SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the art of making a website move higher in the search engines, like Google, Yahoo, etc..
The people that would like to scam you out of your hard earned dollars never stop. The proliferation of SEO scam emails is unreal. It seems like everyday I get one, promising to get my website on the first page of google. Here are a few things to watch out for.
1. Anyone telling you that they can get you a first page ranking for a monthly fee, but only as long as you continue to pay them.
Proper SEO entails several factors, title tags, proper keywords, alt tags, relevant copy, building meaningful links, social marketing and much more. Once these things are done, if you stop paying a monthly fee, they will not go away.
2. If you get an email from some SEO expert with no website URL, be cautious. Any SEO company should want you to investigate their website in order to give you more information. Also look at their email address. If it comes from a gmail or yahoo email account, this is another warning sign. How can anyone be an expert in SEO when they don’t even have a website?
3. Free Trial Service with access to your website. DANGER, WILL ROBINSON! Never let anyone have access to your files unless you are absolutely certain they are accountable. You might as well give them access to your bank account.
4. A company tells you that they will submit your website to 1,000 search engines. Let’s face it Google does more searches than all of the other search engines in the world COMBINED! Work on google first, then Yahoo and MSN. With these three you have covered 98% of the market.
5. Flat-Rate and Low Monthly Fees. Good SEO is not cheap. Several companies charge hundreds of dollars per hour all the way up to $1,000 per hour! SEO takes a lot of time. It can take months before the results start to show.
There can be several other things to watch out for. If you have any questions, or would like to post your experiences, please do.