Do you need an SEO?

SEO is the acronym for “Search Engine Optimizer” or “Search Engine Optimization.” Using an SEO is an important decision that can help you improve your site and save time. However, be aware that a lousy SEO can potentially hurt your site and your reputation. Make sure you study the benefits you can get, but also the damage that an irresponsible SEO could cause to your site.

Many CEOs and other agencies and consultants offer useful services to website owners:

• Checking the content or structure of your site
• Technical tips on developing websites, for example, hosting, redirection, error pages or using JavaScript
• Content development
• Management of online business development campaigns
• Keyword Research
• SEO training
• Knowledge of specific markets or regions

The presence of a site in our search results has nothing to do with the fact that its owner also advertises on Google. Google does not agree to include or rank sites in search results for any compensation. The inclusion of places in our natural search results is Completely free. With free resources like Search Console, the official webmaster blog and our discussion forum, you get a lot of information to optimize your site for natural search.

First steps:

Run a small local business; you will probably be able to do most of the SEO yourself. Here are approximately resources that may be useful:

Remember that it takes time to reap the rewards of SEO efforts. In general, a delay of four months to a year is necessary before seeing the first results.

If you think you need the help of a professional, find out below how to choose an SEO.

Choose an SEO (SEO):

If you plan to use an SEO, the sooner, the better. Redesigning your site or launching a new site is usually the best time to recruit one. Thus, you and your SEO can guarantee the design of a place suitable for search engines from the beginning. However, a useful reference can also improve an existing site.

1. Commit to implementing the recommended improvements. Applying changes recommended by an SEO requires time and effort. If you do not have an idea to devote a period on this initiative, do not use a professional.
2. Interview with the potential referrer. Some queries that may be beneficial to ask:

• Can you look me samples of your previous achievements and provide me with customer references?
• Do you follow Google’s Webmaster Guidelines?
• Do you offer online marketing services or tips to complement your SEO activity in search engines?
• What caring for marks do you hope to get and under what timeframe? How do you measure the success of a project?
• What is your experience in my industry?
• What is your experience in my country/city?
• What is your experience in developing international sites?
• What are your main SEO techniques?
• How long have you been doing your business?
• How will the communication be between us? Will you share with me any changes you make to my site, and will you provide me with detailed information about your recommendations and rationale?
• Determine if the referrer is interested in you and your business. If not, find another one. Here are some questions your SEO should ask you:
• What is the added value of your business or service for your customers?
• Who are your clients?
• What are your company’s sources of revenue and how can research results help you?
• What other advertising channels do you use?
• Who are your competitors?

3. Check the references of the professional you plan to use. Ask past clients if he provided quality service, whether he was serious and if his efforts paid off.
4. Ask the potential SEO to perform a technical and SEO audit of your site to determine the scope of the task, the problems to be solved and the possible results. Note that this service will surely be paying. Likewise, you will probably need to give the referrer read-only access to your site on the Search Console. At this point, it is best to avoid granting write access. Your potential SEO should be able to provide you with a realistic estimate of the improvements required and the amount of work involved. If it guarantees that its changes will ensure the first place in the search results, find someone else.
5. Make your decision.

Precautions to take:

Although SEOs generally offer useful services to their customers, some black sheep have given this specialty a bad name by engaging in aggressive marketing and attempting to manipulate search engine results in an abusive manner. Practices that do not comply with our guidelines may cause us to downgrade your site from the results pages, or even remove it from the Google index.

When a referrer offers a set of recommendations for your site, ask them to corroborate them with a right-hand source, such as a Search Comfort help page, a webmaster blog entry, or an answer approved by Google in the webmaster forum.

Here are some SEO things to consider:

• One of the frequently used scams is to create shadow domains, which channel users to a site using misleading redirects. These parallel domains often belong to the reference, who claims to work on behalf of a client. Also, if the relationship between the client and the referrer deteriorates. In this case, the customer will have paid for the development of a competing place that entirely belongs to the SEO.
• Another illegal practice is to include “doorways” filled with keywords somewhere on the customer’s site. The SEO claims that this practice will make the page more relevant and correspond to a higher number of requests from users. This is false because a given page is rarely appropriate for a large number of keywords. But these practices can even go further: very often; these satellite pages contain secret links that point to the sites of other clients of the reference. They divert the popularity of the original site to the SEO and its other customers, sometimes including sites with dubious or illegal content.
• Finally, avoid getting involved in link systems, such as buying links from other sites to improve your rankings. This practice violates Google’s quality guidelines and may result in manual action on part or all of your website, which affects its ranking.

Useful instructions:

• Be wary of SEO companies and consultants or Web agencies who contact you by e-mail without you having solicited them.

As incredible as it may seem, we regularly receive this type of e-mail:

“Hello google.fr,

We visited your website and found that you did not appear in the major search engines and directories …”

We advise you to give a little credit to this type of message as to those who promise you to “lose 20 pounds in 15 days” or invite you to facilitate the transfer of funds from some fallen dictator.

• Nonentity can warranty the first position in Google search results:

Beware of CEOs who promise a good ranking of your site, announce “a privileged relationship” with Google or claim to have a system of priority indexing request to Google. Google does not index any site in priority. The lone way to submit a place to Google is to use our page to add URLs or send a sitemap, which you can do yourself. And it’s completely free.

• Be cautious if any of these referrals hide behind confidentiality issues or do not seem willing to outline their intentions clearly.

If a point is not clear, do not hesitate to ask for explanations. If a referrer creates misleading or ambiguous content on your behalf (such as a satellite page or a “temporary” domain), your site may be permanently removed from the Google index. Finally, be aware that you are responsible for the actions of the companies you use. Therefore, we advise you to make sure of the type of “help” that these are planning to offer you. A referrer with FTP access to your server should be willing to explain any changes it makes to your site.

• We advise you not to include a link to an SEO on your site:

Avoid SEOs who tout the power of “open to all” links and link exchange systems, or who promise to index your site with “thousands of search engines.” This kind of proposal usually does not have the slightest positive effect on your site ranking in the major search engines.

• Use common sense and judgment:

Before deciding to use an SEO, find out about SEO optimization in general. Google can, of course, help you in your research. Google refrains from commenting on specific companies, but we know providers who claim to be referred and engage in ineligible practices. Be careful.

• Ask to be informed of the exact use of the requested budget:

We do not sell the top positions in our search results. However, some search engines mix “cost-per-click” search results or paid inclusions with standard search results. Some CEOs will guarantee you a more favorable ranking in the search engines, without specifying that they were talking about the advertising section of the search engine and not natural search results. A small number of them go so far as to modify the prices of their auctions in real time to make you believe that they control the other search engines and can place themselves in the places they want. This type of scam is impossible with Google because our advertising results (paid) are identified and separated from the research results (free). Before entrusting any work to an SEO, ask him to define the distribution of the budget between the “permanent inclusions” and the “temporary advertisements.”

• What are the other SEO points to watch?

Some signs suggest that you are dealing with an unscrupulous SEO. The list is far from exhaustive, so if in doubt, trust your instinct. In any case, do not deal with SEOs that:

• use parallel domains (“shadow”)
• place links to their other customers on satellite pages;
• propose to sell you keywords to enter in the address bar;
• do not distinguish between actual search results and ads associated with those results;
• guarantee the ranking of your site, but only from very long and very generic key phrases, which would be related to your site anyway;
• use multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS information;
• generate traffic using fake search engines, spyware or traffic-stealing software;
• do not appear themselves in the Google index or have used domains that have been de-indexed.