I addressed the spam our customers receive regarding domain names recently, but there’s another form of scam our customers are constantly targeted by — the SEO scam.

Has anyone told you that your website isn’t appearing on Google? Do you know if they are telling the truth?

Getting your website found on Google is important for any business in this day and age. Google has replaced paper directories as the go-to place to find products and services. It’s quick, it’s handy, it’s comprehensive, and most of us carry it in our pocket all the time on our phone; no matter how much smaller the Yellow Pages gets, it just can’t hope to compete.

So not scoring on Google is scary for anyone who wants to find new business on the internet. For years now, we’ve been promoting companies to the world wide web without charging an arm and a leg.

Not scoring on Google is scary for anyone who wants to find new business on the internet.

The Scary Email

What if you got an email from someone saying that your website wasn’t appearing at the top of the search results? What if they said, “Your website looks good, but you’re not appearing on page one of Google.” Would you know enough about your website to be able to say for sure that they were wrong?

Almost every single email we see is an automated spam email. These people haven’t even looked at your website, nor have they actually checked where you are appearing on Google. All they’ve done is used some software to scrape your email address from your website. Of course, it does beg the question — if your website isn’t appearing on Google, how did they find it in the first place?

These people haven’t even looked at your website, nor have they actually checked where you are appearing on Google.

These emails are usually badly written, from some generic Gmail or Hotmail address (a real agency would have their own domain name), and never mention which keywords it is you’re not appearing for. At best, turning your website over to these people would cause your website to be full of grammatical errors and disappear from Google. At worst, they host a virus on your website to infect potential customer’s computers with something nasty and your website disappears from Google forever.

The worst of these emails are those that try to disguise their intentions. Rather than outright telling you about your search position (or lack of it), they’ll try to hide in a confusingly worded message that seems to imply your domain name needs to be renewed. These scams are probably worse as they are not even open with their intentions to begin with.

The Guy in the Pub

Of course it’s not just those pesky unsolicited emails. There’s also the perennial man-in-the-pub who promises to do a great job for you. Or your secretary’s daughter’s boyfriend, who has done a degree in web design. And not forgetting the slightly nerdy chap in accounts who has been teaching himself how to use WordPress in his spare time.

Yes, all of these people could probably build you a website for a very cheap price. But if you’re one of our customers you should know the value of appearing at the top of the search results for what you do, where you do it (if you don’t know that value, please do tell us that we’re not keeping you informed about what we’re doing for you). SEO isn’t a game, and it’s not something you can pick up from reading a few blogs. Yes; there’s some tricks you can use that might get you to the top of the search results quickly — but often as not you’ll find you disappear again just as quickly.

Search Engine Optimisation isn’t a game

Why We’re Different

All of this does make it difficult when we talk to people. They are so used to people telling them that they could get them onto “Page One of Google” that when we talk to them to offer a comprehensive marketing strategy for their web presence, they immediately assume that we’re talking the same rubbish. But we have hundreds of clients we can point to who are dominating their industry in their local areas because of the work we’ve done to promote them online.

We do care about our customers. We really do work hard for our money (and I think all of our customers should agree that for what we do, we do offer incredible value for money). But what makes us special compared to many web companies is that we are with our customers for the long term. We don’t build someone a website and then push them out the door. We build a relationship. We work on a website for years with the client, maintaining their positions in a competitive marketplace, pushing them into new marketplaces, and staying with them as they grow.

If you think your website isn’t performing as well as you’d like, please do talk to us. If you just aren’t sure if your website is performing well, please do talk to us. If you are thinking of taking up one of these offers from third parties, because they’ve told you your website isn’t performing well, then please do talk to us.