Bad SEOs? What about Bad SEO Clients?
You hear all the time about bad SEOs. Bad SEOs are offering worthless services, failing to deliver on their internet marketing promises, polluting the search engine results??"well, a lot of bad things.
But how much ever gets said about bad SEOs' spiritual counterparts: bad SEO clients?
As an SEO, I can see things from the other side of the table.
You see, despite trying hard to make it clear I'm a good, ethical, results-oriented, smarter marketing, white-hat SEO, I have gotten no end of inquiries from bad prospective SEO clients.
Sure, no one who gets cheated is ever entirely to blame, and some cheated businesses are entirely blameless.
But the bad SEOs would have too small a market to stay in business if it weren't for almost-as-bad clients.
Shades of Bad SEO Clients
First, let me make clear what I mean by “bad” SEOs. Bad SEOs are bad because they either do unethical things to get e-marketing results, or because they consistently fail to deliver results.
A good SEO delivers results and does it without trampling over other people's rights (like submitting automated comments to their websites or trying to get good sites de-indexed).
A bad SEO client, in turn, is someone who will only be satisfied (albeit temporarily) with a bad SEO.
Because they refuse to consider ethical web consultants or smarter marketing strategies, they are creating markets for the e-marketing charlatans and black-hats.
There are two basic types of bad SEO clients: crooks and fool--oops, I mean, ethically challenged and judgmentally-challenged.
Ethically-Challenged SEO Clients
I haven't gotten so many inquiries asking for out-and-out unethical services.
Still, I've been asked about blog-sp@mming software and other shady internet marketing tactics a couple times. A colleague shared this gem with me: “Have you thought about just scanning a book from the library and using it for web content? Or is that too high-risk?”
(Seriously, someone asked him this.)
Of course, judging from the amount of comment sp@m and SEO-motivated hacking on the web,
there is plenty of demand for this stuff.
Judgmentally-Challenged SEO Clients
A much larger group of bad SEO clients are simply those who insist on putting themselves in the way of fraud.
Yes, that's right: I'm blaming the victim.
Someone who goes looking for a $5 gold watch can't cry too long if the watch turns out to be fake or hot.
With SEO, there are a few more nuances, but it's the same essential idea.
The overwhelming majority of these judgmentally challenged souls are private individuals whose only business is the business-in-a-kit variety.
Yet they are also sometimes representatives of actual successful companies.
The real businesspeople tend to be quicker to let their misconceptions go (after all, they can afford the real SEO alternatives), but not always.
Let's look at some representative types of this group, straight out of my own inbox (note: these are inquiries from prospects, not actual clients).
1. Something-for-(Little More than)-Nothing Clients
Really, I tend to think these people should be in the ethically challenged group, but maybe that's just the remnant of my work ethic making me be mean
There are actually two kinds of these clients:
* The ambitious but cheap client: “I'd like to get to the top of Google for the keyword, 'mortgage' so I can turn over $100,000/month in revenue.
I can spend up to $1,000.”
* The Adsense-is-my-business-plan client: you wouldn't believe the numbers of inquiries I get from people who only plan to make money off Adsense or other on-site advertising??"they don't even have a plan for getting repeat traffic, nor do they have content to synergize with the SEO effort.
By buying promotional services, they would essentially be buying advertising in order to make money off advertising??"you see where that could be a problem?
Another way of looking at it: why wouldn't I just create a site myself and keep all the profit from my efforts?
In fact, most SEOs do have their own project sites, which are often monetized by Adsense. The money we could otherwise get from Adsense is one very low baseline for pricing our services.
Legitimate SEO clients are typically selling goods or services at a profit rate that works out to ten or more times what they could get from Adsense.
In addition to the greedy, I also see a few other kinds of less common, but still problematic prospective SEO clients:
2. SEO-Starry-Eyed Clients: “Search engine traffic is definitely the best way for me to get pet-sitting clients in my tiny Himalayan village.”
3.
The Little-Knowledge-Is-a-Dangerous-Thing Client: “Don't tell me about keyword research, content, anchor text, or natural linking strategy, just get me the PageRank (or links, keyword density, or whatever the fad is).”
4. Gullible-and-Not-Letting-Go Client: “I know of at least two services that will submit my site to thousands of search engines for $29.95.
If you can't do that, I'll take my business elsewhere.”
5. I-Will-Never-Trust-SEO-But-I'll-Consider-It-Anyway Client: “No one can guarantee a good search engine ranking so this is all pointless??"I'll just go with that $29.95 search engine submission package someone just emailed me about.
At least it's cheap.”
