While there are many search engines to choose from, Google holds about 65% of the market share with its closest competitor hanging around the 15% mark. It is critical to know if the SEO Company you work with is keeping up with the changes Google periodically makes changes to their algorithm. It is just as important to know if your SEO Company uses White Hat or Black Hat techniques. White Hat means the company optimizing your website follows the rules and regulations set forth by the search engine companies, namely Google. Black Hat means they are using improper methods to manipulate the algorithm. While they might assure you they are using White Hat methods, the most recent Google update will prove quickly if they are being truthful or not.
Penguin 2.0 is the name given to the newest update to Google’s algorithm. The first Penguin targeted unnatural inbound links and other versions of web spam. P20 is still brand new, but it looks like it gives Penguin stronger search and destroy abilities for websites who are using Black Hat methods. This means that you can end up paying a very dear price for your SEO Company’s unethical methods. To give you some sense of how strict Google is with their SEO rules, they have penalized their own company on multiple occasions.
So if Google is penalizing their own company, what chance do you have? If your SEO Company is ethical and utilizes White Hat methods you should have nothing to worry about. A good way to check is to Google yourself (it’s hard to write that, even as an adult and not laugh). Make sure you have completely signed out of any Google account you might have (YouTube, Google Pages, etc.). When signed in, Google will use your search history, location, and attributes to tailor your search results so signing out removes those variables and you get a truer sense of where your website ranks. Once you have Googled your site, if you notice that it has fallen down in the rankings drastically, then there is a very good chance that your SEO Company is not very ethical. Then it is time to give them a call, start getting answers and maybe do some firing.
Here at Impact Media, we take quite a bit of pride in our ethics and standards. Honestly we were very happy with the new Penguin update because it will help our clients out. If their competitors are utilizing Black Hat SEO methods, then there is a good chance they will be penalized and our clients will reap the rewards. If you are wondering if your SEO Company is a good choice or not, one question to ask is, “Did they make me sign a contract?” Our SEO policy is to never have the client sign a contract because if we are doing a bad job then they should be free to take their money somewhere else. We have yet to lose a client because we could not deliver first page rankings. On the other hand we have heard several horror stories from new clients here in Wilmington, N.C. about certain companies, one well known company in particular, that never delivers on their SEO promises and refuses to let businesses out of their 12 month contract. That is just wrong.
You can trust Impact Media and we are more than happy to supply you with several references to back that claim up. You can also check out a couple of video testimonials. The first is from Joey Milam, Marketing Director of Alpha Mortgage and the second is John Hickey, owner of Southern Exposure Sunrooms. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1TqDXFyW4uM
https://www.impactmedianc.com/blog/seo-testimonial-wilmington-nc/
When you are ready for a top notch, ethical SEO Company that is going to deliver solid results with increased leads for your company, give us a call at 910-679-4471 and ask for C.S. Alexander
