On occasion, a customer will call or email telling me they received an email from someone who promises to get them on the front page of Google. They often want to know if this is something they should do.
Typically the emails promise to get you on the first page of Google for a very reasonable fee. Sometimes they include guarantees or even bold claims about being able to do so within a very short time period (I’ve seen 48 hours!). Often they will claim to be “partners” with Google, or have some other type of inside knowledge.
Are these emails making valid claims, or are they scams? Well, 99% of the time, they are scams. Search Engine Optimization is a real business, but those who promise results, claim to be partners with Google, have inside information, or are charging a low one-time fee, are all snake oil salesmen.
First, you should know that legitimate Search Engine Optimization specialists would never quote a blanket fee without looking at the project. Moreover, none of them would even load your website and look at it for $49.00. Most of them charge monthly fees that start at $500.00 per month. If you get one that is promising the world for only $49.00, you can know it isn’t legit.
Search Engine Optimization is a lot of work, it takes time, and there are no quick fixes. The reason legitimate Search Engine Specialists charge so much money is because they will spend several hours every day researching, testing, and manipulating your site to get you the best results. Hear that again…several hours every day. Why? Because that is what it takes. It is speculated that there are more than 100 factors which influence the search engine algorithms and optimizing your site for all of them takes time. Anyone promising you results in 48 hours is either lying or just plain bonkers.
The claim that they are “partners” with Google or any search engine is just plain bogus. No one knows the algorithms that the search engines use. They are highly secretive, constantly changing, and 100% proprietary. And they have to be. If the algorithms were well known, it would be easy to manipulate the results.
The bottom line is that there are no quick fixes to ranking in the Search Engines. It takes proper planning and design, and then lots of hard work. If your website isn’t where you want it to be, there may be things you can do to the website itself to improve your position organically. But beyond that, it will take someone who is dedicated to achieving your desired results, and it will take investment from you. But it most certainly won’t take someone making some ridiculous claim via email just to get their hands on $50 or $100 of your money.
Next time, just hit the delete button.