Tag: Internet victims

What Created the SEO Monster, and Who Keeps Feeding It?

The SEO Monster Feeds Daily
The SEO Monster Feeds Daily


Have you ever been hit by a stroke of Genius, telling you that automated directory submissions will help your ranking in search engine results? Maybe you thought that some nicely crafted meta tags would help your search engine ranking. I may be a bit too hard on people at times, but common sense just completely eludes many people when it comes to SEO (search engine optimization). Many website owners want to rank in the top of search results so badly that they will try almost anything. Well, as long as it is cheap, easy, and sounds techie-fancy.

When I started to write this, I was going to rant about automated directory submissions. Then I realized that I have touched on the topic of directory submissions before. I still have something to get off my chest, and I still have something to say about the toxic lies and misinformation that have been created surrounding the SEO industry. It is often fueled by greed and hope of getting something for nothing.

It is easy for liars to make something believable to people who know little about the topic. This has created an ugly monster of the SEO industry.

The SEO Monster Eats, Every Day!

In just the last spin of the clock, I have had several people ask me for information about automated directory submission services to improve their search engine ranking. It reminds me that most people really do not understand SEO. Judging from the glazed look on their faces, I can tell that many people really don’t want to understand. They just want it to magically work. I understand that, and I can imagine how frustrating and stressful it must be for non-SEO people to filter reliable information about search engine optimization through all of the common SEO lies (although this may help: 7 SEO Lies: How to Know When the SEO is Lying).

Outdated, Outrageous, and Downright Dishonest SEO Garbage

There is so much bad information and outdated material spread across the Internet that I think it would frustrate the heck out of me if I was trying to feel my way through it for the first time. What bothers me is how many people are out there trying to earn a buck by selling things that do not help, and even more commonly, severely damage paying customers’ hopes of being found in a search engine.

The world of SEO truly is like a foreign language to most people. They read something about SEO and meta tags, and they think they are on to something revolutionary. It just stuns me that with all of the great information out here on the Internet, how many people are fooled by the first scam they come across.

For some people, I think there is a sense that if it is written, it must hold some truth. Once they find out the hard way that it was a scam and it didn’t work, they either give up and hate everything about SEO, or they take the time to learn the difference and read something sensible and logic-based like “Good SEO vs. Bad SEO: How to Tell the Difference“.

Even in large corporate settings, I have often found people in the role of search engine optimizer collecting a nice salary who got their job just by spouting out a few industry buzz words. The people hiring them are either enamored by their “vast knowledge”, or just give up and offer them a job on blind faith.

A really hard pill to swallow is that most of today’s SEO “experts” have never ranked for anything significantly competitive. That is not a gouge against my industry, and these people are not my competitors. It is a statistical truth. To make this point clear, just have a look at the backlinks to most SEO websites and then see where they rank for the first four words of their home page title. Try this with the website of the SEO who reaches you by email, on the phone, or in a paid advertisement, instead of you finding them through a search.

Productized SEO Services Created a Monster

I think that productizing SEO and selling easy to understand pre-packaged SEO services has created and fed this monster. As an industry, those of us who sell SEO services realized a long time ago that it is much easier to package things up and say “Here is your price, and here is what you get.”

This certainly makes it easier to sell SEO. After all, it is easier for clients to choose from a list and compare it to what others offer. Also, it is a lot more profitable for the SEO to create something once, and sell it many times. The truth is that it is seldom what is best for meeting the customer’s objectives, and it creates a mentality that ranking well in search engines is merely a predefined set of SEO tasks.

This is not to say that things like SEOmoz’s SEO tools, SpyFu, and the squillion other SEO tools are not just great. These are tools, but like a paintbrush, they are only as good as the person using them. A tragedy that happened is when a lot of SEO realized that they could sell far more, and easier, if they promised something such as top ten ranking for “x” number of keywords and then price it and put it in a shopping cart for people to buy. There are countless types of SEO services being promoted with a “buy it now” approach, without any consultation, without any strategy, and with a promise of easy results.

Do you really trust anything that is so easy? OK, rephrase … Do you really trust anything that is so easy in 2011?

Directory Submission Service Example

I started my rant with directory submissions, and I will still use it as an example. “What is a directory submission service?” I hope that is what you are thinking, but in case you did not already know, I will explain it. It is a once-heralded way to automatically submit a website to long lists of search engines and directories, with a hope that it would help search engine rankings, bring more visitors to a website, and boost sales.

I suppose it seems logical to a lot of people that if they use SEO directory submission services to add their website link to a squillion directories and search engines, it will produce magical results. Now let’s clear this up. Seriously, do you think that a magical automated fix like directory and search engine submissions will be your pink pony ride to success?

Oh, and nobody else ever thought of that, so it will be revolutionary! Right? Search engines will suck that up like grape soda and will count all of those backlinks (links to your website) as proof that your website is valuable.

Rub a lamp, sucker! Maybe a Genie will come to your assistance, too.

The Productized SEO Monster Awakens My Inner-Sailor

There are just a few things which make it hard for me to hold back my inner sailor and refrain from dropping severely foul language all over my blog. People falling for things like automated directory submissions and other simple tricks helping their SEO efforts is one of those things. I just don’t think I can even be nice about this. Shit! Call it a temporary case of Tourette’s Syndrome, but this inner-sailor in me is wanting out pretty badly.

People who actually fall for things like this drive me nuts. I just want to say “Hey, Genius, do you want to know the truth, or would you rather waste more money and time to screw up your website?”

