Toronto SEO Firm
Search Engine Optimization Marketing Services

I have been wondering how SEO’s that don’t speak or write English are able to do a proper job optimizing for it?  I know you can pretty much learn most SEO skills in any language but since much of SEO is reading, writing and optimizing for the English language I just don’t see it being worthwhile regardless of how cheap the service is.  Here is an example of an obvious non-native English speaking SEO advertising on DigitalPoint:

Im offer offsite optimization service for only $120

What includes on the package?
-Article writing + submission
-press release writing + submission
-directory submission
-rss submission
-forum post backlinks
-blog commenting

I have posted a reply asking who will be writing all this content, and I seriously doubt he has a native English speaker/writer on staff.  This same service might be two or three times as expensive from an English speaking/writing SEO but the value your website recieves from it will be tenfold or more.  I just don’t see the value in hiring an SEO that does not speak/write the langauge your site is developed in.

So I have been looking around to buy some good quality advertising spots to promote this blog and here is an example of what someone was trying to sell me.

“high quality SEO blog”

and his private message to me:

“This is a very exclusive deal and only you and one or two more person will be getting it. The blog is total quality and I am sure you too are aware that its impossible to find good seo ads.  The ad from the blog may also give you natural traffic”

and now for the pay-off pitch, here is an exerpt from the first blog post I read on this ‘high’ quality SEO blog:

This is my first post in last 10 days and I felt to write it to tell current subscribers and readers why I am writing so less on the blog.

“The reason is, this blog was started as a blog which can share my SEO knowledge with others as well as to establish nBridges Media as SEO Brand. Now I did got decent success in both but the growth was very slow and because I wasn’t make any money from this blog, it don’t make any sense to spend hours writing content for it. I can ofcourse spend more effort into the site now and make it a premium SEO blog as I have already done the hard work but I feels somehow it don’t align with what I am doing currently and planning to do next in coming 6 months.”

All I can say to this is WoW!

Here we go again…besides the fact that 5000 directory submissions will probably get you banned it seems there is no shortage of folks offering this SEO (Stupid Egghead Option) on DP and we are supposed to believe they are working for $0.50 an hour.  I understand that there are some countries around the world where the average hourly salary is quite low but I seriously doubt you are getting many folks using computers for the $0.50 an hour range.

and they are offering this with up to 5 titles, etc…the length of each manual submission is probably close to a minute a site but when I called them out in the post I said the following:

“Your prices seem quite low but I am curious, if a manual submission takes at least 30 seconds and you do 5,000 of them it will take over 41 hours of work, and you charge $38, so I am to believe you pay your workers less than $1 an hour and there is still money for profit? Please explain and I might give your service a try.”

The reply I got is great, not sure what it means but I know it is GREAT!

“yes, you are right. I am offering dedicated link builders to work on your projects. so they can work efficiently and take care to Google spam penalty. I have sent you PM. Plz check and waiting for your reply.”

I think I will be passing on this service but I can promise you that many fellow DP’ers will be using it.

Here is more reason to be very wary of anyone guaranteeing results.

I will briefly touch on one of the most important things to look for when hiring an SEO company.  Look for a company that includes a portfolio or case study section on their site.  It is important to have at least a glimpse into the type of work the firm has done in the past.

Here is a perfect example of a company that is probably a complete waste of money.  Besides their obviously poor English skills and the fact that they offer search engine submission as part of their service.   The portfolio page, http://www.bluedelightconsultant.com/portfolio.html is just a collection of barely recognizable images with no live links and no mention of what terms they achieved ranking for.

I just found another “SEO company” (and I use that phrase with plenty of sarcasm) offering Guaranteed Page One Listing Results on Google and to make it even better - your credit card is not charged until they email you the screenshot showing this achievment.

But don’t forget to read the fine print:

What type of keywords will my website show up on page 1 under? Your keywords tend to come directly from your website text so your keywords are going to have to do with the product or service your website is promoting.  Your keywords will have to do with whatever product or services your website is promoting.

and make sure to read the pièce de résistance:

Where on page 1 will my website show up? You can show up anywhere on page 1.  You can be listed in a non sponsored area, a sponsored area or both.

Well you know the saying, there is a sucker born every mintue and two to take ‘em.  It looks like this site is paying good PPC with adwords since I found them in the #1 sponsored position that goes for around $1.50 a click.

