SEO Scam Artists and how to spot them
Published: 21st November 2006
Whereas a ‘normal’ profession generally
requires years of apprenticeship, competence assessment
and formal qualifications, professional SEO scam artists
require only a web site and some business cards.
Indeed, although formal SEO qualifications are slowly being established, these
are still generally unrecognised and not easily distinguished from their ‘buy
the diploma’ counterparts.
For the purposes of this article I will try
to give you an insight into the methods employed by SEO
scam artists in the shape of a short tutorial showing
you how to enter the ‘profession’.
The high art of launching your own SEO scam:
Stage 1 - Company Setup
Although you know nothing at all about search engine optimisation,
Google’s
algorithms or any other aspect of web promotion, you need not let these minor
details get in your way.
You could learn about the subject by reading relevant
posts in SEO forums, checking out expert blogs on a daily
basis or even buying some in-depth literature, but that
would be too much like hard work, wouldn’t it?
So
instead of learning the nuts and bolts of search engine
optimisation, you memorise industry buzzwords like ‘SERPs’, ‘Meta
Tags’, ‘SEM’, ‘PPC
Advertising’ and ‘ROI’.
Get yourself a domain name (for preference one with the
term SEO in it) and copy someone else’s SEO web
site, making sure of course to change its appearance sufficiently
so as not to be confused with your competitor.
As a competent
SEO scam artist, do not forget to alter the contact information!
Now that you have an SEO web site, you have something
to show prospective clients.
It will never rank anywhere for anything even remotely
worthwhile, but this does not really matter since you
can easily blag* your way around that.
*Blag is an English slang word for double-talk, pulling
the wool over one’s
eyes or spouting off half truths.
Stage 2 - Become a Professional & Spread
the Word
Remember; to become a professional in this industry, you
need some expensive business cards (to demonstrate your
level of competence).
Once this particular hurdle has been cleared, you will
need to start spreading the word about your ‘expert’ services.
Remember the SEO scam artist’s mantra ‘A
fool and his money will soon be parted’ and find
yourself some tradeshows (real world, not SEO) to ‘work’.
These are your prime source of new business, since nobody
is ever likely to find you online, so be sure to target
some properly ignorant business owners with plenty of
spare cash and no appreciable knowledge of online business.
Click
here for part two of this article ‘SEO
Scam’
SEO Scam Artists are earning a fortune through the ignorance
of others
|
Articles 
