Page optimisation and link building are the bread and butter of SEO, is to say that you can’t have one without the other. In other words a page will never rank first if it doesn’t combine page optimisation with links.

Over the past couple of years a lot of weight has been put in links and the vast majority of SEOs consider it to be the most important ranking signals either on Google or Bing ranking algorithm. But if the page that these links are pointing is not optimised for the right keywords it will lack in relevance which in turn will affect its rankings.

For instance, if a page has 100 links pointing to it with the anchor text “Internet Marketing Bedford” it is likely that this given page will rank well for that term. But if the page itself is not optimised for that term it will never reach the top position on the SERPs.

On the other hand, if the same page is optimised for the term “Internet Marketing Bedford” and has no links pointing to it with the targeted anchor text it won’t reach top position either.

In other words you can’t reach first place by only optimising a page or by only pointing links to it. To reach top positions on the SERPs you need to combine page optimisation with links and vice-versa. I know I haven’t invented the wheel but many SEOs overlook a really important aspect of search engine optimisation and that is relevance.

Many search marketers think they can game the search engines by pointing thousands of links to irrelevant pages in order to rank them well or over-optimise a page to include as many keywords as possible thinking that the more the better.

Search engine optimisation is fairly simple and that is the beauty of it; you can not optimise a page or a website thinking solely on the search engines. Optimise with your end users in mind, provide them with the stuff they are looking for and the search engines will value your efforts by ranking your website on the top of their results pages.

As afore mentioned SEs are looking for relevance because that is their end product, so if your website provides the best relevance for a search query it is more likely to rank higher.

By combining a well optimised page with a good number of links pointing to it with the right keywords as anchor texts I can guarantee you that you will achieve good rankings.

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Many will say that SEO is Internet Marketing, to certain extent that is correct but the right way to put this is to say that SEO is a part of Internet Marketing. Nowadays websites that rely solely on search engine optimisation to market their products and services online are missing out on wide array of opportunities to capitalise.

In this day and age Internet Marketing goes way beyond achieving top rankings on SERPs (search engine results) even thought that still is one of the most profitable ways to make money online.

For those of you that are not familiar with SEO, it is the process of optimising a website with keywords/keyphrases that best describe the products and services offered by this given website in order to rank high in the search engines results pages which in turn will drive qualified traffic.

As afore mentioned there are more ways to advertise your products and services online than simply relying on the search engines to drive traffic to your website.

The Social Media Power

Take Social Media for instance, with millions joining social networks sites like Facebook and Twitter by the hour it has become a valuable and powerful online marketing tool. A recent study revealed from Nielsen’s revealed that 75% of Active American Social Networkers Shop Online and at least 60% of active internet users spend the majority of their time online on Social Media channels like social networks and blogs.

According to the report: “As the influence of social media – and those using social media – continues to grow, it’s crucial for traditional media, retailers, brands and advertisers to understand how different consumer segments use and share content. Consumers frequently trust the recommendations of their peers, making social media an ideal platform for influencers to spread their ideas and purchase power.”

Email Marketing can still work

Email marketing is considered by many outdated and has been overlooked by many marketers these days but if you have audience and do it right and can still be an effective tool to advertise and capitalise online.

In my opinion there are still ways to use email marketing effectively. For example when launching a new website it is a great way to let people know about it and spread the word.

Another good way to use it effectively is to let your costumers know about new products and services. Don’t just send email for the sake of sending them, give your audience a reason to open your emails make them attractive and compiling, add a strong call to action and viola.

Banner Marketing

Many SEOs use banner marketing as part of their link buying schemes which is deemed by Google and other search engines. But if done in way that you clearly show the SEs you are adding banners on websites to advertise your products and services you shouldn’t have a problem and the benefits can be rather good to say the least.

The way forward with banner marketing is to identify high authority websites within your niche that accept advertising and place your banner there. This will not only drive qualified traffic to your website and it will still benefit your SEO campaign. Because these banners are like links and everybody knows that links from high authority websites have great influence in rankings.

