For as long as business has been around, there have been salesmen that can only be described as snakes – they want to come in, take your money and leave without much of a footprint left. Although not very common these days, it can be difficult to judge someone’s performance when employing in an area that you do not know much about.
Search Engine Optimisation is a classic example of this, because even though many businesses are aware that they need to have a well-run digital campaign, many are unsure of how to do this. This leads to the hiring of supposed SEO experts for help. The difficulty in employing the correct digital marketing agency for this job is identifying who is going to be the best for the job and is up to date with industry adjustments.
Many potential employees will tell lies in order to convince the business that they are the right people for the job. Here are a couple to look out for:
“Every industry is the same, I don’t need experience in your field”
Whilst there are consistencies across industries with Search Engine Optimisation, as is the case for all jobs, it is important that a business does their best to find someone with experience in their industry. An industry’s competitiveness for keywords and rankings varies significantly and this is why it is a good idea to employ someone with experience.
“SEO is all you need”
Even though SEO is a major component in marketing, it cannot be the only method used in reaching an audience. In order to maintain a successful and prosperous business, it is important to use a combination of channels including; social media, content marketing and Search Engine Optimisation.
Not only does this diversify the reach and potential sources of information reaching the audience, but the studies also show that each of these tactics complement each other and can all be used to improve the efficiency of one another.
“The more links the better”
Many outdated SEO experts will say that lots of back linking will help to improve rank – it will not. Whilst this used to be a permitted practice, Google has since shifted is emphasis from quantity to quality.
This means that it is still important to provide links to your sites but through related pages of quality rather than just spamming. When employing a digital marketing agency, ensure that they know the types of back links you want in the form of high quality and legitimate ones.
“Duplicate content won’t hurt your SEO”
This statement leads to another important point – it is extremely beneficial to hire an expert who has experience in content marketing. Content marketing plays a key role in the Search Engine Optimisation success however the most crucial point is to not have duplicate content.
Google now picks up on duplicate content and this can lead to a reduction in ranking and even penalties enforced by Google. Duplicate content is seen as a way of manipulating traffic to your site and does not fit within the regulations that the search engine sets. Re-posting an article to your blog that was published elsewhere will have negative consequences.
“The more keywords the better”
Keyword density use to be a big buzz word in the digital marketing world however, now it is more about spreading a diverse range of relevant keywords, and their variations, through content and the sites naturally. This makes things easier to read but it also enables the business to reach a greater audience by diversifying the use of worse and matching with more searches.
“I know the algorithms”
The fact of the matter is that no one knows the exact nature Google’s algorithms. True SEO experts that dedicate hours and hours towards studying Google’s algorithm will have a fairly solid idea of what’s included, but they will never know 100% of the algorithm.
Amongst the hundreds of algorithms that Google uses to rank websites, there is no way possible for anyone to know them all. On top of this, Google is constantly updating them to perform a better ranking process and even the best SEO experts in Australia don’t know about the updates until months down the track.
“I’ll submit your site to hundreds of search engine directories”
There are not hundreds of appropriate directories that any one business wants to be established on. Large scale link building is actually not beneficial and can lead to penalties from Google. So whilst it is possible to submit a site to hundreds and hundreds of web directories, it will yield no benefits for the firm.
“I’ll get you on the first page of Google” or “I’ll get you to the #1 position on Google”
The truth is, not even the best digital marketing agency can promise any rank on Google. In fact, any Search Engine Optimisation firm that promises a quantifiable change in your ranking is lying, because Google’s guidelines quite simply state that this is both not possible and they also warn against these types of organisations.
It takes time to improve rank and any page’s rank can change from day to day for reasons outside the organisations control.
“I’ll get your SEO issues resolved in a month for a flat rate”
There is no quick fix for and nor is it a set and forget type operation. It requires constant attention to adapt to the competition that is doing the same thing. Setting the foundations for Search Engine Optimisation may well be a one step process (although updating these every now and again is beneficial).
However, constant work is required in to maintaining a high rank and increasing the audience to ensure a business stays competitive. This also links into the changing algorithms of Google that were touched on above and need constant attention and development.
When choosing an agency to complete your digital marketing needs, it is important to keep an ear out for any of these common lies. These lies are simply a selling point and none will help to improve the businesses rank. Some may even incur penalties and reduce the ranking position of the site.
