Is there light at end of the search engine tunnel?
Now, we are told we should be optimising our website otherwise ours will be one of just billions desperately trying, and failing, to appear high on Google’s search rankings. So today, search engine optimisation (or SEO) is the name of the game.
This makes sense when you consider that even a casual search can bring up hundreds, if not thousands of page matches. But most small and medium sized companies struggle with even basic IT and do not have the time, inclination or any idea how to go about this process. This is where the internet service providers (ISP) and other firms offering an SEO service come into the picture, some less qualified and unscrupulous than others.
I look after the marketing interests of several small guesthouses which have individual websites and a collective one representing six in the Western Cape coastal town of Brenton. With the majority of business now coming via the web, having an efficient and functioning website is key.
About six months ago, they were approached by an ISP “specialising in tourism” with an offer to provide an SEO service. Some apparently good ideas followed to “optimise” the websites to make them more accessible to the search engines and arranging “links” on a monthly basis. Sounded good and the guesthouse owners got on board.
Initially all went well, e-mails were received saying they “were actively” working on the websites and should be ready to submit to the engines shortly. Requests for specific information were met with more talk of optimisation, meta tags, keywords, cross linking and frames. Several months went by with no real signs of increased sales from the websites and a couple of requests for information were met by a direction to look at your counter on the website. To the IT illiterate person, even once the counter was actually located, the data still made no sense at all.
At the end of May, an e-mail arrived to say the next six months service fee was overdue and a bizarre e-mail dialogue has ensued. It seems almost impossible to get anyone at the ISP to actually explain what they did. More importantly, why should the Brenton Collection guesthouses go on paying for what they increasingly see as a “black art”?
“Proof is in the rankings,” the ISP guys said. Except it wasn’t when we did the same searches the very next day.
“Well, we link your site to another 120,” they said. “Which ones?” “A selection of our own client base which we rotate to keep them fresh.” What?
Asked if they used KEI (keyword efficiency index — now we had boned up on some jargon) and Wordtracker or some such, was met by a reply to a completely different question. So the dialogue continued.
Yet we are asked to pay for a service which we can’t see or understand and just have to take their word that they know what they are doing. Well, perhaps not. Having dealt with several of these SEO firms now, I think the majority do not understand this complex area, are simply web designers branching out and jumping on the next IT band wagon. They don’t provide reports, site statistics or any regular visible means to demonstrate their work.
My own business provides a service, which wouldn’t last long if I operated the same way.
I sincerely hope that I am wrong and there are many efficient providers who are good at what they do and even better at telling their customers what it is. Otherwise, something of the dark arts will linger in the black holes of cyber space.
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