If you want the real truth about SEO, slow down, pay attention, and stop breathing those SEO fumes in the air. Spend some time to learn things that will actually work, and will help you to grow your business. For example, those links in the text of this article are not just there for me, and they may help you, a lot. Better yet, here is a link for some relatively easy SEO tips that can save you a lot of time and frustration: SEO Lessons You Should Know.

These tips will not cost you a penny, and will only take a short time to read. Maybe I am just full of hot air, but if so, go ahead and search Google for SEO lessons and see where that link I just gave you shows up in non-advertised, relevance-based organic results. Hint: It is not number two on the list.

I do not write about this because I am seeking a bunch of customers. I only work with a couple clients at a time, and I turn away far more than I work with. Yes, writing about SEO helps people to find me, but it is not just here to help me. This is here to help you.

Just one more thing! Have you subscribed to aWebGuy.com yet?

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Internet Stalkers and Their Victims: What If?

I have been around this Internet a long time. I suppose I may have a bit of a different view through the eyes of experience, but haven’t we all had some sense of caution about our online identity at some point? For over a decade, I have presented myself as “just me” and never tried to hide a lot of what I think, feel, do, or where and how I live. I guess you could say that I kind of just grew into an acceptance of my job here on the Internet.

In the early days of many Internet users’ online experience, I think a lot of people have a hypersensitive caution of “those people” out there lurking on the Internet and seeking a way to pick them out as the next victim. This is certainly a possibility, and they have all the right and reason for a healthy concern. I have a lot friends and relatives I would never want to see present themselves too openly to the Internet. Many of them would surely be picked off quick as the next identity fraud victim or have their life’s savings re-purposed for the benefit of a historic Nigerian bank transfer scam.

There are a lot of people using the Internet, such as me, whom have developed an understanding of the Internet. This includes the good and bad sides of the Internet. Something we all eventually learn is that the people we meet online are the same people we can meet in a grocery store, our kids’ schools, a restaurant, or elsewhere. The same good people and the same serial killers are found both online and offline. In fact, with the exception of only a small few serial killers, the grocery store would be a common place where nearly all of us may be found at some point in time. I am sorry if I frighten a grocery store clerk or two, but let’s face it … a grocery store gets about as many psychos as any other place. We all have to eat sometime!

A huge difference with the Internet is that it is easy for many people to say and do things that they would otherwise never say or do. It is not only a false act of courage, but also often a lack of consideration that the recipients are real people, with real lives, and with real feelings. I can give many examples of this. I mean, we see it all the time. I will share one that sticks out for me right now from a conversation I had with a good friend who shared comments of a hateful email he received from a viewer of his television news program. He is the Chief Meteorologist and he gives his best effort as a weatherman. Note that this is a guy who is scolded for his work, whether it rains, or whether it is sunny … he cannot make everybody happy (just like the rest of us). He was telling me of a scathing email message he received from a viewer who was angry for his mention of the sponsor of a tower camera that he uses to illustrate the local weather. Seriously … the guy was actually mad at my friend because he would recite the name of the hotel where the camera resides. Not only that, but he spent the time to write a mean-spirited email to scold my friend. I do not know about you, but I see a serious sickness in this. Anybody who will spend their time to hold anger and to project that anger on to others must have a seriously sad life, indeed.

I have witnessed one of these angry and unfortunate souls lurking on the perimeter of my life, but I consider mine more of a stalker than only a sad and depraved soul. I have an antagonist who spends time from each and every day of his life to seek ways to spew his falsely-begotten anger for me upon anybody who will listen. If you are wondering why, or how I have done somebody so wrong that they would waste their energy on me … well, I am wondering that same thing. I mean, I do not remember any outstanding atrocities that would bring about these feelings for a “normal” human being. This brings me to the point … it is not normal … not even a little bit, for somebody to actually pinpoint a complete stranger and focus anger upon them.

When I encounter this, as I did once before from a person claiming to be a vampire and threatening to come to my home and devour my family, I do my best to handle it in a grown up way. I try to ask them why, and how I can make them stop obsessing about me. I do my best to make reparations for whatever perceived damage I have caused them. It eventually becomes a battle between which of the following options I have the patience to muster. Perhaps you have better ideas, and I warmly welcome your comments here on my blog. Here are a couple ways that I see it once it gets out of hand, and early diplomacy and ignoring it has not worked. Yeah, this is a true instance, in case you were wondering.

Option One: “Wow, I am sorry that you feel so consumed by this. Maybe we can sit and talk about it as two grown up human beings. Heck, we may even find out that we are both human and even gain respect for each others’ space.”

Option Two: “Look, Punk … If you continue this path, you may find that you are screwing with a Man, and not a Boy. I have a family of five to support and defend. When you interrupt that, you are treading in a very dangerous and sacred territory. You are way out of your league, and you will do best to get this obsession out of your head, now.”

Yeah, that is right, you reached my radar. I have read your spewing hatred, and I will happily give you many proper rebuttals to show you that what you say, and what you assume, is entirely inaccurate and falsified by your lack of a back-story. If you think you are going to benefit, go ahead. The truth is that you are only going to make this a ridicule of yourself more than me. I have been a grown up and quite kind about your antagonism, but when my wife starts questioning when we will find “this freak” sitting on our porch or peering in our windows, you are crossing a line that you are best to back away from.

What if you are messing with somebody other than me? What if you mess with my family … my wife … my three children? What if I grow concern for it and feel a need to defend? What if I return-pitch and you have to answer these questions?