An Inexperienced SEO Specialist versus an Experienced SEO Specialist
Many people want to have their websites to become a success. Some of these people at one time or another will try some form a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) or a Search Engine Optimization Specialist (SEOs). It is a pity that many of those persons will fall prey to inexperienced SEO consultants. Inexperienced SEO consultants do many techniques that they may have just read that it was a good technique and that the technique they use might be an old one that doesn't work anymore or they also do not test these techniques so they would not know for sure if they work or don't work.
Now don't get us wrong, as there can be inexperienced SEO specialists that can do ok. They just do things that maybe a bit outdated, do what they read to be correct, or just do things that shouldn't be done. Some of these things don't harm a site, but some can really hurt a site. If you value your website and want a good stable ranking in the search engines indices then you need to do some research and make sure your SEO consultant is doing something good or correct.
We have encountered a couple of SEO consultants on a few news groups and forums that have stated they have years of experience but really don't show it very well. Their websites do not rank well in the search engine rankings, and they give rather poor advice. Or if their websites start ranking well they have had help in getting it there. Meaning they have got some SEO advice from other sources and claim they did it themselves.
Sometimes the advice of the inexperienced SEO specialists’ or what they do to your website can cause it harm in the rankings. We will illustrate some SEO techniques in this article and give reasons why they are not in your best interest to use when doing search engine optimization on your website.
We will illustrate about some SEM companies that have contacted us, and well once they do that, they just brought themselves in for the big critique. We will also illustrate to you how to tell some bad SEO specialists from the good and inexperienced from the experienced Search Engine Optimization Specialists.
Some SEO Experts Aren't Inexperienced Just Plain Bad or Scam Artists
There are so many so called SEO Experts that are scam artists online. One really should be careful and examine all the work the SEOs will do to help a site gain rankings. Some promise and guarantee your website will rank well (some say the 1st page of the index) within 7 to 14 days. Trust me this can not be done and the fine print should be read to make sure there isn't anything that you could miss in their techniques.
We have seen some fine print state that the way they get your page ranking on the 1st page is by using pay per click advertising. Yes, your site can be listed on the first page with the sponsored listing, but it won't be in the ranking results. Your goal should be that you want to be in the ranking results and not in the advertisements. This would be what we consider the scamming SEOs.
When some SEO specialists give the good SEO consultants a bad name well it kind of makes us a little angry and we want to do something about the bad advice they give. The only something that we can do is try and educate people. That is all anyone can hope to do, but there will always be those who will get burned by the real bad ones. For more information please read: Good - Bad - Ugly Work of SEO Experts.
Using Index.htm or .html Instead of Root of Domain
This is a very common mistake used by people who don't understand that the top root of the domain would be http://example.com/ instead of http://example.com/index.html or .htm. They commonly make the links go to index.htm and the root; this would make 2 pages indexed. The root of the domain and the index page, as these are considered 2 different pages to the search engines although they are the same page to the server. This can cause a slight penalty in the search engines. If you have some pages indexed with both then you should do a 301(permanent) redirect for the index page to go to the root. You should always use the root when linking your home page.
If you see a SEO expert using both in their websites then this is do to their knowledge and inexperience in SEO.
More to Know if a SEO Specialist is Inexperienced
How can a people know if the SEOs ( SEO Specialist) they plan on hiring is inexperienced? One sure fire way of knowing if a SEOs is inexperienced is by the use of outdated techniques. Out dated techniques may not be harmful to your site's ranking but it doesn't help. Some techniques could be harmful though. SEOs that make blogs just for the purpose of links is not experienced and this might harm your rankings as some search engines will view this as spamming. Read more To Blog or Not to Blog
An outdated technique still being used is a press release. Still, not a bad thing just that it really isn't important to do a press release. Most press release websites will probably use some type of technique not to pass link benefit to the website in the press release. So this would be one of the reasons that it isn't done anymore.
SEO specialists that use Meta Data that will do nothing but take up space are very inexperienced. Telling a search engine robot to come back in 3 days isn't going to work. Search engine crawlers come and go as they please. The use of index, follow Meta data is also not needed as by default a robot will follow your navigational links and index your site if it passes the search engines algorithm filters. Or putting everything known to mankind in the meta data can really show their ignorance and knowledge in SEO.
Another way to tell is that the SEOs can not gain harder SERPs (search engine ranking pages) or will give you a list of keywords that are somewhat easy to get a ranking for (SERPs Competition). These SEOs will actually use real easy SERPs to prove they can make it to the top. Don’t be persuaded by them. Really check out their work. A SEO expert should have no problem showing you all their high ranking SERPs.
Let's look at the definition of search engine optimization that Wikipedia gives: Search Engine Optimization Definition-"Search engine optimization (SEO), a subset of search engine marketing, is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results, or the higher it "ranks," the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines."
Now if a SEO expert service can not get the websites higher in the search engines then the consultant will not be able to improve the volume of targeted traffic needed. A web site has to rank well in a search engine index to gain more targeted traffic. That is what an SEO expert or consultant should be able to do. You should ask for references and see the website and how they rank in the search engine indices. This would definitely point out an SEO consultant is experienced or not.
If you find an SEO consultants that you think might be experienced and maybe unsure you can ask us and we will take a look for you. We love to find those that say they are good but aren’t!