Thursday, January 12, 2012

5 Steps To Higher Search Engine Rankings

Search Engine Optimization can seem like a monumental, multi-faceted, and seemingly impossible task for the website owner. With so many "SEO professionals", "SEO products" and others online peddling their wares, it can be very confusing to the layperson. Many people ask? Is my site optimized? Where do I begin? How can I tell where I currently stand on the search engines?

One thing to remember about Search Engine Optimization is that the rules are always changing. Why? Because Google and their peers are constantly fighting a battle. It is their goal to provide searchers with the most relevant results and the best search experience. With billions of websites competing for position and rank, many employ trickery in an attempt to beat the competition. The search engines are constantly evolving to address this problem, and in so doing, are getting better and better at sorting the "online diamonds" from the zirconia. Your job, as a website owner, is to show Google that your site is a diamond.

If you think of things this way, then it becomes fairly obvious what the job of SEO is all about: SHOWING GOOGLE THAT YOUR WEBSITE IS A QUALITY ONLINE RESOURCE.

In Search Engine Optimization "La La Land", there are many "catch phrases", "lingo", and "terminology" that the pros love to throw around. Like in any industry, to some it's just second nature to spew industry jargon, for others, it may just be a way to convince you that SEO is a mystical and highly technical job that only they can do for you.

So I'm going to do my best to make darned sure to use PLAIN ENGLISH while discussing my 5 Steps to Higher Search Engine Rankings. In doing so, I'll bet dollars to donuts that you'll have a much better understanding of the entire process, and see that it's something you can do all by yourself.

Step 1: Keyword Research


If you were a potential customer, who had no prior knowledge that your business existed, what do you think you would type into the Google search box when looking for your services? Keyword research simply means finding out EXACTLY what people are typing in to the search engines, so that you can make sure your website includes these keywords. There are a few steps involved in this process, which we will go through in detail later. For now, just know that this is an easy and free task, and one that will yield almost instant results.

Step 2: Check "Under The Hood" On Your Website


Are your website pages loading quickly? Is your hosting company up to snuff? Are there any small things that might be preventing the search engines from finding your site and listing it on their pages?

These are very important matters, and can make even the best website fail to gain ground when it comes to search engine position. We'll talk about these things in detail, and how you can make sure your website is loading lightning-fast shortly.

Step 3: On-Page Search Engine Optimization


Step 3 is actually a whole bunch of steps, but all of them amount to making sure that every page in your website is carefully crafted to tell the search engines what it's all about. This is done through the words on the page, where they appear (ie at the top, middle and bottom), images or pictures on the page, and how the pages are named and stacked. We'll go into this in much more detail shortly, but for now, think of "website structure" like one of those frozen "hungry man" dinner trays. Peas go in one slot, meat and gravy in another, mashed potatoes in another, and dessert in yet another. Gravy goes on top of meat, etc. Each type of food is separated from the rest by a ridge of tin foil. While a rather simplistic way to think of website structure, it's a heck of a lot less confusing than trying to understand "siloing" or "themeing", or any of the other rather obscure ideology being promoted by SEO professionals.

Step 4: Off Page SEO


This little item has spawned an entire industry unto itself, and in my opinion, it's an industry that's "living on borrowed time". Google's webmaster guidelines tell us that they reward "Websites that behave in a natural way", and yet countless services are out there offering to "build incoming links" for you. What many of these services actually do for you is send out "crap" to be added to what Google has referred to as an online "cess pool". The last thing I would want is any of this detritus associated with my website.

For a website to behave in a "natural way", you need to acquire incoming links slowly, from websites that are related to the subject area of your own site, and which are considered by Google to be "quality online resources". We'll talk about this in detail later, but for now, be aware that, according to what Google tells us, "back link building services" are probably NOT a good idea.

Step 5: Social Media


Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus and other "social media" websites are no longer just for "people who have nothing better to do with their time" (as I always figured!). Apparently, these sites are the "way of the future" for internet marketing. If you have a website for your business, you need to have a Facebook Page, a Twitter account, and a Google Plus page.

This is where you put a personal face on your business, have a little fun, promote new things, gain "following" and interact with both current and potential clients and customers. Your social media pages and accounts need to link to your website, and your website should have a portal to your social media accounts displayed prominently on each page. It's not difficult to do any of these things. You can even assign your company's "social butterfly" or "clown" to look after this for you. We'll go into greater detail on how to do all this shortly.

