I just finished a 19 month gig working with a team of 35 full time SEO experts. We used to pass around interesting stuff in email all the time and one of our fun things to do was look at so called SEO experts that were actually anything but. Here is an ad from a NJ Web Design firm that looks good to an average customer who may not know any better, but to a group of real SEO’s this was the joke of the day. This “SEO expert NOT” phenomenon is unfortunately too common, a old design firm that appears to do graphics well but they lie about their ability to do Search Engine Optimization and it’s not only an embarrassment, it hurt’s SEO as an industry.
The ad shows searches they are proud of. All the searches they list are actually what we call “reversals”. Most people will search with this pattern:
geographic area + area of practice
GEO + AOP
Now overall 90% of searches are like that but more or less depending of course on the particular search. So besides the regular straight search that 90% of all searchers type, they also type a reversal sometimes which is in this format:
area of practice + geographic area
AOP + GEO
The other creepy thing these guys are doing is trying to impress naive prospects that they got ranking of 1 out of 1 million. The huge display numbers are Google’s way to show that they have millions of answers to a searchers question even though more than 99% of them have little or almost no relevance at all. Ranking in the Top 10 or the Top 50 is a valid milestone. But ranking 3rd against a pile of rubbish has no meaning except to scare or impress potential customers that don’t know SEO. It’s the Great OZ blowing flames and smoke around untill Toto pulls his curtain back.
The true indication of ranking greatness is by using the Google Operator All In Title. The AllInTitle operator will tell you how many web pages contain that phrase in their title. So ranking 1st against 6,000 web pages that have that phrase in their title is really an impressive feat.
These guys are bragging that they focused their clients spend dollars on reversals yielding the unsuspecting clients only 1/10 of the possible searches. SEO experts NOT. You’re fired !!
