I can get your website on the first page of Google

We’ve all received those emails, right? Promising to get you to the top of Google search results because LOOK at this list I’ve put together of things you’re doing wrong with your website!

TOTAL CRAP. Getting to the top of Google search results takes time and effort. But since they’ve gone to all the trouble of giving you a list of things that are “wrong” with the website, let’s go through them, shall we?

This is typically what you would receive from these unsolicited emails. It is actually what I received today which means they haven’t even looked at what we do for a start!

They offer:

• Meta Tag Writing /Implementation – already on the site!
• Social Bookmarking Submission – submit to whom? Is their a social bookmarking directory out there? And for what purpose?
• Google Webmaster Tools Verification – they’re going to verify what now? The tools Google uses? Eh how?
• Article Content Submission – no idea what this even means? Are they going to write articles about YOUR business? How do they know about your business, considering the email I received, didn’t even know we provide SEO services! And submit articles to where exactly?
• Google Analytics Verification – when we create websites, we set up Google Analytics for our clients as standard. Anyone, with a bit of work can set up their own Google Analytics. And what point is there in verifying that it’s setup? Once it’s setup, it’s setup.
• Blog Content Posting – again, what do they know about your business? A blog is YOUR chance to communicate with your customers so it should have your voice. It must be authentic and farming blogging out to someone to whom you’re just another number is NOT the way to do it.
• Duplicate Content Checking/Fixing – SERIOUSLY? They want to charge you $100 per month to check you haven’t duplicated your own content??!
• All Tag Missing Check up/Fixing – this should have been done by your web designer so if it isn’t I’d be going back to them to fix this for free
• Press Release Submission – now this I LOVE!! Where are they going to issue a press release if they’re actually based in another continent?? Do they know about the local newspapers, trade journals or other news outlets that YOUR customers get their news from?? Speaking as someone who used to work in Communications, knowing the local journalists is KEY to managing press releases and getting your message into the right hands.
• Local Business Listing Creation – again see above. To do local, you must BE local
• 404 Error Analysis/Fixing – should have already been done by your web designer
• Old Backlink Analysis/Bad Link Removal – any websites built in the last five years should not have bad links as it was heavily penalised by Google
• Google Penalty Removal (If Penalized) – oh this one’s a corker! If Google finds that you are using dishonest or incorrect techniques to improve your SEO, it WILL penalise you. Only when you use proper SEO techniques will that change. When Google decides to remove their penalties and show your website again is up to Google. So I’d love to know HOW they are going to remove this penalty?
• Blog Directory Submission – submit to where exactly? See Blog Content posting above
• Keywords Density Fixing – would love to know if they’re going to put more IN (keyword stuffing, a big no-no) or take them out?
• Social Media Content Posting – See blog content posting above
• Internal Linking Analysis and Fixing – this is just a fancy way of saying that they will check that the links in your pages are working. Anyone can do that
• Question & Answer Participation – oooh now, how is this going to be done then? On Social media, or online. How will they know the answers to any questions posed??? NEXT!
• Forum Participation – what type of forums do they think I should be participating in? And for what purpose? So they’re going to pretend to be me, sorry represent me and my business, in a forum that I know nothing about and I’m not going to know what they’re talking about or even how they are representing me??? A nice way of destroying your reputation is what this is.

Look I could go on. But you see what I’m getting at here. Most of what is offered is not going to improve your SEO and in fact, may harm it.

Implementing good SEO on your site is an ongoing process with many elements, click here to read a blog post I wrote on it before.

You may need someone to help you with the SEO on your site but don’t fall for these types of emails. Find a reputable company that knows its stuff and start by asking them to review your website and then meet you to discuss that review. I find when I do this, clients are much more informed and leave with my list of proper recommendations to be implemented.