It seems that everyone these days, from web designers and developers to the man that works in the corner shop, offers search engine optimisation as a service. SEO is one of those ‘intangible’ products that requires no formal qualifications, any experience or any accreditations before someone is able to offer it. There are no governing bodies, no watchdogs and no formal procedures that have to be adhered to; even conventional SEO practices are in a constant state of flux as search engines change their algorithms and search engine optimisation companies change their processes to keep up.

With all of this to consider, how can you know whether the person you’re talking to is an SEO expert or an SEO charlatan? The following are a few myths of search engine optimisation, so be sure to watch out for them.

SEO results can be guaranteed

Some Internet Marketing companies will offer to guarantee results, usually first page listings within Google. Be very wary of anyone offering such audacious guarantees as these cannot be trusted. You can never guarantee to rank a website on the first page of Google, no matter how accomplished the SEO company may be. Anyone offering to guarantee first page Google listings is usually relying on one of three things:

One: They’re planning to show you first page results for Google Adwords listings, which are sponsored pay per click results and nothing to do with SEO.

Two: They’re going to use uncompetitive phrases that will bring you no traffic or extremely long tail search results, with three or more keywords. Three: They rely on building hundreds or thousands of low quality links that could get your site penalised in the long term.

Meta Keywords Tags are important

Once upon a time the Meta Keywords tag was used as a ranking factor by Google. However, Google hasn’t used the Keywords tag for many years. Its existence seems to be an obvious handle upon which those new to search engine optimisation clutch onto when looking at websites and are performing SEO. They are of course wasting their time - and your money if you’ve hired them.

Paid links are perfectly acceptable

Everyone knows, or should know, that links are an important factor of your website’s rankings. The more quality, relevant links that point towards your website, the better it will rank within Google for keywords that it has been optimised for, or for the anchor text used within these links. This is quite true. However, taking this a stage further and buying links (as many search engine optimisation companies still do) is against Google’s Terms of Service. When you buy links you’re breaking Google’s rules, and Google protects its rules and the integrity of its search carefully.

Yes, for the most part Google will punish the websites ‘selling’ the links, as opposed to the websites ‘buying’ them, but there are frequent, and high profile, instances where Google has publicly punished websites for using paid links. Sites caught, and punished, for buying links can see their rankings disappear overnight – and thus their traffic and revenue disappear as well.

What does your SEO company do for you, and what have they promised?

The author, Darren Jamieson, is the Technical Director and co-founder of StuckOn, a Cheshire-based Internet marketing agency, and a seasoned search engine optimisation (SEO) professional. StuckOn offers Internet marketing services such as SEO, PPC, web design/development, SEO copywriting and YouTube filming to its clients.