I have encountered several so-called SEO experts in my life time and when speaking with them, it always sounds as if they have all read the same Internet Marketing book. They always talk about link building, on page optimization blah, blah, blah. So I decided to set the record straight once and for all and at the same time challenge any so-called SEO expert to prove any thing that I have to say as being wrong! With that said and done here are the facts.
Currently Google is the King of the mound I am pretty sure that no so called expert will argue that point. Another fact that we all know is, no one knows for sure what type of algorithm Google uses to determine their search engine results. The only way to figure it out is to reverse engineer Googles search results for the particular keyword phrase that you are trying to target. The only way to do this is to take the top 10 search results and analyze them individually. I have been doing this for years and I have been totally dominating the search results with this method.
It does not matter what changes the search engines make, it is a mathematical process and it can be reverse engineered PERIOD. The process is time consuming, and that is why my clients pay me the big bucks. So many people trying to make money online fail because of all the bad information that is being distributed by these so-called experts. I have even purchased a few books that were distributed by major publishing companies that where so far off base it was ridiculous.
This blog post is a direct result of a phone call that I had received this morning from a potential client. He told me that he had spent over $15,000 on SEO marketing and he was not pleased with the results that he had been receiving. I was shocked when the guy explained that he was ranked number one for several keyword phrases in Google, Yahoo, and Bing and he was receiving a few hundred visitors a month as a result. A FEW HUNDRED PER MONTH?!? You can put up a WordPress blog and do nothing but post high quality content to it and get better results.
I asked for the list of keyword phrases that were used to promote his site, he sent them to my email along with some other information that the so-called Internet Marketer sent to him. I explained that I was providing a consultant service for him, however I would not be charging him because I was hoping to have him as a client in the future. I began doing research on the list of keyword phrases that was sent to me and was once again shocked.
This was another example of what I mean when I say that Internet marketing begins with targeting the correct keyword phrases. I cannot say those words enough!!!
To make matters worse, this marketer did not have any type of tracking implemented on the site, which made it impossible to tell what was working and what was not. I called the guy back and explained to him what I had found, I also emailed him an in depth matrix analysis of what was needed to get his page ranked in the top 10 of the search results. I also gave him a few keyword phrases that he should target. After receiving my report the guy was surprised at all the errors that his blog had, especially after paying out thousands of dollars.
The so called Internet Marketing expert guaranteed his client the following:
- Guaranteed increase in traffic
- Number one ranking in the search engines for at least 3 of your blog pages (With in 90 days or a 100% refund)
- 1,000 backlinks in 90 days
- At least 500 Twitter followers in 30 days
Did the Internet Marketing guy fulfill his promises? Yep, he sure did. How did he do it? He did it using slight of hand like David Copperfield… Sort of! Keep reading – I will explain.
Before I go on I think it is important to note that as I was writing this blog post the guy who got screwed by the Internet Marketer asked if I minded talking to this Internet Marketer on a conference call. With in the first 2 minutes of the call I shut him down and left him speechless (just thought I would throw that in there hehehehe).
Anyway lets put this SEO guru’s guarantees under the microscope:
The Guaranteed Increase In Traffic
Seeing as if there was no traffic coming to the clients site in the first place, one visitor would be an increase technically speaking.
Something else to think about, ALL SEARCH ENGINE TERMS have trends, for example, take the keyword phrase, “dog training” more people search for that keyword phrase from April to August than any other time of the year. Doing appropriate keyword research tells me it would be crazy for me to guarantee a client an increase in traffic when I know for a fact, that the keyword phrase receives a lower number of searches during September to March. If the keyword phrase receives less searches common sense would dictate that less searches equals less clicks, which equals less traffic.
