I suppose we should preface this piece by saying that no one is perfect. We’re certainly not and we understand that times are hard but just this week, and it’s only Tuesday, we’ve seen some amazing behaviour from businesses that gives SEO a bad name.
In the first instance, one of our friends was working with another SEO firm and the relationship had broken down. Rather than be adult about it the outgoing firm has decided to start sending abusive and threatening emails. Of course, there are two sides to every story but it rather misses the point that once a client decides they don’t want to use your services any more then it’s probably too late to change it.
Then another of our clients was trying to retrieve some of their domain names from a previous provider. Five days after a written request to change the IPS tags they are still waiting. This is no more than a five minute job and we have no doubt that this particular firm will try and invoice the client for the work once it’s done. Luckily we’ve already shown them what needs doing and how long it takes so they are unlikely to be taken for a ride on this.
And then to top it all, as well as the usual five emails a day promising us untold wealth and an easy life if we could just see our way to outsourcing our SEO to India, we get a phone call promising instant success with SEO, no payment necessary until success is achieved and then £5 a week after that. Sounds compelling, doesn’t it?
Then at 5 pm on Monday Matt Cutts pop up with this video which rather says it all as far as we are concerned.
So what lessons should we take into 2013 from all of this?
1. Customers have a choice
2. We all need to try harder, all the time
3. There are no short cuts with SEO
4. It will always take more time and money than you first expect
5. The only way to be successful is to do the right things and do things right.
Now, these don’t sound like much of a list but we reckon that 2013 will be a defining year for SEO and for firms that haven’t already started to change what they are doing are going to struggle.
If you are having trouble gaining traction with your website then perhaps you should talk to us and let us explain our vision for the future. It’s not easy, it’s not cheap but it is the only long term sustainable solution and in the long run, it will cost you a lot less than the cheap fixes that are currently being peddled as SEO.
