For the past several years I’ve provided consulting services specific to search engine optimization through a local website design and marketing company here in Jacksonville. As such, I’ve heard every SEO horror story you can imagine. Until a few months ago, though, I’d never had the pleasure of having my attention turned to a company providing search engine optimization IN Jacksonville that I would really classify as a scam. All of that changed recently.
This company touted their ability to rank well for search engine optimization jacksonville as proof of their SEO prowess. A little research into that term would clue anyone in to the fact that it’s A) not all that competitive and not really something to brag about; and B) not a term that generates a great deal of search volume. Those facts alone were enough to tip me off that something wasn’t quite adding up. Further investigation into the sites they build, both for themselves and for their clients, provided me with every shred of proof that I needed to come to the conclusion that they knew very little about SEO, and a great deal about spamming.
SEO Mistakes vs. Malicious Intent by Jacksonville SEO Scammers
To target search engine optimization jacksonville isn’t enough to label someone a charlatan. It might not make a great deal of business sense, but it certainly doesn’t mean a company is offering snake oil services under the premise of providing SEO. So, I decided to dig in a little deeper and pick through the on-site SEO – not only of their company site – but the sites they’ve built for their clients and proudly tout as SEO clients on their ill-conceived, poorly designed, usability nightmare of a corporate website. As I picked apart the on-site SEO – and believe me, I hesitate to even refer to it as that – all I could say was “WOW!”
These were perhaps some of the most poorly optimized sites I had come across during my years in the industry. While this company bragged about their own site’s rankings for terms like “search engine optimization jacksonville“, I’ve seen do-it-yourselfers build more search engine friendly sites. While there are certainly no on-site SEO “rules” regarding title and description length, number of keywords targeted by a page, etc., there ARE universally accepted best practices that have been followed by industry experts for quite some time now.
These best practices are the foundation of a solid SEO strategy. This company’s tactics, on the other hand, were simply outdated, asinine and completely ineffective in the long term, to say the least. The issues that I uncovered included:
- Keyword spamming within title tags
- Excessively long title tags
- Keyword cannibalization
- Ridiculously long descriptions
- Heavily spammed keywords META tags that included in excess of 30 terms
- Very poor page content to META tag relevancy
- Extremely high keyword density
- Poorly written and keyword spammed text content
- Heavy use of tables
- Improper use of headings
- Lack of optimization of ALT attributes
- Unresolved canonical URL issues
- Massive duplicate content across multiple pages and multiple URLs
As you can see, literally everything that can be done wrong from an on-site SEO standpoint, they were clearly and obviously doing wrong. While they may have been able to achieve a strong ranking for “search engine optimization jacksonville“, that certainly isn’t the feather in their cap they’d like to believe. It was almost inconceivable to me that this company claimed to know anything about SEO, let alone charged untold amounts of money to their clients for search engine optimization services.
As a small business website owner you may have no idea what the list of issues above refer to, so let me sum it up for you in one easy to understand sentence: ANYONE claiming to know anything about SEO would never build a site with such a lack of attention to the details of on-site SEO. That’s pretty cut & dry, don’t you think?
Jacksonville Small Business Owners – BEWARE!
While there may be VERY few searches done for “search engine optimization jacksonville“, that doesn’t mean someone shouldn’t be looking out for the small business owners who may find an SEO charlatan by doing that search. If this post can keep just one person from making a bad decision, it’s worth the effort.
So, if you contact a company that ranks well for “search engine optimization jacksonville” and they brag about that as if it’s some kind of challenge, here are a few reasons you should run:
- There are only 157,000 results for “search engine optimization jacksonville” at the time this post was written
- There are only 2,100 allintitle: results for “search engine optimization jacksonville” at the time this post was written
- There are only 89,000 allinanchor: results for “search engine optimization jacksonville” at the time this post was written
For the purposes of comparison, this site ranks in the #19 position for “small business search engine optimization“. And here are the stats on the competition for that term:
- 4,140,000 results for “small business search engine optimization” at the time this post was written
- 16,600 allintitle: results for “small business search engine optimization” at the time this post was written
- 2,670,000 allinanchor: results for “small business search engine optimization” at the time this post was written
If you don’t know what “allintitle:” and “allinanchor:” means (and I’d be shocked if you do), all you need to know is that the higher those numbers, the greater the competition for those terms, particularly the allinanchor: results. Many small businesses opt for a hometown firm to provide search engine optimization because they believe they’re less likely to “get had”. I think I’ve just shattered that myth.
Don’t fall victim to a scam by typing “search engine optimization jacksonville” in to Google, throwing a dart at the first page of search results and going with whatever company the dart hits within the first page of results. Trust me when I tell you that ranking well for that term is not a considerable challenge.
The fact is that Google is very good at recognizing and eliminating spammers from their index, but they’re not perfect. There are tactics that can be used to manipulate algorithms in the short term – like paying for inbound links – that have disastrous results over time. By disastrous, I mean having your domain banned from the search engines indefinitely – yes, Google takes paying for links THAT seriously.
