Skilpad.Com Community Blog

Anybody who has owned a website for a while will have received a spammy email from a “search engine optimization” expert who claims to have visited their site and noticed that they were not registered on major search engines”.

I chuckled recently when I read on a Google support site that the world’s leading search engine company itself receives this email: Dear Google.com. We have visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most major search engines and directories.

The Internet is full of self-proclaimed search engine optimization (SEO) experts who take advantage of website owners’ legitimate aspirations to improve their visibility on search engines. As a property website owner you need to be cautious when it comes to paying for SEO help: you could pour money down the drain or even worse, you could incur Google penalties that would decrease your search engine visibility or even get your site blacklisted.

As a general rule I advise that you should ignore websites and unsolicited emails that:

The truth is there is not quick fix method to achieve great search engine visibility. It takes time, perserverence, application and above all the commitment to build and maintain a quality website that delivers real value to visitors.

So where can you go for guidance on SEO? A good place to start is to study Google’s Webmaster Guidelines The Google Webmaster Help Forum also full of useful advice. You will gain knowledge that will assist you in your own SEO efforts. And if you do decide to hire an SEO professional to assist you, you will be better equipped to find the right person.