Lets move on to the guaranteed number one ranking for at least 3 of the clients blog pages. I wish that I could give you the exact keyword phrase that the Internet Marketer used, but the client asked that I did not mention it in my blog post. For whatever reason he felt it would reflect bad on his business. Anyway, lets say that Mr. Bully owned a blog that sold XYZ widget. The Internet Marketer chose the following keyword phrases to build his marketing campaign around:
- Mr. Bully Creates High Quality XYZ Widgets
- The Best High Quality XYZ Widgets In Virginia
- Great Discount Pricing For High Quality XYZ Widgets
He had a list of about 50 long tail keyword phrases, that aspect of SEO he had right. However the long tail keyword phrases that he targeted either had a very low number of monthly searches or no searches at all. Seeing as if the client was selling a product it would be wise for the Internet Marketer to promote long tail buyer keyword phrases.
Lets say that you were selling flat screen tvs as an amazon affiliate. It would be a waste of time to target keyword phrases such as “Flat Screen HD TV”, “Flat Screen Televisions” etc. targeting those keyword phrases even if you were to use PPC would generate some traffic, however the traffic would not convert well. Why you might ask? Because the keyword phrases that were targeted in this example are not buyer keyword phrases.
PROOF OF MY CLAIMS
The keyword phrase “Flat Screen HD TV” has over one million competitors on a broad search result. That is not including other factors such as backlinks, domain age, the daily searches for the targeted keyword phrase, and to put the icing on the cake the phrase used in this example is not a buyer phrase, which means your conversion ratio if any will be extremely low.
Here is an actual keyword phrase that I currently use that rakes in thousands of dollars in commissions from Amazon, “panasonic lcd tvs”. I know that people who are searching for such a specific keyword phrase are serious about buying a television. I have spent years researching buying habits of individuals online, as well as their search habits. Here are the stats on the keyword phrases that I chose to target:
- Daily Searches: 14,795
- Potential Daily Clicks (#1 Position): 6,213
- Competing Websites (Phrase Match Search): 15,600
I am not in the number one position for this particular keyword phrase, I only spent a few hours setting it up. Over the last 7 months the keyword phrase that I targeted received 2,302 actual unique visitors to my site. Those visitors had a conversion ratio of 23% (that is totally unheard of in the realm of sales). I generated a little over $7,000 dollars over the last 7 months for ONE HIGHLY TARGETED KEYWORD PHRASE. Do you see the importance of doing good keyword research?
Once again lets move on to the next factor on the list.
1,000 Backlinks In 90 Days
This is very possible to do, however the links will be of poor quality. Let’s say that you have received 100 links from sites all with a PR ranking of zero, and your competitor has 20 high quality themed links from PR 3 sites, they will dominate you in the search engines each and every time.
HINT: Always avoid anyone who guarantees you a certain number of links during a certain time frame. That should be a warning flag!
Ok now for his last guarantee;
500 Twitter Followers In 30 Days
First and foremost the majority of people on twitter use it the wrong way and never reap the benefits of the website. This guy obviously used an automated script or program to boost the number of followers. This is a waste of time, I do not care if you have a million followers on twitter it does not mean that you will generate sales from twitter. That is a fact, I can back this up any day of the week. The number of the followers you have, has nothing to do with the number of sales. It all comes down to the number of responsive followers that you have.
A Crime Was Committed
Lets take what this Internet Marketer did and use it on a different business model. Lets say you went to buy a car and the car sales person told you that they were going to give you one of the fastest two seater cars ever created in its category. He was also going to throw in 2 sets of spare tires, as well as 3 months of free gas all for $3,000. Just to put the cherry on top of the deal he was going to have the car delivered to your house since it was handcrafted. Hold on the deal gets even better – the car that he is going to have handcrafted for you is even convertible. You quickly give the sales person your $3,000.
About a week later, true to his word the car sales person has the car delivered to you.
You are in shock when you walk outside and find that your new super fast convertible car is a go kart. Technically the sales person delivered on everything that was promised, however it was misleading, which in most businesses would be considered a crime. This is no different than what this particular Internet Marketer has done. It is people like this who give the Internet Marketing profession a bad name.
Well I am tired of ranting and I am sure that you are tired of reading so I am going to end it here. I will love to hear your thoughts on this blog post so leave a comment, and if you are not already on my list go sign up now.