So there you have 5 important and "do-able" things that can take your website from zero to hero in a relatively short amount of time. Certainly you can hire an SEO expert (hint: call me toll free at 1-888-541-6650 for effective AND affordable SEO services), BUT - you can also do this yourself. So stay tuned, my friends, and I'll go into much greater detail about each of these steps in future articles on this blog.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

WARNING Main Street Host Scamming Statesboro Ga Businesses

Just found this little gem from Statesboro Ga News:

Main Street Host has been cold calling Statesboro and area businesses regarding search engine placement (aka SEO or Search Engine Optimization). These folks will charge you upwards of $600.00 a year (or more), make a bunch of promises and not do what they say they will do.

Main Street Hosts is a scam outfit, they will take your money and run. They prey on the naivete of small business owners.


I guess a better way to phrase what Main Street Host will do is charge you a lot of money for very little work. The kind of work they do is so simple that you could do what they do with little or no effort. An eight year old child could perform better search optimization services than Main Street Host employees.

All you have to so is search Google for "mainstreethost scam" or "Main Street Host Scam".
Any time a company cold calls you and tries selling you something, be sure to check online via a search engine to make sure they aren't scammers.

Most of the time you can search by company name or by phone number and add "scam", "rip off" or similar to see if there any complaints online about a particular company.

The best defense is to NEVER buy a product or service from a company that emails you or cold calls you.

If you have been scammed by Main Street Host, we suggest that you file a complaint with the New York Attorney Generals office, Better Business Bureau and the Federal Trade Comission.

Main Street Host is also known as Utilities International Inc. Better Business Bureau Report
"Based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the BBB due to unanswered complaint(s). "
-----
OrgName: Mainstreethost.com
OrgID: MAINS-6
Address: 4250 Ridge Lea Suite #69
City: Amherst
StateProv: NY
PostalCode: 14226
Country: US
NetRange: 64.78.208.0 - 64.78.223.255
CIDR: 64.78.208.0/20

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

How To Do Your Own Search Engine Optimization and Avoid Being Taken To The Cleaners By Search Engine Optimization Scams

As a web site designer, search engine optimizer and owner of several large, successful pet-related web site directories for more than 10 years, I've seen many, many changes with search engines over the past decade.

The Evolution of Search Engines in the 21st Century
In the early days of the Internet, when the general public was just starting to go online, getting your web site ranked high on the search engines was fairly easy; just plunk in a few meta tags and keywords and you were off to the races.

Unfortunately, as more and more web sites started vying for the top search engine positions, many web site developers began using underhanded tricks to get top listings, such as "keyword spamming" (loading each page with hundreds of instances of the same search words), hiding search word text on each page by making it the same color as the page background, creating "doorway pages" to rank high on the search engines, but with no useful content, using automated redirection scripts to ping visitors from an optimized doorway page to their actual page, and other tricks too numerous to mention here.

This created problems for people searching for information online; the search results returned were often irrelevant to what they were seeking. The top search positions were being held by the web site with the craftiest webmaster, stuffing his or her web site with every possible search term related - and often not related - to their web site.

As a result, the search engines, in order to keep their visitors happy and deliver relevant information, have become more sophisticated, and webmasters need to be more sophisticated in their search engine optimization measures if they want to obtain - and keep - a high ranking on the search engines.

Fortunately, good search engine optimization is not "rocket science". It does not require a degree in computer science, and it is definitely something that everyone with a web site, a few online tools, and patience and perseverance can achieve.
Good search engine optimization is simple; provide a web site that is easy to navigate, has a clearly defined hierarchy of internal links, provides useful, well-written content, does not include humongous image files, java scripts, or other bells and whistles, and follows a few rules for proper search engine optimization.

Search Engine "Snake Oil Salesmen"

Unfortunately, most well-intentioned web site owners do not realize that achieving a high search engine ranking is a non-technical aspiration. This common goal of almost every web site owner has spawned a huge industry unto itself; the Search Engine Optimization Industry. Like any industry, this one has it's honest members, and it's not-so-honest members (to put it lightly).

The honest ones will usually tell you up-front, pretty-well everything I've mentioned above, but the dishonest ones (who shall go nameless, since they are scamming people for so much money they could easily afford to sue my pants off) would have you believe that you need to pay them hundreds of dollars per month to "put" your web site on the search engines - and keep paying them money if you wanted them to "keep" your web site on the search engines.

