As a new age of web marketers filter through the trials & tribulations of success online, it brings us to an important question, who do I believe? If you've paid attention as to how to optimize your site for online performance, you'll eventually come across what we call, bad SEO practices.

In the event that you are looking into hiring an SEO company, you are left with many decisions and concerns. I don't blame you for worrying. Many of the so called "SEO" companies are just out to get your money. Please don't take this article as an attack against SEO consultants but take it as a warning to do your due-diligence and investigate each company you contact.

Here is a small check list to ask:

- Could you show me some of your clients placements?
- What did you have to do to get them there?
- Could you give me something to read about your methods?
- Do you guarantee your placements? (oh oh look out)

If the response comes back something like this:

We don't disclose our secrets or, we cloned their information and placed it on our site to get a good ranking right away or, we simply went out to got 1000's of incoming links for them. Here's the kicker, stay away from this; we guarantee you top placements and/or placements on the 1st page etc.

These are considered tell tale signs that the SEO Company you contacted is just in it for the money and they don't truly care about your business in the future. All these practices in question may sometimes work but are breaking ethical search engine optimization rules.

Here is what an "unethical SEO "would sound like:
(created for the purposes of this illustration).

1) "we don't disclose our secrets" - There are no secrets to disclose
2) "We cloned their information" - We will get better results than you will
3) "We went out and got 1000's of links" - Good thing they weren't related to anything you do because we would actually have to spend a lot of time targeting your market instead of bringing in false traffic.
4) "We guarantee everything" - There is no such thing on the internet.

Here is what an "ethical SEO" would sound like:
(created for the purposes of this illustration).

What we plan to do is to strategically target your market by optimizing your site internally to target the right key words that your potential buyers are searching for online. Also, we would like to strategically place your website link on other related websites to gain more exposure to your business with the right people in mind."

We don't care if other people are "cloning","hiding their text","linking to everyone in the world", we are here to build the right foundation, to make sure that your tree will grow for years to come."

Although we cannot guarantee anything in this business, our track record is strong and our clients are truly happy with their results, here are some references."

There is a big difference in good practices and bad ones. You can spot them right away as soon as they divert your questions elsewhere. Good SEO companies aren't afraid to answer your questions, in fact, we love to talk about search marketing & positioning and we have the proof to back up our statements.

Some would say SEO Companies are like "lawyers", they will do whatever it takes to win the battle but many of us SEO's would strongly disagree. Granted, in every working field in the world, there are bad apples out there. Unfortunately concerning web marketing, we see them world wide but our industry is about helping people grow their business. We genuinely care about your success. The more successful you are, the more success we will attract for our own business.

This information can also be used for everyone trying to perform their own SEO plans. Don't believe every practice you hear out there.

I hope this information helps your journey!