The Search for a “Real” Expert Seo Consultant Firm in California

I can not tell you how many times I’ve heard the horror stories of businesses get mugged, robbed and just out right Mafioso-ed by so called SEO consultants. California is crawling with these vermin. Really, I believe that there are more scams out there than actual “real” SEO consultants. California businesses are just being taken left and right. The Dons of the SEO world have come to pillage and are walking away with a good size chunk of change. Will your business be next for these vultures? Will you invest thousands of dollars in your website only to be heisted by some nerd that claims to be an SEO expert? California is filled with hopes and dreams. This is what lowly scammers prey on. When you have hopes and dreams and you want them to come true so bad, your judgment can often be hindered by the vision of the future that you are being promised by a false SEO firm. California is no longer a safe place to surf the net. You have to keep your eyes open and your virus scans armed to the teeth. It’s a war out there and if you’re not careful you’ll become a victim. The battle field is cyberspace and the weapons needed to stay alive are knowledge. You need to know what the signs are of a scam and a phony SEO firm. California business owners aren’t all huge corporations; there are a lot of small businesses, mom and pop businesses. I don’t mean to get all life and death on you here, but if you’re a mom and pop business and you’re putting a heavy amount of your life savings into marketing your business with an SEO firm, and you get scammed, you lose your savings and possibly your business. That may not be life and death, but its pretty close.

How do you know when an SEO consultant firm is a scam?

There are several tell tale signs of a scamming SEO firm. California search engines will spit out many SEO firms so look at each one with a careful eye. Here are a few tips and pointers when dealing with SEO firms, California based:

1. When you have words thrown at you like “crawler pages”, “meta tags”, “premium placement” and “doorway pages” with absolutely no explanation as to what they are, how they are created for you and what they do for you, then you on your way to being scammed by “SEO Consultants.” California look out, the spider engines are here.
2. When you are shown a web page that the SEO firm claims is theirs, and you see there Google number 7 rating, this means nothing. They can simply copy a real SEO firm’s page and change it a little bit. They won’t have any links or anything at all connecting them to the search engines that give them the number 7 rating. Don’t simply trust the home page of a so called SEO firm. California based firms have to show you more than this.
3. Just because someone has a business card that says “SEO Expert”, “California SEO Firm”, “California SEO Consultants” or anything like that, it does not mean anything. Any 10 year old boy can order a business card. Scammers get 90% of there business by doing offline marketing. Any idea why that is? They have to do this because you wont find there company online. They won’t have a reputation with the online SEO communities because they have done nothing.
4. SEO scammers like to go to trade shows and get potential clients there. They will target an already established offline business that has no previous internet marketing history. This way they can be sure that the only word you could possibly know is “Google”. They will then start all the promises of top searches like that of a professional SEO firm. California good sized offline businesses are a prime target.
5. If your company gets a phone call saying something like “I can’t find your website on the search engines… who can I speak to about that?” then your about to be scammed. If you don’t have a website, chances are they already new this. The con-artist has simply noticed that you have an established business, got your number from a phonebook and called you to tell you that you can’t be found on the web. It just so happens that he can help you as he is an SEO expert. California businesses get these calls all the time. Hang up and save yourself a few wasted breaths.
6. If you are promised to be in the top results of the major search engines but the SEO firm or consultant won’t guarantee this with the keywords you want…then you’re dealing with a scammer. A motorcycle company scoring number one with the key words “joe shmoe you know?” will generate no traffic to its site and definitely no business.
7. Finally, if an SEO consultant says that he has friends in Google and can use this to get you higher rankings; he’s lying through his teeth. Friends are not going to get you higher ratings. Good SEO work is what gets you these ratings.

Expert SEO Firms are Online Certified

Online certification is a good way to check up on an SEO Firm. Places like www.seocertification.org or www.bruceclay.com offer repute certification for SEO companies online. California has at least one firm that meets all the criteria of a good SEO firm. California based SEO firm SEOwebGuys has quite an online reputation and is certified by several online SEO firms. Reviews from satisfied companies and customers also back up the claims that they do what they say they can do. As part of the SEOwebGuys team, I would know. Look at my tips above and critique us, go ahead…I promise you’ll like what you find.