This week, I stood up in a networking event and announced that the SEO industry was full of con artists. After the initial laughter had died down, I proceeded to explain my somewhat controversial statement and elaborated on why not only is the SEO industry full of con artists, but also that many people within the industry don’t have a clue how to actually do it.
This rather angry claim was sparked by something that happened earlier in the week when, on Facebook, a lady posted in a group that she needed some advice with her SEO. Naturally, this sparked the usual deluge of people offering to do her SEO for her, with one person even giving her prices for their services (just £50 per month).
Now, there’s nothing wrong with charging £50 per month for SEO. It’s not the price I have issue with. We actually have a client paying something similar. She does a very niche service in a small geographical area, so she doesn’t need a lot of work to ensure her enquiries keep coming in on a regular basis. No, what I take issue with is this person boldly stating their SEO was £50 per month, without even knowing the lady’s domain name, what her website was like (if she even had a website), what her industry was, who her competitors are or what their websites are like.
He knew nothing about her. Nothing!
As I mentioned in my networking group, it’s like asking a mechanic how much to source and replace your gearbox. It really does depend on the make and model of your car.
This woman’s business could have been a credit card comparison website, which would mean her main competitor would be MoneySupermarket.com. Do you think £50 per month is going to be enough to compete with them? No, of course it isn’t. Boldly offering your SEO services for £50 per month, or for any fixed price for that matter, shows a complete lack of understanding of how the industry works. You can’t give a fixed price for something that should be tailored to a client’s needs and should consider what their online presence needs to do to compete with their competitors.
Yet this guy, and thousands like him, tout their ‘expertise’ for a fixed price. I’ve been seeing this sort of irresponsible selling of SEO services at networking events for years. It lures people into thinking they can compete with any website, in any industry, for peanuts. Guess what? They can’t. All that happens is people end up losing confidence in SEO as a service. They get their fingers burnt by amateurs claiming to be experts, and then themselves go around saying that SEO doesn’t work because, in their experience, it hasn’t.
There are even some SEO providers who do absolutely nothing for the money. You think I’m kidding, right? I have genuinely seen examples of people who offer SEO, and take money for doing for SEO, yet don’t actually do a single thing for the money. How do they get away with it, and how do they sleep at night?
Is it any wonder this industry has such a poor reputation?
So, if you’ve tried SEO and received no results, or you’re of the opinion that SEO is just a complete waste of time, it’s likely you’ve used one of these snake oil salesmen who don’t have the first clue how to do it. To find out how SEO really works, drop us an email today.
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[…] I say ‘most’, that is obviously not counting those SEO fraudsters who don’t actually do anything for the money. They won’t get you more traffic, they’ll just […]