What is a Search Engine Optimization firm? Right from the horses mouth, does Google recommend working with companies of this nature?

Search Engine Optimization or “SEO” firms provide a very proven service for website owners that have a daunting range of activities that can improve a website chances in competing within the search engines for natural/organic results. These activities range from writing copy, link building, to giving site architecture advice and helping to find relevant directories to which a site can be submitted. However, back when the internet gave birth to ecommerce and “being ranked” became a detrimental to online success along with it came unethical business practices. A few unethical SEOs sometime ago have given the industry a black eye through methods that unfairly manipulated search engine results.

Google used to not have any relationships with these types of firms until just recently through acquiring, yes, an SEO and SEM firm for 3.1 billion called DoubleClick/Performics. What Google plans on doing with its client base is still unknown. A previous statement from Google within their Webmaster Help Center:

“Google doesn’t have relationships with any SEOs and doesn’t offer recommendations”

Though Google claims to not have relationships with SEO firms until today and does not offer recommendations. A representative of Google, Matt Cutts, regularly fields questions for SEOers within his blog and many Search Engine based conventions. Matt Cutts also is making use of video presentations through Google’s new video blogging platform. Google, as well as any ethical SEO firm, would like to share a few recommendations that may help you determine between an SEO company that will improve your site and those that will only improve your chances of being removed from search engine results altogether.

1. Be wary of SEO firms that send you unsolicited email (SPAM).
2. No SEO firm can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google, though SEM (search engine marketing) is different in nature and is based on securing those #1 spots. So, make sure you understand all aspects of internet marketing before getting involved.
3. A statement from Googles Webmaster Help Center: “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 through the Google Sitemaps program, and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.”
4. You should never have to link to anyone for any reason unless your agreeing to a reciprocal link trade. Steer clear SEO firms that talk about the use of link farms or submitting your site to thousands of search engines. These are useless activities today. It is better for an SE to find your site via spider/bot from another website that has linked to you.
5. Stay clear of SEO companies that seem secretive or are not willing to explain to you in detail the activities that they intend to do you for you. Though SEO seems like rocket science to some, the intricacies can be explained even to a non-guru. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. If an SEO firm makes use of sneaky redirection or misleading content on your behalf, such as shadow domains, doorway pages, even poorly written splash pages, your site could be dropped entirely from Google’s index.
6. You should never have to install any type of software on your personal PC in which you search the internet from. Some unethical SEOs have been known to prey on ignorance in the area of having you feed your keywords you search for into a toolbar or software that you’ve installed on your computer. These manipulate the search results that your see and can be classified as spyware or malware.
7. Ask for client references and authenticate testimonials by talking to those who made them. Client references are always a good start, but they don’t tell the whole story. Ask how how long the SEO company has been in business and visit their office. A good SEO firm can usually be found in you local area. Don’t ever feel pressured: be patient until you find a trustworthy firm. Ask your SEO company if it reports search result spam sites that it finds to Google using Google’s complaint form located at: http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html. Ethical SEO companies report sites that are in clear violation of Google’s spam guidelines.
8. Be wary of an unsolicited phone call as well. This one may be hard for some cold calling tactic companies to swallow, but the fact remains that SEO services should be sought out and the company thoroughly investigated. The best way to find an ethical SEO firm is through word-of-mouth.
9. Design companies, ad agencies, website design companies and even your next door neighbor at times claim they can perform SEO for you.  The fact of the matter is that in my 18+ years of working with ISPs and managing web development teams - artist are artist, programmers program and creative marketers market.  None of these three types of people are compentant in these three paradyms.  Call it what you will, different sides of the brain, what not.  Do your homework, ask for past results and references.  Hiring the same company that developed your website to do your internet marketing can be one of the biggest mistakes you can make.  We’ve had cases we’ve had to tackle where companies have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on internet marketing with previous venders and we’ve had to spend 6 months to a year undoing the damage they’ve caused.  I (Troy Perkins) have served as an expert witness in litigation cases such as this where online reputations have been ruined and capital lost.

What are the most common unethical practices a website owner is likely to encounter?

The two following statements are direct references from Google’s Webmaster Help Center

“One common scam is the creation of “shadow” domains that funnel users to a site by using deceptive redirects. These shadow domains often will be owned by the SEO who claims to be working on a client’s behalf. However, if the relationship sours, the SEO may point the domain to a different site, or even to a competitor’s domain. If that happens, the client has paid to develop a competing site owned entirely by the SEO.”

“Another illicit practice is to place “doorway” pages loaded with keywords on the client’s site somewhere. The SEO promises this will make the page more relevant for more queries. This is inherently false since individual pages are rarely relevant for a wide range of keywords. More insidious, however, is that these doorway pages often contain hidden links to the SEO’s other clients as well. Such doorway pages drain away the link popularity of a site and route it to the SEO and its other clients, which may include sites with unsavory or illegal content”

Here is a short checklist of reasons to walk away from an SEO firm.

• owns link farms and/or shadow domains.
• makes use of cloaking or page swapping techniques.
• Causing search results to show multiple listings for the same content.
• keyword stuffing: overly repeats keywords or makes keywords the same color as your background.
• Font color same as background as mentioned above but applied to content as well.
• Hides links within your pages using a small space area in an image, or a period of text.
• Plagiarizes: check your site and articles with tools like copyscape.com.
• asks you to place links to others or makes use of linking in doorway pages.
• asks you to install software of any kind on your PC.
• offers to sell keywords to be used in an address bar or software.
• doesn’t explain the difference between natural/organic search and paid ads.
• guarantees any rankings what so ever for organic or natural search results.
• gets traffic from unrecognized sources. Make sure to review your analytics thoroughly!
• does not exist in Google search results, thats a no brainer…

If you feel that you’ve become a victim of SEO malpractice you can file a complaint at: http://www.ftc.gov/

References: Google Webmaster Help Center

I hope this was helpful in your search for an ethical SEO firm. If you have any further questions in reference to this topic or SEO and SEM for that matter please feel free to comment here within this blog or give us a call at: 210-627-1012.