Small Business Local SEO Services are not all created equal!
As the Yellow Pages continue to die and newspaper circulations continue to plummet, many small businesses are seeking better rankings in the search engines to attract new customers. There are thousands of small business SEO services out there and it can be very confusing to the uninformed small business owner which direction to take.
Unfortunately, many of the small business search engine optimization companies are either scams, or being run by inexperienced internet marketing newcomers with just a few months actual experience in small business search engine optimization.
A Flood of Small Business Local SEO consultants are headed your way!
Get ready small business owner! If you thought your phones were ringing now, it going to get worse as more inexperienced small business SEO consultants are coming!
What prompted me to write this post, was an email I recently received from a well known Internet Marketer who sells “How To Training Systems” to Internet Marketing hopefuls. The system that caught my eye was a “How to become a Local SEO consultant for $97″. In the email he was bragging about selling over 4,000 of these training packages to future small business search engine optimization consultants.
What does that mean to small business owners? Simply put, there are now at least 4,000 new self proclaimed small business local SEO companies being run by people that got there training from a $97 ‘How To System”!
The top small business SEO services have years of Internet marketing experience and can adjust to the many changes that often occur!
Google is constantly changing their local search rankings and algorithms. This should send a message to small businesses to beware of what small business SEO companies they choose.
Let me say that in my 15 years of Search Engine Marketing, I have seen my share of scams and get rich fast schemes. Heck, I’ve been burned before! But, this surge of small business SEO consultants concerns me. The sad part is, most small business owners know nothing about Search Engine Optimization, and any fast talking small business search engine optimization newcomer with a little bit of local SEO knowledge and a good sales pitch can take their money.
As more of these “How to become a local SEO consultant” programs emerge, hoards of excited, small business SEO services will be swooping down on small businesses and many of these inexperienced people will take your money and never deliver results. This leads to many small businesses becoming discouraged and wondering if the Internet will ever work for their business.
If you are a Small Business looking for honest, experienced, local SEO consultants, here is a list of some of the top scams and sale pitches that you need to watch out for and avoid.
Small Business Local SEO Top Scam – We Guarantee You top rankings in Google! If you have been in business any length of time you have gotten dozens of these phone calls. It sounds great! Guaranteed number 1 rankings in Google. Who doesn’t want that?
Professional SEO consultants do not make guarantees like that.
First of all, with all the changes that constantly occur on Google, how can anyone other than Google make such a promise?
Second of all, getting top rankings on Google for your business name or targeting low traffic keywords is not an achievement. In fact, with a few minor tweaks to your website, you can do that yourself! Unless your website is a complete mess you should already be ranking high for your own business name.
How can a local SEO consultant promise top rankings on 1 phone call? They don’t know your business. They don’t know what the high traffic keywords are for your local area, or how heavy the competition is for your top keywords. How can they make such a promise? Simple, they will take your money, deliver pathetic results, and claim they did their job. They will show some top Google rankings, but refuse to show you traffic reports.
Advice. Any local SEO consultant cold calling you offering guaranteed top rankings in Google should be hung up on. A true local SEO specialist does not do business this way.
Local SEO scam # 2: We will submit your website to hundreds of search engines. This is a common tactic used by website design companies pretending they know SEO when selling you a website for a few thousand dollars. I have nothing against website designers, only the ones that suck in unsuspecting clients by offering fake SEO. What usually happens is, you pay for a website that looks good but never delivers any customers. Six months down the road you call someone like me and I need to do a complete website design to make it search engine friendly.
First of all, any local SEO company offering submissions to hundreds of search engines is a scam! Think about it. There are really only 3 search engines to pay attention to, and Google is the best one to optimize for. Google receives around 70% of the search traffic and Yahoo/Bing around 28%. Who are these hundreds of search engines that comprise about 2% of the market?
Second of all, any real local SEO specialist does not use the Google submission tool anyway. We know that the best way to be found by Google is naturally, and we use tactics that get your pages indexed by Google in hours versus weeks.
Do not fall prey to any local SEO consultants trying to sell you search engine submission packages!
Local SEO Scam #3 – Cheap back link packages – 5,000 Back Links for $10.00 Any local SEO consultant with even a little bit of small business search engine optimization knowledge knows that back links to your web pages are very important to gaining top Google rankings. Google looks at a link from another website back to your website as a vote for you. Because of this, many back link scams have popped up offering business owners thousands of back links for just a few bucks. Unfortunately, Google is smarter than that. They look at quality as well as where they come from to determine value. Thousands of worthless links will not help you very much. If it were only about quantity, everyone would just buy thousands of back links and rise to number 1 in Google.