As an example, an elderly client of mine who breeds purebred Cavalier King Charles Spaniels as a hobby received a telephone call from just such a service. A very pushy, ill-mannered woman called my client to inform her that her web site "was not listed on the search engines". She had my client go to a few of the major search engines and type in "Cavalier King Charles Spaniel". Obviously my client's web site did not show up in the top 20 listings, which put her into something of a panic. The "search engine optimizer" then informed my client that she could "put" the web site on the search engines for an initial start-up fee of $299.95 and "keep" the site there for a monthly sum of just $129.95. My client signed up on the spot, and gave the woman her credit card information.

What the search engine optimizer failed to tell my client, was that her web site was listed in the top 5 on Google, Yahoo, MSN, Infoseek, AOL and other search engines for the search terms "Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Puppies", "Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Breeder", "Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Dogs", "Cavalier Puppies", "Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Puppies For Sale", "AKC Cavalier King Charles Spaniels" and a bunch of other more specifically targeted key word phrases. (These are what I had optimized the web site for when I created it). Fortunately, the "search engine optimizers" had to go through me to obtain my clients web site login and password in order to "optimize" her web site, and I told them "where to go and how to get there", without mincing words. They reversed the charges on my client's credit card, and she was saved from throwing away more than a thousand dollars a year for nonsense.

I've heard this same scenario over and over again from new clients who have fallen victim before they met me, and I shudder to think of how many people, who can ill-afford to, have thrown away hard-earned dollars on this scam.

Hopefully by reading this article, you will not become the next statistic. Forward this article to everyone you know who has a web site and should be aware. I'm going to outline the most common myths about how to get your site ranked high on the search engines, followed by 5 simple steps you can take to greatly improve your search engine position.

10 Common Myths About High Search Engine Rankings

1. Only a professional search engine optimization company or search engine submission company can get your site ranked high on the search engines.
Nonsense! You can do this yourself by making sure your website is a quality resource for your visitors.

2. Your web site needs to be submitted to the search engines by a search engine submission company using an automated system.
Bupkiss!!! The search engines, especially Google, do not want you to do this. Search engines crawl the internet constantly, and will visit your site without you having to submit to them. The best way to get your site crawled faster is to have other related, quality sites link to you.

3. You have to pay to be included on Google, Yahoo, MSN, Infoseek, Dogpile, and other directories and search engines.
Untrue!! All these engines do offer "pay per click" services where you can pay to be instantly listed at the top right of the page, but you do not need to pay to have "organic" (free) inclusion in their regular results, which most visitors look at.

4. You need to rank high for the top 1-word search term related to your web site.
It's easier and better (I think) to rank high for more targeted keyword phrases related to your web site. For instance, if you were a breeder of Burmese cats, you would be better served to target "Burmese kittens for sale" "Burmese cats for sale" & "Burmese cat breeder" than simply to target the word "Burmese" (which might bring you visitors looking for Burmese pythons, Burmese cooking, etc)

5. You need to have hundreds of web sites linking to your site to get a high search engine position.
False. It's better to get fewer links from high quality, related web sites than a ton of links from questionable sites with unrelated content. Build your link relationships slowly, making sure you only exchange links with sites that complement your own and are of good quality.

6. Your current web site position will fall if you stop paying your current "search engine submission" service to submit your site to the search engines on a regular basis.
Very unlikely. Having your site submitted to the search engines is no longer recommended, and can even cause your site to be banned from Google. If you are currently having your site submitted, save yourself some money and cancel the service. You would be better to spend that money on pay per click listings through Google Adwords or a similar program.

7. Hiring a search engine optimization service will cost a fortune.
Not necessarily! Although some search engine optimization services do charge a hefty sum, there are many knowledgeable professionals who can provide affordable search engine positioning services for $100 or less. (Like me, for instance! Click here if you want to hire me! :-)

8. You need a flashy, animated, music-filled web site to catch the attention of visitors and the search engines.

Wrong again! Unless these elements really add to your web site, it's best not to have them. Most visitors do not like music on a web site, flash animations are generally a nuisance to visitors, and most browsers now have security settings that will prevent java applets and other programs from loading. Additionally, all these unnecessary bells and whistles create a lot of "html shrapnel" that makes it difficult for the search engines to find the actual text in your site's html code. The best web sites offer informative, well-written text that is displayed in an intuitive format, clear, interesting, fast-loading images, and a simple, prominent and easy-to-navigate page hierarchy.

9. Search Engine Optimization techniques are trade secrets that only professional optimizers are privy to.

Total myth! The fact is that there is a ton of information available online about how to optimize your web site for search engine success. Some is free, some can be purchased for a reasonable price. The Internet is like a massive university where everyone is a student. I learn something new almost every day, and there are a lot of good newsletters about search engine optimization that you can subscribe to for free, or for a modest fee.

