization (SEO)]“

No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a “special relationship” with Google, or advertise a “priority submit” to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or by submitting a Sitemap and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.

It is reasonable to assume that if anyone were to start selling “Number One Placements” for keyword results, it would be Google themselves. After all they and they alone control the formulas that determine those placements.

Let’s take a look at GoDaddy for the purpose of a working example in terms of organic search results. While GoDaddy’s placement may be excellent when it comes to top level keywords like “Web Hosting”, a more specific or second layer keyword search of say, “cloud server hosting” produces a completely different and not so positive result. Here is an example of an excellent opportunity that smaller competing companies could capitalize on. One of the weaknesses associated with large scale SEO deployments is that they focus on saturating the web with top level keywords based on statistical value. Often completely overlooking the opportunities presented by the second tier of keywords for that specific industry.

As I’m writing this article I can feel my sales department cringing at the thought of us educating the competition. There is in my opinion a greater responsibility to inform the consumer in an effort to prevent them from falling victim to these con artists. Our market is flooded with these con artists boasting false claims based on out dated Web 1.0 principals. Designing sites with deprecated HTML values and extensive META descriptions does not guarantee top placement on Google. Even Web 2.0 strategies are beginning to fail the proverbial acid test of today’s market. This is another prime example of why it is so important to choose a professional web designer when developing a website to promote your service, message or products.

Fact is that in many cases developing a website poorly the first time can be rather detrimental to a business. Take for example the website below: (Note: We removed anything identifying to protect their identity.) The clutter of the site is overwhelming and the color selection is a horrible choice for publishing on the web. Did you know that nearly 10 percent of the population is color blind and that the majority of those individuals specifically have difficulty seeing the color red? Certainly being color blind shouldn’t exclude them from being potential customers. However, in this example, this is precisely what has happened. They’ve effectively excluded 10% of their market for no reason other than poor web design. Poor design decisions like these can be costly. Take for example a recent article published by the practical ecommerce titled, “SEO Report Card: Poor SEO Choices Cost Worthy Charity“. The article identifies some of the design issues affecting the SEO of the site and how those design related issues are adversely affecting their ability to raise money for a worthy cause. Another issue to consider is because it is an existing site, repairing the PR damage associated with failed first impressions can be a challenging task for even professional designers. Studies show that less than 20% of consumers will revisit a website that they perceive as poorly designed or containing less than relevant content. Often these repair projects involve a re-branding campaign and or a new market offering in terms of a new look and a steady source of fresh topic relevant content. Just as media providers have become more effective at presenting advertisements to their audiences in less than conventional ways. Media viewers are growing ever resistance to even their most subtle methods. These issues are all to often overlooked by less than informed consumers and ultimately can lead to a greater loss in terms of their time and money.

To learn more about our advanced SEO methods and how we can assist you in improving your sites organic traffic results, call us at 877-328-7552.