SEO is a Scam
I have heard this statement on more than one occasion and for anyone in the SEO business, this is not exactly what we want to hear. SEO has grown in popularity in the past 5 years as people have realized that just having a website may not be enough to get the results that they want, but is there truth to this statement?
Is SEO a scam?
This is not as simple as a yes or no answer. You have to take the question one step further and look at the difference between true SEO and spamming. Much of what has been termed “SEO” is nothing more than spamming links and content all over the internet. The trouble with SEO is that there are people that spend their days trying to learn how to scam the search engines into ranking a website more highly than it ought to be.
Here’s what happens in “SEO”…
15 years ago experts suggested that in order to get great website rankings, you need to submit your website to web directories. People capitalized on this information and start selling packages that offer hundreds or thousands of directory links and it works for a while. Then the search engines catch on and the rules change. Soon enough someone writes a blog post that suggests that article marketing is a great way to improve your search engine rankings and everyone jumps on board with it. In a very short time, the web is clogged up with thousands of crappy article directories offering no value at all. People are hiring offshore writers to write terrible quality content to blast 50 horrible quality articles to various article directories. This of course works for a few years, but Google is not stupid. They adapt once again and we’re back at square one when they devalue these article links. This has happened many, many times in the past 5 years since I’ve been involved in SEO and each time it can be devastating to a website owner. If you’re referring to SEO in this context, than perhaps it is a scam.
Why SEO is NOT a scam
There are still plenty of legitimate ways to improve website rankings that don’t have anything to do with trying to scam Google. There are ways to properly build and optimize a website and there are ways to help it improve it’s search engine ranking that aren’t underhanded or spammy in any way. Plenty of these things are not secrets as Google gives us plenty of documentation about proper search engine optimization in their quality guidelines.
There is one thing that will never change when it comes to SEO. QUALITY CONTENT! Quality content is your real “silver bullet” if such a thing existed. Too many people overlook the obvious when trying to improve their website rankings. Just produce quality content and have a strategy for SEO and Social Media marketing and half the battle is already won.
Of course, if you don’t have the time or expertise to even know where to start in the SEO world, companies like us exist to help. Contact us to find out how we can help.
