Page 3 - Warning about SEO Scammers

I disagree with you.

some guys specialise in one field, others in another field. for most people out there, they have to look for an seo specialist.
nothing to do with fear. It is actually a good idea to look for a pro seo firm which is more specialised and 24/7 on seo, rather than freelancers.
guess who has the advantage?
unless the freelancers are alraedy taking on full time positions in seo firms, and doing seo work as freelance as well.

as for question why there are SEO scammers...
Fear, greed, desire or whatever mentioned has nothing to do with SEO at all. nor scams.

Just as there are email spams around, there are SEO scams --- Same reason ($$)
simple as that.

The point is, that if there wasn't fear, greed and desire, scammers couldn't thrive. Yes it is true that it is done for $$ but it is the points above which give people the path to do things - and unfortunatly it is a two way affair.

I have seen freelance "SEO's" win $200 bids for somewhat competitive terms against companies or people who I know are reputable but who asked for $1000 or so. The client simply went for the cheapest bidder, and that was his/her desire and greed for positions and to save money, and the clients ignorance of SEO.

Another point would be - wouldn't these clients, given the option to save, do SEO themselves if they where not afraid to do so? IMO they would. But because of their fear, they go to a freelance site thinking they will only find Pro's, and instead fall into Scammers traps.

Be careful of any SEO company who tries to hijack another companies domain.

Look what happened to our domain, underdogseo.com

Lol.

There are some very good points in this thread.



I will disagree with you here though. Typically from my experience, it's not fear that keeps these people from doing this themselves but instead, laziness and a lack of thoroughly knowing how important it can be. I know that was my reason.

As a developer I already knew it all (that was sarcasm), I'd played in SEO (if you can call it that) in the early days and was easily successful, however, it was just as easy to be knocked out. In the "good ole days" you were lucky to keep the top 10 for two weeks without constant tweaks.

Developers as a group are terribly arrogant, even if they don't come across that way at first. Don't get me wrong, I love developers and am one to this day (although I've been humbled enough to now be bearable although Randfish did call me grumpy today ), they simply (again as a group) don't understand nor necessarily care about SEO. Although, the times are changing this....

What's the difference between an introverted engineer and an extroverted engineer?

An extroverted engineer will look at your shoes when they talk to you....

I'd like to address what appears to be the 400 lb gorilla in this room (thread), and the joke above is pertinent to it.

From what I've seen, in very general terms, is that SEO pros tend to be a lot like engineers. I'm married to a chemical engineer and have a mechanical engineer parent and an electrical engineer parent-in-law, and attended an engineering university, so I feel I can speak with a little authority on the issue. Like engineers, SEO's tend to prefer to work by themselves. They like the results they can get on their own, and having to collaborate with others is sometimes very awkward. Again, generalities, so no hate mail, please.

This brings us to sales. For someone who would prefer to work alone, and prefers not to collaborate, trying to separate a person from their money can be a very hard thing, and something the 'typical' engineer or SEO may not be very capable of doing. A little background: In my chosen profession I've sold over $1M in services, and I'm an average sales person (and $1M really isn't all that much). When I decided to ramp up traditional ad sales for our website, I knew I wasn't the guy for the job. So I went out and recruited the top 2-3 salespeople I knew. They have a skill I don't possess, even with my being a average sales guy.

I would suggest that for some of you, you also come to the realization that sales is not your strength; SEO is. Don't fight it - find one of those relentless-but-friendly salespeople to be the face of your company. You'll be the brains. Rare is the person who is great at sales and SEO or engineering. But you know who they are, because they are at the top of the food chain; smart as hell and slick as snot.

So don't bash the smooth talkers - just get one of them working for you.