Honest SEO Blog

The Purpose of this Blog / Site

posted by Admin at 3:29 AM

28 Comments:

 Jeremy_Goodrich said...

Very nicely done - imho, a huge step forward for the industry.

Any help I can give to spread the good word, lemme know.

10:23 AM  

 DaveAtIFG said...

"There are a bunch of SEO directories on the web. Many of the best SEOs are not listed in most of them. Some SEO directories are willing to list anyone who submits their SEO site (which does nothing to guarantee quality). Other SEO directories pride themselves on rejecting people who do not meet their random opinion based personal standards. One guy running a directory like this stated that real SEOs do not use AdSense on their sites. A smart marketer knows that if he cannot sell you something then he would be wise to profit as you leave his site."

IMHO, if an SEO/SEM pro builds a website to market his services and includes AdSense ads, it's a little like a TV infomercial being interrupted for "a word from our sponsor." :-)

This is a nitpick, I've already linked my site to this site, but I think the entire paragraph could use some rephrasing. It strikes me as too detailed for an intro/overview type document.

11:27 AM  

 honestseo said...

Thanks for the feedback guys :)

the AdSense statement I had in there was a bit muddy (and completely unnecissary) at best. thanks for spotting that. I changed that section to:

"There are a bunch of SEO directories on the web. Many of the best SEOs are not listed in some of them. Some SEO directories are willing to list anyone who submits their SEO site (which does nothing to guarantee quality). Other SEO directories pride themselves on rejecting people who do not meet their random opinion based personal standards.

You should do your own research and ask your own questions when looking for an SEO. No directory listing can guarantee quality services."

Does that sound better???

4:50 PM  

 DaveAtIFG said...

Much better!

8:34 AM  

 Justme said...

Just for fun...... :)

Suggest you might want to check your links with the tool you advocate, I use it all the time.

SEO, maybe that contains more disciplines than a few, search marketing management, popularity, strategy and so on, that are worth full investigation.
Could be a great site - well started.

You might also want to comment on just the positive angles, let others make the mistake of repeating themselves or grumbling, sometimes a fresh over view is most welcome, particularly if it helps without being judgemental in any way.

I would really appreciate a website that informs me exactly how to optimize a web site for my hosted clients. As a member of SEW I still find it difficult to extract useable information for my clients benefit. Who care about SEMPO or what Googlehoo is doing. Let's get someone under the wing and show the web how it's done

SEO to me means hard work, dedication, early hours investigation, bid management, brain storming strategies, fast adaption to trends and lastly, full accountability for my work.

Search engines have already stopped playing fair, they are in business with a vengeance. They probably laugh at the term SEO, in fact if my memory serves me correctly, Search Engine execs started some of the early adopters and pay for services.

How do you optimize a web site for saturated keywords in a saturated market place where a competitive bid of $25 for a clickthrough brings in a non commitment or click fraud?

What is the step by step?

Good luck with the site, I will be back
Thank you and well done.

9:24 PM  

 honestseo said...

This post has been removed by a blog administrator.

7:37 AM  

 honestseo said...

"Suggest you might want to check your links with the tool you advocate, I use it all the time."

Just did and fixed those that I found. Except for the atom feed thingie...still need to work on the blog stuff :)

"SEO, maybe that contains more disciplines than a few, search marketing management, popularity, strategy and so on, that are worth full investigation.
Could be a great site - well started."

thanks

"You might also want to comment on just the positive angles, let others make the mistake of repeating themselves or grumbling, sometimes a fresh over view is most welcome, particularly if it helps without being judgemental in any way."

The goal of this site is not to just post on the possitive angles or to just post on the negative angles. The goal of this site is to help people make sure they are ready to buy SEO services and to help them find a good SEO.

There are many great SEOs and many fraudsters who try to call themselves SEOs. The goal of this site is to hopefully make it easier to find the first group and harder to waste money on the second group.

"I would really appreciate a website that informs me exactly how to optimize a web site for my hosted clients. As a member of SEW I still find it difficult to extract useable information for my clients benefit. Who care about SEMPO or what Googlehoo is doing. Let's get someone under the wing and show the web how it's done"

The problems with "exact free information" are many.
1. Everyone has an opinion and finds different things effective. Many people will state just how wrong I am. More technique = more opinion = more problems.

