Want to know how to finish your knitting project? Trying to find the perfect restaurant for your anniversary? Or maybe you are looking for a new lens for your camera and want to find out other people’s opinions?

Whatever information you desire, it no longer takes days of research. Instead, you pop on your favorite search engine , make a few queries and you’re on your way.

More information is created every two days today as we did from the dawn of civilization to 2003. Yep, that’s a lot of content.

Yet if you’ve ever done a search, you know there’s some good content out there … and a lot of bad. By creating a blog – which you can do for free on sites like Blogger and WordPress.com – you have the ability to create as much content as you want, and say whatever you want to say.

Some people create legitimate sites for their business, planning to be in business years down the road. They do everything in a quality way, hoping their content will wind up I the hands of people that truly want to do business with them.

Then there is the other crowd. These are the Internet marketers that don’t care as much about quality and longevity as they do instant results. They want to leverage what they create today to bring in as much money as they can … today. They don’t care about tomorrow; they just want the money today.

How are you building your site? How are you creating your content? Do you do things to your website/blog in order to gain traction today? Or do you care about your impact years down the road? [Read more…]

Can people really make exorbitant promises and turn them into reality?

Or are they getting so desperate they are willing to try anything to bring in next months rent?

You’ve probably noticed this too.

Every day I get an email like this:

Huge promises. And because of what I know about SEO, I also know they probably can’t deliver.

We were out at a summer bash networking event last night, and while waiting in line to get in, a woman walked up and down the line giving out her “2 months free SEO” coupons. I wonder how many people are giving her a call.

While it sounds great, can she really accomplish anything in two months? And what will that truly do for you?

Let’s assume you have a very small niche and maybe, just maybe, she can pull you up in the rankings in two months. How is she going to do it? Is she going to destroy your reputation in the process? What methods is she truly going to use?

Unfortunately, unless you know something about SEO and search engine placement, its easy to get lost in the promises. You want more business. You know being at the top of Google will probably bring in more business. So you look for someone promising to get you there.

Yet what you might not realize is there are many ways to get you there – legitimate and otherwise.

If you get to the top in a natural way, you’ll stay there with regular effort.

But if you get there in any way that Google may question, you may be slapped down in the rankings, or worse, banned forever.

That’s what these type of SEO companies don’t tell you.

And frankly that’s what hurts the industry.

I’ve seen classes that can teach you how to be an “SEO Expert” in 30 days. Learn a few techniques and you can begin charging customers $1,000, $2,000, even $3,000 instantly

Yet I guarantee you can’t learn all you need to know in 30 days. I know because I’ve studied this stuff for my own business now since the late 1990’s.

It changes all the time. What worked last year doesn’t work this year. And what works today may not work tomorrow.

SEO in many ways is just like your marketing. In fact, I consider it to be a part of your marketing. I think of where I want my business to be in 5, 10 even 20 years from now, and plan everything I do for my company based on those goals.

If something promises me quick results, I really have to think about how that will impact me 5 years from now.

If you’ve been tempted by one of these same letters or coupons, let me help you determine if it’s the right step for you.

1. What Do You Want To Accomplish?

First of all, ask yourself why this interests you. Is it to bring in more customers? Is it to build your reputation? Is it to make your business stronger?

They may all be in there, but focus on the one true reason this has peaked your interest. Then ask questions about how this service will help you.

If it’s a “fly by night” SEO firm, they won’t have answers that can help you long term. If you are concerned about your reputation, for example, they won’t be able to tell you how their services will help you years from now. Their “canned” presentation will keep focusing on how quickly you can get to the top, but what will that do for you? What key terms will you be under? Will you stay there “forever”?

If a company truly is an SEO firm AND a marketing firm, they will marry the two together and have the desire to help you build a strong company overall. They will look for ways that sustain longevity, not just the quickest way to the top.

2. Legitimate SEO – Not Black Hat

Google is smart. Over the years, they have built a company that provides the best results possible for their customers.

So when people figure out how to override the system and get things placed using “quick” methods, Google sees this and works in a block feature to take those placements out of the search engines.

Google understands what people want – top quality search results every time they search. So they are always striving to deliver top quality content for every search performed – which is in the billions every single month.

So who’s going to rank higher – a URL that offers quality content throughout their site and continues to add quality content every week, or a URL who uses questionable practices?

If a company doesn’t understand that and is “stuffing” your pages and site full of questionable data that may have worked a short time ago, Google probably knows about it. If they haven’t built that into their algorithms already, they will shortly.

Google cares about one thing – original quality content. Everything else is at risk.

And a company that tells you otherwise may put your business at risk.

3. Think Long Term

Here is your choice. You can have 100 clients immediately today that will do nothing for your reputation – possibly even hurt it. Or 10 clients a month for the next 10 years, all who love you and feed into your 10 new clients every month. Which would you choose?

If you want to build a successful business model, you picked the later of the two.

Yet most people don’t think from that approach today. They want the quick client right now to bring in a few extra bucks.

Successful businesses are built on a successful foundation. You have to build your system, put it into play, and let it work from this point forward.

SEO is not a stand alone business. Its something that needs to be a tool within your marketing strategy. You need to understand how it will impact your business today … and 10 years from today. If a company can’t tell you that, or makes promises that seem a little too good to be true, they probably are.