10. The more domain names I buy - the better my search engine position will be.
Mistake! All you need is 1 domain for any given web site. Having more than 1 domain can actually hurt your search engine rankings by creating the appearance of "duplicate content" from the search engine's viewpoint. Unless you just want to buy up domains to keep them from your competitors (but not direct them to your web site), save your money. 1 domain is all you need.

Five Simple Steps To Increase Your Website's Search Engine Rankings

1. Discover the right search phrases (keywords) to focus your search engine optimization efforts on.

There is a service called "Wordtracker" that keeps a database of actual searches performed on a variety of search engines. Using this service, you can pinpoint the EXACT search word phrases you want to optimize your site for - instead of guessing, and possibly missing the boat.

2. Hone your "Title", "Description", "Keywords" meta tags and your page text to make use of your three focused search term phrases. There are many free online resources that will help you learn how to do this in a few simple steps.

3. Submit your site by hand for inclusion in the Open Directory Project (http://www.dmoz.org)

4. Create a "links" page and begin exchanging links with quality web sites that are related to your own.

5. Maintain your web site regularly! Check for broken links, links to sites which are no longer there, and other problems and correct them! Share your knowledge about the subject of your web site by writing short articles - and link to them from your home page - and from your home page to your articles. You can find ideas for topics to write about by looking at Wordtracker search term suggestions for the subject of your web site. This will help you to pinpoint topics that people are searching for information about.

There are many other things that you can do to improve your web site's search engine position, but these 5 are a great place to start, and, I think, demonstrate that you really can be your own search engine optimizer!

The search engines have changed greatly over the years, and will, no doubt, continue to change and evolve to provide their visitors with the best possible search experience. You can ensure that your website gets indexed and displayed by the search engines for relevant search terms by providing a quality web site that offers the visitor an informative, enjoyable and relatively bug-free online experience.

Follow the tips listed above, and try to keep abreast of the ever-changing search engine landscape, and you should see a steady - and relatively permanent - increase in your web site's visitorship. Rome wasn't built in a day, and your web site traffic won't increase dramatically overnight (regardless of what the "snake-oil salesmen" mentioned above would have you believe!) Keep your nose to the grindstone, delivering a quality, informative web site, avoid employing cheap tricks, and your web site is sure to succeed.

Saturday, May 5, 2007

Internet Advancement told to refund clients

SEATTLE — The state attorney general said yesterday Redmond-based Internet Advancement must pay penalties for failing to get its customers top placement on major search engines.

Internet Advancement, which also goes by 4GreatBuys.com, must refund customers, pay $24,432 to the state for costs incurred and a civil penalty of $25,000.

The company had promised to get its customers ranked in the top 10 to 20 results on the search engines for $980 to $1,500 in set-up fees and monthly fees of $79.80 to $89.95.

The case involved "search engine optimization" services, which attempt to get businesses high placement in search-engine results.

"Internet Advancement misrepresented its success rate, promised more than it could deliver, then refused to provide refunds to customers who didn't get what they paid for," said Attorney General Christine Gregoire.

She said the Attorney General's Office, the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau received more than 100 complaints from customers around the country.

Internet Advancement told to refund clientsFull story: http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=nwbizbriefs12&date=20040812

Beyond Crooks

Posted: 01/16/2006 09:59 am

Warning: Do not deal with www.mainstreethost.com These people are way beyond crooks, they are a disgrace to criminals.

Several years ago, not knowing any better, I went with them to do SEO, keywording, etc. on my site. They gave me the speach about what they could do for me.

After paying them $600 a year for years, I was tipped off by my webmaster about them and told them I didn't want to re-new. They kept calling and calling. I told them, "no, no, no!" I don't know how many more ways I could tell them, "NO".

They left a message on my cell phone! saying they were accessing my AMEX card for payment for the upcoming year!

I've had to get a new AMEX card just because of these crooks.

Watch out!

Mainstreet Host is Run by Gangsters

Here's a little gem I found posted on a BBS recently...

Posted: May 28 2006
Post subject: Mainstreet Host is Run by Gangsters - Lots of good info!

