When You Know Good SEO, Bad SEO is Like a Neon Sign

This week I was working on a project for a long-term client of mine. In doing some online research I visited a large number of B2B software developer websites. Some were large companies and some were smaller niche players. I was disappointed at the large percentage of these websites that were using less than stellar SEO practices. Technology companies own these websites and I would have imagined they’d know better.

Back in my early days of SEO (search engine optimization) I was overwhelmed by the over abundance of SEO information on the Internet. I didn’t know whom to believe and I definitely didn’t know who was really credible. After all, SEO consultants tend to be compared to lawyers and used car salesmen. There are a lot of consultants that claim to be SEO gurus, but when it boils down to it, they are not.

Once you know what good SEO is, bad SEO is like a neon sign. It just jumps out at you and almost bites your nose off. That was the thought I had this week. It was nonstop bolded words, repeated words without benefit, or hidden tiny text at the bottom of the website that was there for search engine spiders. Not only are search engines smarter than these tactics, these practices don’t work and they look horrible to visitors that actually do land on your website.

Good SEO just flows and it is designed around strong content. If you have strong content, you don’t need all the tricks that bad SEO consultants try and play. It doesn’t work and it is does much more harm than good.

If it looks like SEO, it’s bad SEO. If you employ an SEO consultant and you can “see” his or her work on your website, it’s bad SEO. Run and run quickly my friend.