When I initially created this it had a ton of opinion in it and every time I get feedback I try to adjust it to be more well worded with less opinion.

2. Time prohibitive. If this site is to remain a free service (as was part of the original intended idea) then it can't become extremely broad in scope. I am not wealthy enough to retire at my young age.

3. Expensive. That time costs a ton of money.

4. Many people do not value free information. For a how to guide more people are looking for something that is marketed at them. Sizzling copywriting and whatnot. Perhaps something with a name similar to a Corey Rudl type "Insider Secrets Secret Report." If people get your stuff for free they decide it must have no value. It is just the way people think.

"SEO to me means hard work, dedication, early hours investigation, bid management, brain storming strategies, fast adaption to trends and lastly, full accountability for my work."

there is a buch to SEO.

"Search engines have already stopped playing fair, they are in business with a vengeance. They probably laugh at the term SEO, in fact if my memory serves me correctly, Search Engine execs started some of the early adopters and pay for services."

I do not think that search engines have a vengence toward SEO. More likely they just do not care or they do not want to make it easy to do SEO.

"How do you optimize a web site for saturated keywords in a saturated market place where a competitive bid of $25 for a clickthrough brings in a non commitment or click fraud?"

Start with the concept before you create the site. Create a better idea than the competition that will naturally want to promote itself. It is possible in every single market.

"What is the step by step?"

I think you said lots of it above. research and hard work.

"Good luck with the site, I will be back
Thank you and well done."
thanks again

7:43 AM  

 honestseo said...

"This post has been removed by the author."

that was my own post up there. I wanted to add a few lines to the one which is below it.

One thing that is nice about this blogger setup is that it is easy to delete my posts if I make an error, but it seems hard or confusing to edit a comment.

and it leaves that ugly censorship looking line in the page when you delete and add with the necessary changes :(

8:07 AM  

 DaveAtIFG said...

Are you displaying a bias on the page at http://www.honestseo.com/seo-forums.html ? :-)

As I'm sure you know, there are many other quality SEO forums. I can suggest one or two if you like... ;)

1:04 PM  

 honestseo said...

"Are you displaying a bias on the page at http://www.honestseo.com/seo-forums.html ? :-)"

yes and no.

"As I'm sure you know, there are many other quality SEO forums. I can suggest one or two if you like... ;)"

many of the forums I like may not be the same ones others like. many forums tend to acquire their own opinion or bias which strongly controls the threads. the current goal of this site is to try to be fairly neutral (and that is really hard with as opinionated as I am)

right now I am only listing SEW because it seems to be fairly balanced and a neutral type resource.

in the future we may reevaluate this idea if more people want many other forums listed.

3:08 PM  

 Herve said...

Find it very strange that the Honest SEO site doesn't have (anywhere that I can find) information as to who writes it...

9:20 PM  

 honestseo said...

"Find it very strange that the Honest SEO site doesn't have (anywhere that I can find) information as to who writes it..."

If it did people would see it as a self promotional ploy, and that is completely not the goal of the site. Hopefully the site helps people find good SEOs...

10:55 PM  

 MRCAS said...

I noted with interest your comments on the various "sponsored" SEO league table sites that spring up, with some of the industry leaders notable by their absence in favour of other providers! There are indeed some very lively debates on that very matter can be found on Jupiter's searchenginewatch.com site, emphasising the need for site's like HonestSEO.com

7:46 AM  

 MRCAS said...

I was particularly interested in your comments about SEO's only working for one client in a specific sector, as this has been our corporate policy since our inception in 2000 and is absolutely essential to genuine positional achievement maximisation for the Client. It begs the question of how you could possibly subdivide your efforts and act in the best interests of two competing parties anyway. We have many Clients internationally and have of course had to decline the odd potential sector duplication, but we could not imagine conducting our SEO business in any other way.

7:48 AM  

 MRCAS said...

John,
Can we have your permission to refer our prospective clients to your website and report, as we feel it would be of great benefit to them as an independant resource for identifying and selecting a quality provider for their SEO requirements?
Perhaps a link to honestseo.com on our new website (currently being redeveloped) would be in order?
Please advise. Thank you.
Kind regards,
Murray Ambler-Shattock.
Capitek plc
Web Publishers & SEO.
Bristol, UK.