Hello everyone, I'm posting on Mainstreet Host I specifically created a profile so I could comment or reply to posts about Mainstreet Host. I was cold called by some scumbag male from this shitball company as Incredible Help stated... he said "I'm returning your call about SEO services"...this was LD from New York area so I was a little puzzled and said "I never called you". When he insisted that I did call hime I told him he was an idiot. He laughed as if he was some harmless soul who only wanted to help me out. He went on about their services and how they are the greatest and that they can put my website on 6,000 search engines withing three months! I didn't even think there were that many SE's - this was about 4 years ago but don't even think there are that many today, are there? Anyhow, innocently, I told them that I wasn't ready for SEO yet as my website had still to be finished. When I told him my budget was under 600.00 he immediately went on ab how his websites are the best, awesome, I wouldn't be sorry, and he would skyrocket my status on the web in no time and create my site for only an extra 400.00!!! So the total would be about 1, 000.00 for website, support, SEO, website creation and maintainence etc for one year...I thought that this was ok since a good site was approx 5K back then. I warned him that I was very picky and that I'd be a pain if things didn't pan out the way I was promised. Well, the webmaster called me finally after two weeks (I had to email them about 5 times first), and we started working out the site plan. I spend countless hours sizing and resizing pictures, figuring out the text, fonts, backgrounds etc...basically I did all the work and they simply put it in html. The site actually never launched. Why? Because it took them 4 months to complete two pages and poor ones at that. The graphics were horrendous, cut the wrong way, streched, discolored and too small. Layouts were horrible. I spend many many hours at one point in the whole frustrating process, actually designing the page myself on Word which turned out fantastic and eyecatching - the only thing it needed was htlm! The ahole didn't even know how to do the html properly! Didn't know how to crop and size the photos or centre text even! Agoninzing i tell u. So after about 6 months the 5 ugly webpages were finished. I told them over and over i didn't like what they were doing, not what i asked for etc...to deaf ears. At one point, the gangster that originally called me out of the blue heavens, called me and sort of threatened me also. He said "what do you expect for $1,000, miracles?? You should have gone with the higher package". I had originally told him that I could not afford the fee at the time and that's when he went into "I'll give u a great discount and create a package to suit your budget". He didn't tell me tho that the package was worth nothing. I had "sucker" written all over me because at the time, I knew NOTHING about seo etc...but I learned real quick. So after di**ing me around for months and withdrawing the money from my card, they still had not even submitted my site to ANY of the search engines! I was investigating them long before the six months were up. I had tried also to get my payments stopped but, VISA doesn't do that for their patrons, be warned! Before I launched them to the curb, and after for months, I investigated submissions, link popularity, the html on the site, just everything that you check for to see if a website is done correctly to be fully optimized. What do you know, the scumbags never submitted my site to ANY SE'S! At all. I did multiple searches with multiple keywords on multiple engines on a routine basis. NOTHING. I also did robot checks, spider checks, you name it. NOTHING. EVER. And on top of this, i found numerous errors in the site and in the meta tags, keywords; all of it was wrong and poorly designed. I'm sticking to the main details but I have a folder two inches thick with all the facts. I had asked for a refund but of course the gangster said "no way". He did his part. Tough. Sol. So I decided that I would go to VISA and get the refund there. WRONG. Visa are a bunch of gangsters also. They don't give a fig about their clients. Before all the money was paid, VISA said the whole amount had to be paid before I could file a claim to get it back! I should have "lost" my card and stopped services immediately. I did do this as soon as the amount was paid after a few payments. I got someone else to "steal the site" from under their nose and host it elsewhere. I waited on VISA for an answer after spending months putting together my report which was 16 pages long. I spoke to numerous reps at VISA only to get dicked around some more. In the end, they sent me a letter stating that I was not eligible for a refund as I had authorized the sale. DUH, VISA. I f***g know this. If that's that was their policy, why didn't they just say, "know what, you're sol, take a nap, have a nice life" instead of telling me to write this report which took me a LONG TIME TO DO. Because I was so thorough in my investigation and had the facts and proof of poor service printed from the web onto paper, I thought surely, they would see the obvious. I even printed out the site I had requested and the site I got and that wasn't enuff. I checked thousands of SE's, large, small, all kinds and typed them onto a chart along with details of whether or not my site was listed. Well that goes to show you we are controlled by gangsters. I also want to say the Mainstreethost.com is seriously run by hoods, or gangsters. I mean this honestly. I was also afraid for a time when I got crappy with them and they were a little threatening. I don't recall exactly what the guy said but I remember thinking that if I pursued this and won, I would probably be hit. So even though I went to VISA, I also felt a little relieved that i lost although I shouldn't have, because they had my address and knew where to find me. Since then, my credit card is new (different number), my addresss and phone number are also different from the info they had on me before. So the moral of the story is: if you can do something on your own, dont' hire anyone else to do it. I have learned a lot since then; i do my own submissions and all that and have pretty decent luck. Mainstreet Host did absolutely nothing but cause me extreme anxiety and stress and robbed me 1, 000.00. Sorry about this looong post and probably some spelling errors as I'm going fast here. Had to get it out. Hope someone gets them one day and puts them out of business for good. Then again, we have forums like this one and there are blogs aren't there? Yup. _________________
Mainstreet Host are equivalent to larvae...that need to be eaten by other larvae....yes.

