June 5th, 2010 by Nick

Online firms who are new kids on the block can be easy victims for an unscrupulous SEO company. Online firms often gather their first bits of information, with regard to search engine optimization, from the net. The problem is that the quality of the sources varies considerably, and the difficulty is exacerbated by the fact that the information becomes out-of-date with remarkable alacrity. Nevertheless, the owner of an online firm will usually pick up the basics quickly, and will soon learn that the addition of regular high-grade content often reaps rewards in the competition for rankings. The chore, and the cost, of getting articles written in-house may be unattractive, but some individuals may wish to cut corners, and avoid hiring a reputable SEO firm.

In these circumstances, an owner of an online firm may receive an email from an outfit that claims it will deliver content free of charge to the site concerned. A gullible individual may forget the maxim that if something appears too good to be true, then it almost certainly is. Even someone who is not inherently gullible may be seduced by a scam, because it is essentially telling them what they want to hear. Regardless of the character of the person concerned, assume for the purposes of the example that they agree to accept the free content.

The free content certainly will not come without strings attached. The email would flatter the recipient. It might say something along the lines of: “We have come across your excellent site and would like to enter into a partnership with you. We operate by associating ourselves with the top names in each sector and by providing you with free content of the highest quality, we spread the word about ourselves. Our team of copywriters can provide effective articles and blogs that can help you to the top of Google in the search engine results pages.” It might even add that the service is a great way of promoting your firm to audiences around the net, or something of that nature.

If the owner of the online firm accepts an offer like this, the consequence could be disastrous, and easily lead to a significant commercial setback. The free content would be delivered, but it would almost certainly be duplicate content. As such, it would be liable to incur a search engine penalty, and would not help the site progress up the search engine results pages in a sustainable manner. If a SEO expert examined the free content, they might detect that it contained links to the clients of the unethical firm. In short, the whole scam could have been a highly dubious link building strategy.

Content need not cost the earth. There are specialists in SEO services out there – like Searchengineoptimization.co.uk – who realise that content should not be free, but that it should be reasonably priced. Copywriters can deliver the goods by writing varied, entertaining and informative pieces which are relevant to your site, and which will help it up the rankings. Do not be tempted by offers which would do more harm than good.

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