“We can get you to the top of search in a short period, and we guarantee you’ll be on page 1 by next week!” Not.  When I hear some of the promises made by the all too many scammers selling search engine optimization services, I have to admit it makes me laugh.  Laugh not so much because what they’re saying is funny, but because they are so careless that they even approach legitimate search engine optimization firms like ours to propose their services.

Quick ranking results would be ideal; unfortunately there is no such thing.  Back in the early days of Google, when we first started out as a provider of  SEO services,  it was possible to rank  just about any phrases a client was interested in, and achieve results  within a month or two.  In 2004 Google changed all of  this when they released their algorithm update that contained what came to be known as the “sandbox effect”.  The Google “sandbox” as it’s called, is where Google puts new websites, or highly modified older websites to age.  It holds websites here before allowing them to rank highly.  The purpose of this modification was to prevent web spammers from being able to launch one new site after another. As quickly as Google could find and identify a spam website, spammers could launch a new one.  With the sandbox effect they have essentially placed a front end time delay on ranking any new website and cured many problems occuring with web spam.

How do these search engine optimization companies that prey on unknowing clients stay in business?  The internet itself is still so very young, with virtually thousands of new websites launching daily,and  many of these new website owners  are fresh new victims.  The number of novice owners  available to these types of companies is  growing.  Pay attention to how the program they offer you works: most likely it will have a large down or upfront payment along with a considerable monthly payment.  They know that you’ll allow them some months to fail, and then probably a few more months more to discuss, and try the extra efforts they  promise in order to meet their guarantee.  All the while they will really just be moving on to their next victim.

But don’t feel bad if you’re taken over by one of these companies; most new website owners will make a few mistakes before they find the right road to success on the Internet.