In short, if you are going to find good SEO web consultants, you need: 1) realistic expectations; 2) a realistic budget; 3) solid information.
Don't expect something for nothing, do a little reading, and it's much less likely you'll fall victim to bad SEOs.
.
Check out his smarter marketing website at: http://www.onlinewebconsultants.com
5 Myths About Protecting Yourself from Skin Cancer
Sara spends much of her summer near the beach. She lives in amild climate and is very athletic. She loves to swim, bike andplay games outdoors. Sara knows the dangers of the sun and so sheopts for tanning salons to get her 'golden glow' while being sureto apply sunscreen every day before heading out. Joseph lives in a cooler, northern climate.
The summers can bevery humid, but most of the year is mild or even below freezingduring the harshest winter months. The beach has never been muchof a draw for him and he spends most of his time doing indooractivities or at his job. Joseph doesn't worry about sunscreenand only had one sunburn that he can remember and that was whenhe was a child. -------------------- Which of these examples do you most associate yourself with? Didyou know that Sara and Joseph are both at risk of developing skincancer? We have all heard the warnings about the dangers of sunexposure. We know all about the importance of wearing sunscreenand hats.
But are...
5 Myths About Protecting Yourself from Skin Cancer
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New Product Placement Firm Specializes in Sports
(ContentDesk) November 6, 2005 -- John Meindl, president of Sport Consulting Group Inc., created a new division of the sports marketing firm: sportsbrandedmedia, dedicated to the product placement of sports properties, sporting goods, sports apparel and more in mass media outlets."The advent of TiVo, content on demand and 1,000 TV channels is eating into the traditional stronghold of TV ad spending," he said. "Where we once tolerated only three network channels with limited content selectivity, today the well-informed and sophisticated American viewer, drawing from hundreds of networks and channels, can almost single-handedly avoid advertising in its traditional form. Product placement is the answer with implied endorsement, low cost, high profile and a less obtrusive far reach. Sports saturate our culture and it is the role of sportsbrandedmedia to foster Americas love of sport, through product placement in entertainment properties."In addition, SportsBrandedMedia is now representing...
New Product Placement Firm Specializes in Sports
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The Memory Collector
Everyone collects something right?
It may be baseball cards, hats, or some other type of sports memorabilia.
Even if you don't consider yourself a collector of anything, you may be and don't even know it.
How about the collection of tools in the cellar you don't really use, but you have to have them!
Even maybe all those movies laying around you no longer watch, sounds like a collection to me.More common items people typically collect are things like, coins, military items, guns, and sports items.
Generally it will be something that once interested a person, had an impact on their lives or they just simply enjoyed.
Me, I am a collector of shot glasses.
What it was that spawned the interest is beyond me, I think it may have started in college.
I now have a collection of over 300 shot glasses, and yes, I have had at least 1 shot of some type of a concoction from each one of them.
Looking at them now, they are...
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ADD / ADHD Children : Being Your Child's Best Friend
Do you live with an ADD / ADHD child? If so-- my hat is off to you! ADD / ADHD children are brilliant, full of energy, smart as a whip (as grandma says), and tons of work. They are also the rising sun and the setting star: meaning much of life revolves around them in one way or another. One tactic you might employ is to: be your child's best friend.Hear me out just a bit. I am not promoting parents in "jammies" all day-- everyday, messy homes filled with increasing whirlwind clutter that no-one attends to, nor hot dogs and pizza nightly just to avoid more arguing with an ADD / ADHD child.I am suggesting the reminder we all need with these special needs children: keep perspective.And yes-- try thinking along the lines of being best friends with your child.Best friends are people who look out for the best interest of another. Best friends have a special tolerance for each other.
Best friends set aside time to truly know each other and how each other thinks and feels.Best friends...
ADD / ADHD Children : Being Your Child's Best Friend
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Dealing With Stress in Our Overworked Lives
As small business owners, we often take on more than we can handle. Wearing all the hats running our businesses, as well as the other commitments we have (i.e. volunteer work, family, etc.), can sometimes leave us feeling overworked, frustrated, and stressed out. Being under so much stress is not good for anyone and it can definitely have an effect on our businesses. So we need to alleviate some of our stress and find solutions for the reasons that we are so overworked.
- Take a step back from everything and decide which tasks are ?needs' and which tasks are ?wants'.
Which tasks are more important than others? We consider everything that we do in our lives, especially when running our businesses, as important. However, which tasks can you postpone long enough without producing a negative effect on ourselves and our success. Which tasks can wait?
- Learn that you cannot say ?yes' to everything. For most people and for most businesses, saying no to anyone can be like pulling...
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