SEO, MY ARSE! - BEWARE THE BULLS**T MONGERS!!

As a webmaster for many small business people for many years, I have become increasingly disturbed by so-called "Search Engine Optimizers" that, in my opinion, are taking advantage of millions of web site owners and small business people. Let me clarify here, I am not speaking of legitimate SEO professionals who put time and effort into helping their clients, and who are honest with their clients about what is involved with getting and keeping a high ranking on the important search engines, like Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Ask and so forth. I am speaking of companies that continue to promote the outdated fallacy that monthly automated search engine submissions and the insertion of a few magical bits of html code will propel a web site to a top ten position for the most popular key phrases for it's subject matter. I am talking about "services" (more aptly called "disservices") that convince small business people that they need to spend a lot of money to have their web site among those included in a mysterious system that has an "in" with the search engines and can instantly get your site a high ranking.

Those who have base knowledge of how search engines are evolving and changing would likely snort coffee out their noses and hang up the phone after being presented with such a fine bit of fiction, but, unfortunately, there are too many web site owners who know little or nothing about how their site gets indexed, or who are laboring under outdated information. These web site owners are the prime targets of a growing industry that profits by preying on panic and promoting misinformation.

One such company is www.mainstreethost.com

Mainstreethost employs extremely pushy telephone sales people that make cold calls to web site owners. I've heard about many scenarios for the inital conversation. One client of mine told me that a woman called her and said that her web site was nowhere to be found on the Internet. (Hmmm... I thought, how did they find you, then??) Another client told me of a "bait and switch" scam - a woman called several times saying she had adopted a puppy from a shelter that looked exactly like one on the client's web site. Apparently this woman called several times, but refused to send a photo of the apparently identical puppy. Finally, she called to talk about the wonderful work that a company called "Mainstreethost" had done for her web site, propelling her search engine position in just days. Of course, that call was followed by a call from a pushy salesperson to close the deal.

The bottom line: Mainstreet host claims that they will "put your web site on the search engines" for a mere $400 and then $100 a month, each and every month thereafter. The $100 monthly is to "keep you on the search engines". And, better yet, if you decide to stop paying the $100, your web site will magically disappear from the search engines. (By the way, that amounts to $1600 in just 1 year! - imagine how much advertising you could buy on Google Adwords for $1600!!)

I've heard and read many second hand reports of the ridiculous claims made by this company. I've heard about how they initially employ "scare tactics" to put the potential "customer" in a state of panic by advising that this person's web site is not being found on the search engines. (Of course, this finding would be subject to the search terms entered into a given search engine when looking for a given site.)

Additionally, they even had the audacity to phone me (a webmaster and SEO specialist) to try and convince me that their "services" were needed for my web site (on which my experience and expertise are thoroughly documented). I've had first-hand experience with their hardball phone tactics. The woman that phoned me was very pushy and rude. She actually started yelling and swearing at me when I told her I was not interested in her services. After I hung up on her, she called again to continue her tirade. I can only imagine that it would be difficult to say no to this type of sales tactic if you were not forearmed with knowledge about current search engine positioning procedures.

So, my plan for this blog threefold;
1. I hope to expose the lies about SEO,
2. I plan to expose those who promote and profit from lies about search engine optimization
3. I hope to promote the truth about Search Engine Optimization, something that everyone with a web site can do for themselves, for FREE, without having to know a thing about technical matters or be fluent in Search Engine Optimization lingo.

I invite anyone who has been taken in by SES's (Search Engine Shuysters) to post comments on this blog. Let's spread the word and hopefully keep honest people who hope to succeed with their web sites on a small budget from falling victim to the SEOS (Search Engine Optimization Scam).

Please feel free to let your friends and associates know about this blog. I'll be adding information on how you can be your own SEO for FREE, or find a legitimate Search Engine Optimization specialist to help you achieve your goals.

Thanks for dropping by, and hope to see you again soon!

Princess Headbutt