3:18 AM  

 honestseo said...

Not sure who John is, but as far as I know you can link to most sites.

8:10 AM  

 Brokerblogger said...

To the Author of Honest SEO:

This blog has a date of 7/04, so I hope the author is still monitoring it, and will update "Honest SEO" at least once per year?

I have not only appreciated your non-commercial way of approaching Honest SEO, but I have blogged on it. Therefore, I am not putting this link here to promote myself, but it is the only way that I can prove that I'm not BS'ing you = http://www.brokerblogger.com/brokerblogger/2005/07/considerations_.html (please remove the link after you read my 7/26/05 post with a link to your site in it). Please, also, see my photo, read my "About" page and remove my link to my "Privacy Policy" PDF = http://www.brokerblogger.com/privacy.PDF . (My "Blogger" referral profile has a link to my site, but I wanted to save you time in finding the specific things above).

I'm hoping to communicate with you about helping the search marketing industry grow by helping with the credibility and educational challenges. You can stay anonymous, and I would never reveal any contact info I might gather (NO BULL)!

I do not work as an SEO, but I have studied it and the industry since about 1997. Your Honest SEO site is already helping with the educational challange. But, there are more things that can be done to improve the "bad reputation" that Danny Sullivan says the SEO industry has. My primary motive is to help the search marketing industry grow (vs. greed), and I think we both have that in commmon.
Please contact me through my blog, but you do have to do a quick sign up to a TypePad TypeKey account first ( https://www.typekey.com/t/typekey/profile? ) to leave me a comment on my 11/1/05 "Happy Birthday" post. But, I'm open to whatever way you want to contact me.

Thanks,
Bill Kelm

7:10 AM  

 Brokerblogger said...

PS: I forgot to promise you that I will not show your comment communication to me on my blog to the world. I "authenticate" all comments first, and have the option to "delete", which is what I will do with yours.

Thanks again,
Bill Kelm

7:34 AM  

 honestseo said...

So many things to do and so little time. I may see if I can update this site in the first half of this year.

I think if I updated it again this year it would not need another update for a few more because search algorithms (particularly Google's) are getting much harder for the average person to manipulate.

There are a few other good SEO guides out there now and I don't think this site really took off the way I wanted it to.

I also know way too many people in the industry now to where it is sorta hard for me to comment on lots of things without being overtly biased in some way.

I don't think making this site a wiki would help it much, but it is a bit hard to work hard to build it up and market it since all the other things I do pay to feed me and the harder I work to make this site better and seen by more people the greater I increase my chances of eating a bogus lawsuit from a ScamCorp that rips people off.

12:00 AM  

 Brokerblogger said...

This site has to be a "labor of love" vs. a "money maker", but I do understand about where your priorities have to be.

Algorithms are harder to spam now, and it will get tougher in the future, but hosest SEO is always changing and growing. Some new areas to consider including might be local search, vertical search, and the debate over the value of reciprical links vs. incoming links.

Bias will always exist in every human being, but it should just be disclosed upfront as what it is, "bias", and nothing more. Nobody escapes it, and that should not stop people from giving their opinions as long as they give the reasons for their opinions along with the "bias" disclosure.

It is far more important to communicate with O'HUG Communication (Open, Honest, Upfront, and Good = clear, conspicuous, comprehensive, and comprehended) than to let anything stop people from communicating their "labor of love".

"There are a few other good SEO guides out there now and I don't think this site really took off the way I wanted it to." == The only other guide that is comprehensive, but very biased, IMO, is (aka "SEO 101"), and that is too commercialized for my tastes. Please give me your biased opinion of the guides you like. Then I will decide if I agree with you. That is much better than me not knowing your biased opinion.

As for bogus lawsuits like Traffic Power (IMO) is trying to pull, my advice is to always be diplomatic, and state what you are saying is your opinion, if it is negatively judgmental in anyway.
This page on the EFF site was designed for bloggers, but it can be applied to anything on the web, IMO =
http://www.eff.org/bloggers/lg/

Lastly, don't let the "dark side" of human nature in others (and especially in yourself, as we are all human) get you down, and keep you from taking calculated risks. Looking at the glass half full (and drinking from it) is what life is all about.