I have heard of online rep management but have not really had a reason to experience it first-hand until now.  I Googled my name “Jay Granofsky” and found a couple of first page results that I did not particularly like.

First off (in the number 9 position):

I started this G rated site about 6 years ago, it had a quiz on it where you had to guess who’s famous butt was in the picture (fully clothed of course).  I have not owned this site in about 4 years so I have no idea why this old info is still floating around.  In the meanwhile I contacted Alexa and told them that I am no longer the owner and would like my name deleted from the owners information.

Next up (in position 10) is someone that I reported on in my SEO scam section, I caught him selling search engine submissions as part of his ‘SEO’ services.  He apparently did not like the fact that I outed him so he went on some relevant blog and made a horribly phrased retort.  Now most people reading his comment will realize this person is just a vengeful scammer but it still does not look that great on the first page of results for my name.

I also replied to him but the comment is waiting approval, maybe the owner of the blog will realize that both comments are way off-topic and delete them?  On second thought I will contact the blog owner and make that exact request.  Furthermore I decided I would manage my reputation by creating a few blog posts about my favorite hobby, photography and build a few backlinks to each post in hopes they will outrank those bottom of first page ones and will actually represent me in a more true light.  If you are interested in following this case study I will post the results in the case studies section of this site at a later date.

Here is a quick update, 4 hours later this post and another have moved the two offending results off the front page!!  That was some speedy rep management but is probably only short-term due to the extra juice Google gives fresh news.  For the longer term solution I hope the points I touched on in the above blog come into effect.

April 23, 2009 update - Just got an email back from Alexa saying they would delete my name from the ownership of the site and I should see the search result gone in the next week or so.  Great!

April 29, 2009 - The Alexa listing has been gone for a few days and the other silly listing has now been pushed to 2nd spot on page 3 which is amazingly quick!  If I can get it to the bottom of page 3 I will be satisfied because although it is negative it is really just a bad SEO’s ’sour grapes’ about me calling him out on being flakey.

This myth has been around for as long as I have been involved with SEO, so about 8 years.  I recently replied to a thread on DigitalPoint forums concerning this myth.  The original poster mentioned that they recently bought a domain name and a hosting package and the hosting company was offering them a fantastic deal of 50% off search engine submission.  The offer read something like this:

For a limited time receive 50% off the regular price of search engine submission for SEO, we submit to 13 of the top search engines to get  your website indexed quickly.  Regular price is $99.99 - sale price is only $49.99.

My response was that not only is search engine submission unnecessary but I think it is a ‘red flag’ for a company that does not have a clue what SEO actually is.  It seems Rand over at SEOmoz agree because he is redoing Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization over there and he states:

Since 2001-2, search engine submission has not only not been required, but is actually virtually useless. The engines have all publicly noted that they rarely use the “submission” URL lists, and that the best practice is to earn links from other sites, as this will expose the engines to your content naturally.

So be careful and don’t waste you money on useless services.

The amount of misinformation floating around the web as it relates to search engine optimization is staggering.  It seems that 9 out of every 10 posts I read contains blatantly wrong advice.  I am begininning to think that some very sneaky SEO pro’s are spreading incorrect info on purpose.

Here is a thread I came across today over at DevShed Forums - the poster is asking the following question:

Hi all,

I’m based in Australia, and looking around for a VPS host. It’s down to 2 options, local or US hosting. I’m told that if my host is in Australia, that will help my Australian search ranking, but that if my host is in the US, it will help my US ranking. Is this really true? Why would it be so? Is it some kind of algorithm that assumes added relevance if the host is local?

Some of the responses (as quoted below) were quite interesting and only added to the confusion.

“yes it is true, but it is not necessary that you need to host in particular country.”

“Server location affects the ranking in Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) but not always”

“It depends on what and where you are targeting rather than the server location”

“this is one of the factor among 1000 which affect your ranking”

“Constant work on the website will improve the website ranking on Google dot com too”

It seems like the object of the above replies was to keep the original poster as confused as possible!!

I receive quite a few inquiries asking if I can match or beat some very low (and I mean looooowwww) prices of some overseas folks that offer SEO (and I use the term loosely here) services.  I often explain that most of these companies are just making free directory submissions or spamming blog comments and nobody can do quality SEO for those prices, even in India.

I recently came across a post on DigitalPoint forums that really gets this point across - the thread is titled: Why peopel donut trust indian submisin services ? if the title does not give you enough info then you can check-it-out yourself here.