These banner links might not carry the same weight as a natural link but I can guarantee you that they help.

As you can see Internet Marketing goes way beyond SEO but that doesn’t mean you should turn your back to search engine optimisation as it still is the most cost effective way to market products and services on the web.

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Optimising a website to achieve high rankings in search engine results pages is an extremely effective internet marketing strategy to drive leads and sales to any given website. But be careful, SEO is highly technical and mysterious discipline any so called “SEO professionals” rely on the lack of knowledge to the subject scam prospects.

Which leads us to the question: How to Identify Bad SEO Services?

First lets understand what SEO or search engine optimisation is all about. SEO is an ongoing process of optimising individual pages of a website with related keywords so when prospects search for these terms, the optimised pages appear in the first results of SERPS (search engine results pages). This process will start to generate qualified traffic to the website which will start to generate conversions, sales, leads, sign ups, etc.

Avoid False Promises

With SEO there are no cutting corners so substantial results cannot be achieved over night. Avoid agencies and freelancers that promise high rankings in just 30 days or less. Anyone promising or guaranteeing first positions in Google is using deceiving techniques that will hurt your website in the long run.

What would you prefer a sudden surge in traffic that will go away fairly quick or a steady increase in traffic which will continue to grow constantly without fading away?

Black Hat Techniques

There are many techniques used by these so called “SEO professionals” to game the SE algorithms in order to achieve high rankings in a short period of time. These procedures are known as “Black Hat” and are the signs that make seo services bad and ineffective.

Some common black hat techniques are:

Keyword Stuffing: Adding keywords right, left and centre on a page making it look unnatural not only for the search engines but also for its visitors.

Invisible Text: Using same font colours as the background to try and fool the SE crawlers. This for me is child play; anyone who still believes that SEs are stupid enough to fall for it should look for help.

Doorway Pages: Pages created with the sole purpose of ranking high, attract visitors and redirect them to another location.

There are many more black hat procedures but the bottom line here is the Search Engines are very strict with their guidelines and do penalise websites that make use of such techniques.

Bad Selection of Keywords

Keywords are the core of SEO; it is their rankings that will drive qualified traffic to your website. Some SEO agencies will come up with a huge list of keywords that relate to your business services and products, do not simply accept them. Go over the list selecting the ones that you would like to rank for and feel free to make suggestions of keywords that are related to your business but are not listed.

Sometimes keywords with high search volume might not deliver the expected results because they might be too generic for your business. Work together with your selected agency or freelancer to come up with more descriptive keywords that despite having a lower search volume could deliver far more conversions.

Paid Links Schemes

Avoid such schemes by all means. Links are on the strongest ranking factors, search engines are strict in identifying and classifying them and yes they can recognise paid links by a mile away. SEs have no mercy with websites that engage in paid links schemes so make sure when you hire the services of an SEO they do not engage in these kind of schemes.

Driving Irrelevant Traffic

There are many ways to drive traffic to website but unfortunately most of them are not effective. When I say not effective I meant that the traffic being driven is of low quality and by low quality I mean traffic that doesn’t convert at all. There are many ways to identify low quality traffic.

A reliable SEO service should provide periodical analytics reports that indicate the behaviour of visitors when they land on your website. A high number of unique visitors doesn’t mean that the traffic to your website is good. Look for signals like bounce rate, average time on site, page views per visit and conversion rates.

Be Careful with Pricing

SEO services vary in price according to a series of factors. Sometimes the most expensive ones might not be the best ones while affordable seo services could end up costing more than they were actually marketed. There are no set prices for internet marketing services some agencies offer set packages, others charge by the hour but the most important thing is to know how to identify bad seo services and with this guide you are now able to do so.

About the Author

Felipe Bazon is an SEO specialised in small business internet marketing also a blogger, link builder and social media enthusiast.

Article Source: How to Identify Bad SEO Services?

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