Remember what Yoda said in the last Star Wars movie: "A path to the dark side, fear of loss is."

3:30 AM  

 MRCAS said...

Search Engine Optimisation "SEO" is generally regarded as a both an art and a science. I myself favour a method known as the Meritus Technique, which is frankly the hard way, but offers the best medium and long term results for the client. As a skilled and experienced SEO adopting the highest principles of 'ethical SEO', have attained consistant top positions for fee paying clients and where engaged with that remit have attained top positions on the three major search engines in very short periods of time (1 month, etc). I am however, the exception to the general rule and such ability required total and absolute (obsessional) dedication and relied on a team of over 50 people to support the 1,000 strong international client base.
SEO is a matter that requires reasonably detailed coverage for contextural purposes.
During my personal career, I have worked with some of the very top SEO companies in the english speaking world for the last 5 years or so of a 20+ year career in Marketing and IT. I have worked for international IT companies who in turn have had some multi-national multi-million pound/dollar clients. I have had enjoyed the privilage of working with some top quality SEO/Web companies with truly superb services and products. It is saddening, frustrating and frankly downright annoying to see the industry's reputation being tarnished, when I have seen the superb quality of work produced by hardworking (80 hours a week in research and application) highly skilled proper SEOs. www.honestseo.com is an excellent point of reference in establishing how to select a quality SEO.

Poor quality psudo SEO companies are an affront to the professionalism of the industry leaders. Such companies shoule be avoided through a little pre-order dilligence. Sites such as www.blagger.com are a useful point of reference for companies to avoid.
I can catagorically confirm from my own experience that what certain firms promise in the way of 'express positioning attainment' and claim in their hardsell telesales calls (like the one they made to myself!) is not possible on a number of levels;
1, achieving top 3 positions on Yahoo! requires a significant budget and/or many hours of hard work by knowledgable personnel: the website must be carefully constructed using specially 'optimised' and 'clean' appropriate computer code and general layout (ease of navigation and 3 click rule for locating target elements) in its structure and application and feature fast to load (bandwidth light) graphic images with textural explanations of the image and context (i.e. "the new Delta X500 in use" or "side view of Delta X500 plus"); the actual words and text used to describe the subject matter, where they are placed within the whole site (such as the 'meta data' - admittedly of varying significance nowadays) and specifically (relevancy to context), how often they appear (keyword density) and how relevant they are to the subject matter itself (relevancy), the web address used (relevancy) and hosting method (download response and server uptime) all are critical factors and that's before you even take into consideration the benefits of any other sites that link into the site in question. This is currently a major issue on Google (pagerank) and effects the websites ranking (assuming the site is out of the initial probationary 'sandboxing' period).