As many know, I’ve also spent the better part of a year on this blog trying to help small business owners avoid being scammed by SEO charlatans. Most small business owners that fall victim to scammers aren’t stupid, they simply don’t know how to go about checking out an SEO firm before hiring them. That said, here’s a tip. Use Website Grader to assess a company’s site BEFORE you even consider contacting them to discuss optimizing your website.
While the information provided by Website Grader is extremely basic, it does give those outside the search marketing industry some very valuable information – like whether or not the company incorporates basic on-site best practices into the optimization of their own site. I can tell you with a great deal of confidence that if an SEO firm doesn’t know enough about the basics to incorporate them into the optimization of their own site, you should not even consider having them optimize yours!
Josh Garner says
Hey, tell your readers that they aren’t on top anymore, I am :)
And now that I am, I can attest that the term is useless. No traffic. At least not worth the effort it would take to get there. Time was better spent elsewhere.
Good post. You just keep doing what your doing. Really, people like it better when they are getting quality service than lip service.
Josh Garners last blog post..Calling SEOs, What Can You Handle? [POLL]
Alysson says
HAHA! I know, right? Stalkers is more like it. If they’d spent half as much time learning about SEO as they did stalking me online, well…maybe they’d actually know something about SEO!
We’ll have to see how long it takes for this post to outrank them, too. ;) Between the two of us, hopefully we can prevent some small business owners from falling victim to shenanigans here in our very own home town.
You know I’ve always been a “call a horse’s ass a horse’s ass” kind of girl. That will never change. Thanks for your encouragement and support. I appreciate it! :)
John Santangelo says
Hey, once you dominate Jacksonville Search Engine Optimization, don’t forget about Florida Search Engine Optimization. oops! I’ve said too much. I’ve spilled my super high-converting keywords!
Alysson says
You’re a funny man, John…a funny man. :) Based on search volume, there’s clearly a massive market for search engine optimization here in Jacksonville and I’ll be rolling in dough in no time – I certainly hope that everyone picks up on my sarcasm. I’ll let you keep “Florida Search Engine Optimization” all to yourself. ;)
SEO Honolulu says
This is what happens when a web designer that did well in Alta Vista back in the 90’s refuses to step up and learn what’s new.
Now in the case of this company (I think I remember commenting on them keyword stuffing their CSS file.. same idiots?), they were betting the farm on local search alone. It would have better served them (maybe) if they were a company that couldn’t offer their services beyond a local scope, but clearly these guys missed the memo on that one ;)
Hell, I’m surrounded by clowns like this out here in Hawaii but eventually I realized that they’re not competition.. they just make me look better LMAO!!
Alysson says
Yeah, the more morons there are out there scamming people, the smarter we look in the long run. Too bad so many small business owners have to learn this lesson the hard way!
Some of them are even idiotic enough to have the details of the scam brought to their attention and continue working with the company anyway. Ah well…you can’t protect people from their own stupidity, right? ;)
Communibus Locis says
Ok, here is a beginner question:
I noticed that you have “search engine optimization jacksonville” in various forms in your post using the “strong” tags.
I’m assuming that you gain some sort of boost from that?
Sorry for the beginner question but I just am confirming.
Communibus
Alysson says
No reason to apologize, Communibus. The school of thought behind placing target terms in bold is that it calls more attention to those terms when the information is being indexed – somewhat similarly in concept to the way using headings does.
I have tested the theory on posts using and not using strong or bold tags and having that emphasis does appear to have a positive impact on rank.
That best practice is also included in the SEOmoz Web Developer Cheat Sheet, so it appears I’m not alone in my contention that it has a positive impact.
Communibus Locis says
I thought so but wasn’t sure, thanks!
That Cheatsheet is GOLD! I’m so sorry that I didn’t have it before.
Most of it I know but the recommended “Title Tag Sequence” of “Keyword < Category | Website Title” is something that I’m going to review on my blog.
Oh and the 100 links on a page thing was just “reviewed” by Matt Cutts on his blog this week.
It seems as if the Sith Lord himself wanted to post more than 100 links for a post…
Alysson says
Yeah, I found that cheat sheet months ago and loved it, too. I felt like I just kicked the crap out of a leprechaun and stole his pot o’ gold. ;)
It has come in handy on more than one occasion since – especially when I worked for a company that liked to question everything I said…even something as simple as canonical URL issues.
And its amazing how things can change when “The Sith Lord” himself wants to do something that has been established to be “less than optimal”.
Alysson says
And, just for the record, I went a bit overboard with the bolding of target terms on this post because I’m trying to see if there’s a threshold can be crossed where it actually hurts rank.
I normally wouldn’t use it so excessively and concentrate it so much early on in the post. Figured I’d clarify…
Communibus Locis says
We’ll find out together…check my new post on “Sitting at the Feet of a SEO Guru”.
High says
Cool. i like it. i really like it.
Lenny Hursh says
I was wondering if you allow advertising on this site – because I’d be interested in talking to you!
Richard says
Great Post & Nice a site