BBB Gives SEO Advice… Tainted with Black Hat Magic

SEO is becoming mainstream to the business owner. 6 to 7 years ago I would be shocked to find a business owner that new what SEO was. Today I am shocked to find one that doesn’t. The majority of business owners now know they need and want SEO. The problem now becomes understanding what SEO really is, and does a business owner ultimate get his website ranked in Google. Hence the BBB is trying to fill a need for its loyal members by providing a quick and easy guide to getting websites ranked.

Here is the BBB’s article: 5 Steps To Get Your Business On Google’s First Page

Reckless. Very reckless. If only SEO was as quick and easy as a 5 step.

Black Hat Magic

What  irritated me the in this article was the following statement:

“Accredited Businesses who use BBB’s dynamic seal on their website will greatly benefit from bbb.org’s high domain status, thus increasing their own domain authority and search engine ranking.”

What BBB did here is shrewdly ask for a link. Asking for a reciprocal link to be more clear. Further, implicating that by adding a link to the BBB the businesses owner will get better ranks. They even linked to Moz.com within this misguided statement. Was this contrived or is the writer just naive? While this tactic of reciprocal linking isn’t entirely black hat, the fact that the article doesn’t give full disclosure that they are asking for a link makes me cringe.

 

Most Effective SEO Strategies

Despite the BBB’s attempt to gain links from their naive and trusting followers, the BBB did publish a survey with some good percentages for effective SEO strategies. The survey put “Link Building” as the 3rd from the bottom. The respondents felt that “Quality Content Creation” is your best bet for SEO success. Bravo. Take the survey’s advice and work on your content strategy and keyword research. Give users the information they are searching for and your business should reap some SEM benefits. But please understand, SEO is not a quick 5 step project. It’s a competitive world out there, and everyone wants the first page of google.

 

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Does Your SMB Need A Web Site?

“Shhhh…. Don’t give away the real value of a web presence!”

-My inner SEO

But on the other hand, I have to admit that if business is going good then why would I change? If business is going bad, then why would I spend more money? Business owners are owners. They want to be in control. They want to feel like they know what’s going on. They have to appear to be a strong fearless leader. Exposing to them their weaknesses isn’t going to make many friends. As well intended as one might be in telling someone their fly is open, you must realize that your announcement may not be well received.

SEOs and SEMs need to realize that they are asking for money. They are asking for an “investment”. Do I trust you a stranger to make an investment for me? Web practitioners need to be honest with themselves and tell the truth, “SMB’s don’t really need a website.” Many will survive without one. Many will die even with one. A website is supplemental.  Yes, those that understand SEO and are passionate about it want to sell it to everyone. But websites, web development, SEO, social media… its not for everyone.

Does your SMB need a website? No.  Does your SMB want a website? Absolutely.

And since this post was inspired by Lisa’s post 11 Reasons Your SMB Still Needs a Web Site at http://www.outspokenmedia.com, I might add that she makes some good arguments as to why you WANT a website.

But don’t mind me I am just the Pest Control guy.