2, The way the site is operated must meet certain criteria and most 'ghost' pages don't qualify. The ownership must be clear and the legalities required adhered to.
3, Skilled experienced submitters and positiioning personnel must be used to ensure compliance with a mind boggling array of 'rules'. Falling fowl means rejection.
4, The use of a 'cloaking techinque' to fool the search engines is very bad form indeed (bad SE marketing practices are generally referred to as 'spamming') and is frowned upon by all major search engines, as is multiple submissions of the same pages and certainly doesn't work on Yahoo! which is a quality directory. Their reputation and popularity depends and relies on the quality of their listings and search results.
5, Re-directs are generally looked upon with suspicion, as they can easily be altered to point at porn, spoof (fake) websites (fraudulent usually), competitors, passing-off, etc.
6, Yahoo! is not a search engine, it is a searchable directory. Google and MSN however, are search engines; as defined by using 'robots' or 'spiders' to explore the web looking for websites to add to their huge (we're talking billions here) number of 'indexed' webpages.
7, Yahoo!, MSN and Google now extensively use 'pay per click' adverts (those sponsored boxes and listings that appear at the top, bottom and side of the real 'meritus' search results in the main body of the results pages), These are driven by a bidding war on the amount you are prepared to pay for someone to just visit your site by clicking on that particular ad, with no guarantee that they intend to spend any money with you! Pay per click or ppc is expensive (expect to spend hundreds or thousands of pounds/dollars a month for even modest results) on any worthwhile search terms or words. Most major clients run around 1000 terms on their ppc ad accounts across a range of targeted ads. This is generally the route required to guarantee top listing in just a matter of days and you pay a heavy premium (about 2-3 times more pro-rata) for that short cut, so be very careful that you don't spend more than you make doing it. The likes of eBay and Amazon will be running around 500,000 keyword pools with dynamic keyword programs spooling 'on the fly' configured variables. This means that even the most bizarre and esoteric search pulls up a match of some sort. Try searching for some rediculous implausable item and you may very well find an inviting adword box stating an opportunity to click through to eBay's site and buy and sell it!
Submitting manually and traditionally will take some weeks to achieve a reasonably tracable placement and about 3 to 4 months to attain a constant steady presence, subject to updating and improving your website's content. Realistically allow about 6 months for a good indication of effectiveness. An established site that has been on the web for 2 or 3 years, will undoubtedly fair better. Getting to be amongst the top 10 is the holy grail and requires and combination of exceptional talent and ability, encyclopedic knowledge of the SEO rules, a decent budget and a top quality website. It is worth bearing in mind that the SE's are spoint for choice and your site must have some special qualities to ensure it's of genuine interest.
Success on the Internet is now a question of a magical mix of a well constructed search engine efficient website, genuinely attractive content and subject matter and expert SEO management to produce a successful and profitable website.

Using proper SEO companies that really could deliver on what so many have promised in their cold calls, would cost many thousands a year to implement. Budgets of multi-millions are not unheard of for the likes of eBay and Amazon, although the average across the e-commerce market is nearer £20k p.a. This involves a skilled SEO person or team spending many hours at say £100+vat an hour to prepare and implement the website for submission, acceptance and ultimate high positioning and to maintain those high rankings in the results under the most important phrases that potential visitors will use. Make no mistake, this is a highly competitive arena. There are around 2500 companies providing SEO in the UK alone. You will generally find that the really good ones, i.e. the top 1% gain their work purely by referral.
Also bear in mind that a company that has to 'cold call' would be unlikely to have the quality of clients they might claim to have? Clients that have to be won through having a God given talent, many years of learning the craft and perfecting the art/science, years of acquiring the skills (often for low rewards) and building up a reputation for delivering results time and time again without fail.
Companies using telesales cold calling rely entirely on the customer being willing to buy something they know very little about, entirely on trust. They are therefore vulnerable.
When they rang me up, they hung up pretty sharpish when they realised I had caught them 'bovine excrementing' about their "clients" and capabilities. They have even been known to cold call the leading SEO houses!
So please beware and seek the services of a firm that can provide evidence of consistant performance across a range of sectors, have hired in skilled experienced ethical SEO technicians, do not promise easy quick fixes and have a strong name for cleint retention. Generally speaking, if their service is good value, the clients will continue to retain them.

In most cases, it would be impossible for most poor quality firms or optimistic and naive web designers to deliver on what they promise for what they charge anyway. I believe their products/services are often set at such a price level that most will take a commercial decision and simply give up demanding a refund - due to needing to concentrate their efforts instead on their business. Essentially it is a cynical exercise in taking money from people who don't understand the techincalities and exploiting their trust for gain.
Sadly, many quality companies have been acquired for their customer base and good name by less ethical firms, only it seems to suffer their name being blackened therafter by appalling non-existant customer service. I myself have experienced this first hand when a quality supplier was acquired by a poor quality firm and enormous damage has been done to the industry through this recent trend.
For quality indications of positive search results, try www.ixquick.com

5:03 AM  

 MRCAS said...

