I’ve recently noticed a bunch of blog posts coming in on Google Alerts that take an extremely negative position on the value of SEO to web site owners. While I understand that SEO’s in general can get a black eye from the actions of a crooked minority (similar to auto mechanics, plumbers and lawyers), it still pissed me off.  After replying to the posts in question, which did no good other than to get my anchor text onto a link to my site, I decided to write this post.

As an SEO expert, I use strategies that are intended to deliver long term results to my clients.  None of the stuff I do is rocket science or SEO magic, it is simply applying common sense based on a large amount of research and on experience I’ve acquired in figuring out what helps and what doesn’t when it comes to search engine results.  It can be boiled down to giving Google what it wants, which is value added, readable, keyword focused content on a page. Google wants this because it wants searchers to find what they are searching for without wading through a ton of crap pages. If the searcher is happy, Google is happy and the pages that make the searcher happy move up in the SERPs.

So if it’s all common sense, why do SEO experts exist?  For the same reason a lawyer, an engineer, a car mechanic or an IT technician exists. Not every web site owner or web developer has the time or wants to learn the techniques required to move their pages onto the top of the SERPs. They’d rather focus on their core business and pay someone else to handle it.

If they pay someone and get the long term results they are looking for, who’s going to claim that they got a bad deal?  Sure it might have cost them some money, but think of the time and aggravation they saved by not having to reinvent the wheel…

As an ethical SEO practitioner, I make sure my clients understand what volume of traffic their chosen keywords can generate for their site, as well as how competitive their niche is and how long it will take to achieve their goals. I do this as part of a free site review that is the first step in any client engagement I undertake. If they decide they want to work with me, they know what they are paying for.