Google’s Guide on Hiring SEO Companies

In light of the negative reputation search engine optimization is receiving through irresponsible actions of certain individuals and groups, it will be good to review what Google has to say about hiring search engine optimization companies to help us make Google-friendly websites.

Selecting SEO vendors is a serious commitment. A thorough research must be done before believing in false promises and parting with your money.

In an article posted by Google on SEO, it defines the typical work of SEO as:

1 Reviewing and providing recommendations on your site content or structure
2 Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScript
3 Content development
4 Managing online business development campaigns
5 Keyword research
6 SEO training

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3-6 Months To Rank SEO Sites is False: Matt Cutts

A lot of misconceptions occur in SEO. This isn’t surprising at all to me because we have different experiences with SEO and within these experiences sometimes we can easily associate them with certain theories that may not be true at all.

Google’s Matt Cutts had an interview with USA Today at Googleplex’s building 43. He discussed basic topics about optimizing pages, including keyword selection, use of meta description and page title. He also touched points on link development. Blogging is one great example of drawing audience to know more about the business, share same thoughts and eventually link to these blog entries.

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SEO Secrets: Do They Really Exist?

One of the things often practiced by Search Engine Optimization companies is that they don’t disclose the SEO process they do. Sometimes they don’t even disclose the names of their clients. If they reveal who their clients are, it becomes easier for others to examine them (page title patterns, keyword density, inbound links) and possibly find out what the SEO processes are.

It’s understandable that companies commonly hide their SEO processes. While it cannot be called patented work, the process and methodologies developed were product of acquired knowledge and years of trial and error and findings of SEO experiments. It would be unfair for someone to get hold of these information overnight while it took years of sleepless nights for someone else to do the legwork.

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Does American Express Hate SEO?

A page from the current edition of American Express’ ‘A Practical Guide for Business Growth’ shows that the SEO is not an important aspect to consider in growing business. At least that’s how they said it in their article:

Finally, don’t waste money on so-called Search Engine Optimization (S.E.O.) specialists. Search engines are very quick to penalize sites that try to trick their filtering techniques, and once your site has been put on Google’s blacklist, it will take forever to get off.

When they will notice blogs pinpoint this blatant disregard for SEO, the author might say he or she was misquoted.

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.edu Links Has No Advantage Over .com or .net

Our conventional thinking makes us conclude easily that links from domains with exclusive coverage make up a good set of inbound links. Since links from .edu sites (schools, colleges, universities) are likely related to any school function, it’s not that easy to penetrate this domain and ask for a link for an unrelated site. However, there are legitimate ways to obtain .edu links, albeit limited.

That’s not the case according to Google. One thread at Google Groups confirms that this belief is a myth. How could an education site be above the rest if we only look at its exclusivity (only schools can apply for these domains)? In fact, it has been an issue in the past that an online daily of a reputable university was involved in placement of spam links back in 2005. It’s by coincidence that Google’s founders had their Ph.D’s at this university!

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