Search Engine Optimisation "SEO" is generally regarded as a both an art and a science. I myself favour a method known as the Meritus Technique, which is frankly the hard way, but offers the best medium and long term results for the client. As a skilled and experienced SEO adopting the highest principles of 'ethical SEO', have attained consistant top positions for fee paying clients and where engaged with that remit have attained top positions on the three major search engines in very short periods of time (1 month, etc). I am however, the exception to the general rule and such ability required total and absolute (obsessional) dedication and relied on a team of over 50 people to support the 1,000 strong international client base.
SEO is a matter that requires reasonably detailed coverage for contextural purposes.
During my personal career, I have worked with some of the very top SEO companies in the english speaking world for the last 5 years or so of a 20+ year career in Marketing and IT. I have worked for international IT companies who in turn have had some multi-national multi-million pound/dollar clients. I have had enjoyed the privilage of working with some top quality SEO/Web companies with truly superb services and products. It is saddening, frustrating and frankly downright annoying to see the industry's reputation being tarnished, when I have seen the superb quality of work produced by hardworking (80 hours a week in research and application) highly skilled proper SEOs. www.honestseo.com is an excellent point of reference in establishing how to select a quality SEO.

Poor quality psudo SEO companies are an affront to the professionalism of the industry leaders. Such companies shoule be avoided through a little pre-order dilligence. Sites such as www.blagger.com are a useful point of reference for companies to avoid.
I can catagorically confirm from my own experience that what certain firms promise in the way of 'express positioning attainment' and claim in their hardsell telesales calls (like the one they made to myself!) is not possible on a number of levels;
1, achieving top 3 positions on Yahoo! requires a significant budget and/or many hours of hard work by knowledgable personnel: the website must be carefully constructed using specially 'optimised' and 'clean' appropriate computer code and general layout (ease of navigation and 3 click rule for locating target elements) in its structure and application and feature fast to load (bandwidth light) graphic images with textural explanations of the image and context (i.e. "the new Delta X500 in use" or "side view of Delta X500 plus"); the actual words and text used to describe the subject matter, where they are placed within the whole site (such as the 'meta data' - admittedly of varying significance nowadays) and specifically (relevancy to context), how often they appear (keyword density) and how relevant they are to the subject matter itself (relevancy), the web address used (relevancy) and hosting method (download response and server uptime) all are critical factors and that's before you even take into consideration the benefits of any other sites that link into the site in question. This is currently a major issue on Google (pagerank) and effects the websites ranking (assuming the site is out of the initial probationary 'sandboxing' period).

2, The way the site is operated must meet certain criteria and most 'ghost' pages don't qualify. The ownership must be clear and the legalities required adhered to.
3, Skilled experienced submitters and positiioning personnel must be used to ensure compliance with a mind boggling array of 'rules'. Falling fowl means rejection.
4, The use of a 'cloaking techinque' to fool the search engines is very bad form indeed (bad SE marketing practices are generally referred to as 'spamming') and is frowned upon by all major search engines, as is multiple submissions of the same pages and certainly doesn't work on Yahoo! which is a quality directory. Their reputation and popularity depends and relies on the quality of their listings and search results.
5, Re-directs are generally looked upon with suspicion, as they can easily be altered to point at porn, spoof (fake) websites (fraudulent usually), competitors, passing-off, etc.
6, Yahoo! is not a search engine, it is a searchable directory. Google and MSN however, are search engines; as defined by using 'robots' or 'spiders' to explore the web looking for websites to add to their huge (we're talking billions here) number of 'indexed' webpages.
7, Yahoo!, MSN and Google now extensively use 'pay per click' adverts (those sponsored boxes and listings that appear at the top, bottom and side of the real 'meritus' search results in the main body of the results pages), These are driven by a bidding war on the amount you are prepared to pay for someone to just visit your site by clicking on that particular ad, with no guarantee that they intend to spend any money with you! Pay per click or ppc is expensive (expect to spend hundreds or thousands of pounds/dollars a month for even modest results) on any worthwhile search terms or words. Most major clients run around 1000 terms on their ppc ad accounts across a range of targeted ads. This is generally the route required to guarantee top listing in just a matter of days and you pay a heavy premium (about 2-3 times more pro-rata) for that short cut, so be very careful that you don't spend more than you make doing it. The likes of eBay and Amazon will be running around 500,000 keyword pools with dynamic keyword programs spooling 'on the fly' configured variables. This means that even the most bizarre and esoteric search pulls up a match of some sort. Try searching for some rediculous implausable item and you may very well find an inviting adword box stating an opportunity to click through to eBay's site and buy and sell it!
Submitting manually and traditionally will take some weeks to achieve a reasonably tracable placement and about 3 to 4 months to attain a constant steady presence, subject to updating and improving your website's content. Realistically allow about 6 months for a good indication of effectiveness. An established site that has been on the web for 2 or 3 years, will undoubtedly fair better. Getting to be amongst the top 10 is the holy grail and requires and combination of exceptional talent and ability, encyclopedic knowledge of the SEO rules, a decent budget and a top quality website. It is worth bearing in mind that the SE's are spoint for choice and your site must have some special qualities to ensure it's of genuine interest.
Success on the Internet is now a question of a magical mix of a well constructed search engine efficient website, genuinely attractive content and subject matter and expert SEO management to produce a successful and profitable website.

