Google Offers SEO Selection Guidelines

At the end of last month, Google rolled out a new page offering advice to those seeking a search engine optimization firm. Since being unveiled, there’s been both support and criticism of the tips and recommendations that Google has posted in various SEO forums.

From my perspective, most of what Google has posted is sensible advice and positive for the SEO community as a whole, especially compared to what was said by Google previously about SEOs, within its help area:

“Be very careful about allowing an individual consultant or company to ‘optimize’ your web site. Chances are they will engage in some of our ‘Don’ts’ and end up hurting your site.”

A brief and fairly negative statement, to say the least. The impression one comes away with is that most SEOs are likely to cause you problems, so you’re better off avoiding them. Compare that to what Google’s now saying:

“Many SEOs provide useful services for website owners, from writing copy to giving advice on site architecture and helping to find relevant directories to which a site can be submitted. However, there are a few unethical SEOs who have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to unfairly manipulate search engine results.”

So, congratulations, SEOs! Google, in my opinion, is legitimizing the majority of you and certainly the industry.

For its part, Google actually denies that there has been any significant change in its view toward SEOs. The company notes — accurately, I would add — that it has worked with the SEO community for some time, speaking at conferences, posting information within its own web site and via public forums. If the tone on its help pages now seems more positive toward SEOs, Google says it is just now wording things better.

“Maybe we are expressing it more clearly. Certainly there’s always room for a consultant that gives you good advice,” said Matt Cutts, a software engineer at Google who deals with webmaster issues. “The intent is not to be negative or positive [about SEOs] but provide more information.”

Whatever the reason behind the change, I think it clearly gives the general public a more positive impression about SEOs from Google. However, Google says the main intent behind the page is educational. Google wants the public to understand how to choose an SEO wisely, so they are not likely to encounter problems getting listed with Google or other search engines.

“The overall goal is to give people the tools so that they can assess a decision about search engine optimization,” said Cutts.

Let’s take a closer look at some of those tips.

Some SEOs may try to sell you the ability to type keywords directly into the browser address bar

This tip really stood out in my mind, because there are definitely people out there selling namespace services via dubious practices. However, these pitches have nothing to do with Google. Instead, they involve Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

So why’s Google calling this out? The company says it’s just trying to educate people generally about SEO-related issues, regardless of whether they are Google-specific.

“It goes back to Google just trying to do the right thing, the same way we did with the pop-up page,” Cutts said, referring to an educational page the company posted earlier this year on pop-up ads.

To learn more about problems with namespace pitches, see my recent article, RealNames Clones Causing Confusion. I also expect to revisit the issue in the near future, because I continue to get emails from people confused by misleading pitches. If anything, it would be nice to see Microsoft itself, rather than Google, make a loud, public statement on the issue.

Nice advice, but then Google doesn’t offer any real help on how to do this. That’s OK, I’ll fill in some blanks.

Finding Search Engine Optimization Professionals is a fairly recent SearchDay article that talks about three SEO directories. Both SeoPros.org and the SEO Consultants Directory are directories that screen who is allowed in, while SEMList.com allows anyone to list themselves and information about their companies.

MarketingSherpa.com publishes a Buyers’ Guide to Search Engine Optimization Firms. My last review was of the first edition, but I’ve skimmed the second edition and still think it is well worth the money for anyone thinking about hiring an SEO firm. Along with reviews, the guide offers a lot of helpful advice.

you should ask how long a company has been in business and how many full time staffers it employs

How long a company has been in business is good, but number of staffers isn’t necessarily relevant. You could find a small firm of only one or two people that is great. They may not have more people because they don’t want to grow beyond that.

On the forums, I saw several posts questioning the wisdom of this tip, as well. For its part, Google explains that it didn’t mean to suggest that companies with big full-time staffs are better than others. Instead, Google says it is really suggesting that consumers learn more details about the company, period.

“We are not making this general statement that the number of people matters,” Cutts said. “This is more an example of doing your homework.”

Hopefully, Google will look again at the wording. A simple change to something like, “You should ask how long a company has been in business, who is employed there, how did those employees gain their experience?,” might get across Google’s point that you should learn more about a company before engaging them without the focus seeming to be on number of employees.

Ask your SEO firm if it reports every spam abuse that it findsto Google using our spam complaint form. Ethical SEO firmsreport deceptive sites that violate Google’s spam guidelines

Sorry, I completely disagree, and I’m far from alone, judging from forum posts and other comments I’ve read. You can indeed be an ethical SEO without also playing the role of Google’s volunteer spam police.

In fact, there are plenty of “ethical” SEO firms that feel that reporting spam actually can be an unethical practice. These firms feel like they should focus on doing positive work — promoting their clients, rather than getting involved in negative work of expending time reporting spam.

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