For “Clients” sake, let me give you a brief run down of how to avoid SEO malpractice.

First and foremost, always be very wary of any SEO firm that guarantees you anything when it comes to natural/organic search.  Organic search results are those that are displayed below and to the left of search engine results pages.  Below is a notation with natural search results surrounded in baby blue.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  There is no possible way any SEO firm can make any type of guarantee for positioning in this area.  Search Engines such as Google have algorithms that make decisions on what page and who’s page is to be positioned here based on a plethora of attributes some might say makes up the secret sauce.  I have not met a single SEOer thats knows what an entire companies engineering staff such as Google has put into these calculations and is guarded like fort Knox.  Anyone who does make such a claim is either lying to your face, is a complete psychopath, or a dancing clown.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way let me make this as clear as possible.  Any ethical SEO firm will be up front with you right from the beginning and let you know the facts.  Its important to understand the differences between SEO and SEM.  SEM or Search Engine Marketing encompasses buying positions usually on a lease or bid basis and yes, can be guaranteed.  SEO or natural/organic search results can be gained by using best practice proven methods such as keyword selection, proper tag usage, keyword density and quality link building.  Results can be seen as soon as a few months but sometimes take as long as a entire year or more to achieve desired goal in competitive industries.

I almost got off on a bid of a tangent there… back to the signs of SEO firms to avoid.  The second item on the list comes straight from Google themselves:  Be wary of any SEO firm that sends you unsolicited email (SPAM).  Rather than reiterate this, here is Google’s write up.  Not 5 minutes after I sat down and began writing this blog entry, what showed up in my email box? SPAM from an SEO firm.  Completely unsolicited, they are even saying in the email that I’m on their distribution list.

Bill claims that he has reviewed my site and decided to send me an email.  Do you think Bill would have sent me this email if he knew that my company is an SEO firm?  How did Bill get my email address?  Spammers and Cons alike have their ways, such as writing programs that spider search engines for demographic areas and climb all over sites scraping email addresses …like ours!  info@totus.us.  His email was even sent from a non-verified email address.

The point here, and if you read Google’s write-up on SEO firms, is to be smart.  Ask questions.   Trying not to turn this into a sales pitch but we, TOTUS, are an ethical SEO firm and proud of it! We hope to gain your business and be your partner in internet search engine rankings.