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Answers to Google's SEO Questions

Google publishes a 'Google Information for Webmasters' article detailing what to look for and what to look out for when you are considering hiring an SEO company. In order to help you make your SEO decision we have compiled answers to Google's questions below:

• Be wary of SEO firms that send you email out of the blue.
  We do not contact people out of the blue, around 50% of our business is referrals, the remainder comes from either organic or paid search results.

• No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
  Nope, we have no special relationship with Google. We do spend time to understand the Google ranking algorithm and keep current with the latest search engine optimization techniques (both what to do and what to avoid).

• Be careful if a company is secretive or won't clearly explain what they intend to do.
  We write a detailed analysis of your current site and the steps we will be taking to improve your position within the search engines, then we do what we say we will. We don't hide anything we do, it is all detailed in writing for your approval. We also detail what we do on our website.

• You should never have to link to an SEO.
  We request and provide a reciprocal link from our clients, but plenty of our clients don't have links to us. We provide a space in the contract to opt out of linking to us.

• Some SEOs may try to sell you the ability to type keywords directly into the browser address bar.
  We've been offered services like these and have requested proof of click through rates, they wouldn't supply proof their system works so we avoid it and recommend our clients do to.

• Choose wisely.
  Be careful, if your site gets banned it is nearly impossible to restore it.

• Be sure to understand where the money goes.
  We will never pay for pay-per-click or other click generation for you - we are an organic search engine optimization firm. We will provide advice, and even set up a pay per click campaign but this will be detailed as an extra expense. We do pay for entry into some of the second tier directories, these are great non-reciprocated links and help with your page rank.

• Talk to many SEOs, and ask other SEOs if they would recommend the firm you're considering.
  Definitely recommended, we would love our services to be compared to companies charging more (or less) than us. While we won't play off any company for your business, we will put a proposal together for you to compare.

• Make sure you're protected legally.
  We used to offer a guarantee but removed it for the following reasons.

  • From a marketing perspective it was actually hurting us. There are many companies in this industry out to make a quick buck and we found that the companies offering the guarantee are seen as the worst - this perception was hurting our image.
  • We offered a very straight forward honest guarantee but it did not matter we were tarred with the same brush.
  • We had problems getting listed in professional bodies representing the industry as they would not accept anybody with a guarantee.
  • Since we removed the guarantee our sales have gone up 100%.

Our aim then and our aim now is to always get you into the top 10 because that's where the traffic is. We have achieved top 10 rankings for every site we have ever worked on, we do the same work as ever but without the guarantee.

• What are the most common abuses a website owner is likely to encounter?
  We avoid all unethical (or black hat) SEO techniques and stay firmly within the guidelines provided by the major search engines.

• If you feel you were deceived by an SEO in some way, you may want to report it.
  We are members of the Better Business Bureau (see link on bottom of page), and we're not being sued by anyone.

If you have any further questions then we'd be happy to answer them.

Regards

Dylan

Answers are correct as of 23 March 2004.

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