Business owners in the NOVA area often wonder if they are doing everything they can to promote their business online and grab hold of the endless opportunities available. So when they get an email or a phone call marketing search engine optimization, or SEO, services for their business in Herndon, VA they listen intently hoping for the magic answer.
Well, that’s exactly what most of these SEO companies are trying to sell business owners throughout the Northern Virginia area — a magic answer that really is not magic — it’s unethical instead. Blackhat SEO practices have been around as long as SEO has been a term, and at one point they probably weren’t even blackhat – just the beginning form of SEO.
Search engine optimization is based on using keywords to guide search engines to a particular website. There is nothing wrong with using SEO, heck, Google even provides SEO tools for webmasters. The problem becomes instead when these blackhat SEO companies prey on unknowing business owners, offer the (Internet)world on a silver platter, and then do the exact opposite of what they promise. You see, when the search engine giants who run the (Internet)world — and probably someday the world too! — discover the use of blackhat SEO practices, they penalize the website and will typically remove it from their rankings and search results altogether. If this happens, NO ONE will find your business unless they know your direct website address and go there directly. That’s not a good idea.
For example, a (fictitious) company called SEO 1-2-3 calls the (fictitious) Sally May’s Dog Grooming Service in Herndon, VA and offers a great deal on search engine optimization for new customers. Sally May is excited about the opportunity since she has heard about SEO and knows it could really help her grow her business. So for the low price of just five monthly installments of $99, her business will now be found by everyone in the NOVA area searching for dog grooming in the Herndon, VA area. In fact, SEO 1-2-3 guarantees Sally May’s Dog Grooming Service will be ranked first in every related search within one month, or she will be refunded. And what’s more, since she agreed to it today, SEO 1-2-3 will throw in a few extras too! Starting to remind you of an infomercial? Yeah, it should.
While the overall goal and theory behind this special offer is legitimate — except for the extra part, we can’t vouch for that even in our own scenario. An effective SEO campaign is designed to raise the ranking of a website, and help search engines find the business when people search for (in this case) “dog grooming Herndon, VA” but an honest and ethical SEO company (like Digital Assembly Line of course!) will not make guarantees. Why? Because we do not control the search engines, and the search engine companies are responsible for designing their own page ranking criteria.
So, what does all of this mean? It means you should embark on a SEO campaign to improve online visibility of your business, but do so with a reputable company. Running the risk of being banned by the search engines is not worth it.