Look for local SEO consultants that have a system designed to get your website quality back links from authority websites. Be prepared to pay more money because it takes time and resources to do it right. Most local SEO consultants will tell you where your back links are coming from and how they are getting them. You absolutely need back links for top Google rankings, but many small businesses do not need as many as some local SEO specialists may tell you.
Those are my top 3 local SEO Scams to watch out for when dealing with any small business search engine optimization consultants. Below, I have also listed a few other areas to be aware of when talking with any search engine optimization consultant.
Be careful of small business search engine optimization consultants that tell you they have cracked the Google algorithm. The engineers at Google don’t even know the full algorithm. We like to call it the secret sauce. The truth is, Google changes their algorithm hundreds of times a year.
Experienced SEO professionals understand that Google has a basic set of rules that have not really changed much over the past 11 years. Sure, they throw us monkey wrenches all the time, but we can keep our clients on top by following the simple Google rules. Just sit down and read the long and boring Google patents to find out what makes them tick.
Another great line you might hear from a local SEO telemarketer is, “We have an insider at Google”. Do you really believe that 1 person at Google would really spill the beans to some small business search engine optimization company? First of all, Google’s ranking algorithm reportedly contains 200+ variables. They have hundreds of engineers working on their stuff, one engineer could not possibly know the ins and outs of their complex algorithms.
Beware of local SEO consultants that tell you, “We can have you on top of Google in 48 hours”. This works well on people in a hurry. The only way they can do this is by using Google Adwords, also known as pay per click. There is nothing wrong with doing PPC, as long as you are aware that this is what they are doing.
You should ask them flat out if it is pay per click, because they will charge you $2,000 per month and run $1,000 worth of ads and pocket the rest. If any local SEO consultant tells you they can get you to number 1 in 48 hours and it isn’t pay per click, run, don’t walk away!
If any local SEO consultants tell you that their methods are secret, be careful. Now, you shouldn’t expect a local SEO specialist to give away their information, but they should be forthcoming as to how they will help you gain top rankings. Many local SEO companies keep their clients in the dark by not giving them monthly traffic reports on their keywords. They will send you a report telling you about your top rankings but without traffic reports how do you know if those top rankings are attracting customers?
A truelocal SEO consultant will insist that Google analytics be set up on your website so you can see what is going on with your traffic and keywords. If your website does not have Google Analytics installed you are being kept in the dark about your true traffic.
I know that there are more scams and fancy sales pitches you need to be aware of but I have covered some of the top ones that many small business search engine optimization consultants are using to take small businesses for their money.
Not all local SEO consultants are bad!
There are plenty of excellent local SEO consultants out there. Unfortunately, the major changes at Google and the focus on local search marketing has created a cottage industry of inexperienced small business search engine optimization consultants with good intentions, but no practical knowledge about local search engine optimization. There are also plenty of scam artist out there pretending to be local SEO consultants and you must be careful when choosing the right one.
Many top local SEO consultants get most of their clients from referrals from satisfied customers. That’s where I get most of mine. Local search engine optimization is about educating our clients not sales pitching them.
Many local SEO companies hire telemarketers with scripted sales pitches. I am always wary of these services because they are trying to close you on 1 phone call. I like to talk with a business first, learn a little about their business, and do a web presence analysis before even talking about cost or game plan.
In closing, unless you are one of the few business owners that has spent a lot of time learning local search engine optimization, you will need a small business search engine optimization consultant at some point in time. Choose carefully, and ask a lot of questions. Remember the tips I gave you before you choose the wrong small business search engine optimization company.
What should you look for in a local SEO consultant?
Look for a local SEO consultant that talks about your entire online marketing mix.
How your Google local business listing ties into your website. Many local SEO newcomers are not even aware that last October, Google completely changed their local search results.
Do you need a blog? That needs to be search engine optimized also. A good small business search engine optimization consultant should know what plug ins are needed to help you optimize your blog.
How can you tie your Facebook fan page into your website is also something that needs to be discussed by your small business search engine optimization consultant.
Mobile marketing is the next big thing for small businesses. Is your website mobile phone friendly? Are you using QR codes? Is your business a good candidate for short code advertising? Again, your small business search engine optimization consultant should be discussing this with you.
Talk to local SEO consultants that can effectively address these issues!
Jeffrey Taylor is a 15 year Search Engine Optimization specialist that works with small business owners to help them attract more customers using Local Search Marketing.