Using proper SEO companies that really could deliver on what so many have promised in their cold calls, would cost many thousands a year to implement. Budgets of multi-millions are not unheard of for the likes of eBay and Amazon, although the average across the e-commerce market is nearer £20k p.a. This involves a skilled SEO person or team spending many hours at say £100+vat an hour to prepare and implement the website for submission, acceptance and ultimate high positioning and to maintain those high rankings in the results under the most important phrases that potential visitors will use. Make no mistake, this is a highly competitive arena. There are around 2500 companies providing SEO in the UK alone. You will generally find that the really good ones, i.e. the top 1% gain their work purely by referral.
Also bear in mind that a company that has to 'cold call' would be unlikely to have the quality of clients they might claim to have? Clients that have to be won through having a God given talent, many years of learning the craft and perfecting the art/science, years of acquiring the skills (often for low rewards) and building up a reputation for delivering results time and time again without fail.
Companies using telesales cold calling rely entirely on the customer being willing to buy something they know very little about, entirely on trust. They are therefore vulnerable.
When they rang me up, they hung up pretty sharpish when they realised I had caught them 'bovine excrementing' about their "clients" and capabilities. They have even been known to cold call the leading SEO houses!
So please beware and seek the services of a firm that can provide evidence of consistant performance across a range of sectors, have hired in skilled experienced ethical SEO technicians, do not promise easy quick fixes and have a strong name for cleint retention. Generally speaking, if their service is good value, the clients will continue to retain them.

In most cases, it would be impossible for most poor quality firms or optimistic and naive web designers to deliver on what they promise for what they charge anyway. I believe their products/services are often set at such a price level that most will take a commercial decision and simply give up demanding a refund - due to needing to concentrate their efforts instead on their business. Essentially it is a cynical exercise in taking money from people who don't understand the techincalities and exploiting their trust for gain.
Sadly, many quality companies have been acquired for their customer base and good name by less ethical firms, only it seems to suffer their name being blackened therafter by appalling non-existant customer service. I myself have experienced this first hand when a quality supplier was acquired by a poor quality firm and enormous damage has been done to the industry through this recent trend.
For quality indications of positive search results, try www.ixquick.com

5:06 AM  

 honestseo said...

That was one of the most verbose comments I have ever read. Some bits of it are perhaps interesting. Others are either outdated or just flat out incorrect. For example, Yahoo!has a search engine...it is not just a directory.

5:22 AM  

 MRCAS said...

Thanks for your comments.
Correct at the time of writing. Over a decade now of experience in the industry at high levels.
Interesting comment about Yahoo!... Yahoo! call themselves a searchable Directory in the home page code, (at time of writing) and they should know.
http://uk.dir.yahoo.com or http://dir.yahoo.com/
A web directory without a search facility is just a list!
Pleased to see your good work in respct of assisting the less well informed to make sound choices. Also your work in general through thsi site towards pushing up the standards for our industry. The higher the better in my humble opinion.
A best practice advocate and ethical SEO.

6:52 PM  

 MRCAS said...

Re your earlier comment, 'John' is a catchall name here in the UK for a nameless face...much like 'john doe' in US? Used here in a friendly manner...

6:58 PM  

 Jeff said...

There is a misspelled word on page 11 of the pdf, month is spelled moth.

Good report otherwise.

6:06 PM  

 Catfish said...

Very well done. A lot of great information here for a person who needs to contract SEO services, but doesn't know much about the field. Nice job.

10:01 AM  

 Guaranteed Houston SEO said...

It's a great information for me, I am glad to read out this suggestion and agree here with all commentators.

11:13 PM  

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