We found this great article about Search Engine Optimisation con-men.

http://blog.f9group.com/marketing/direct-response-marketing/are-you-a-victim-of-seo-malpractice/

We reproduce part of it below, it was written by a Marketing Company in the States called www.f9group.com and we think the 60 seconds it take to read is one of the best time investments you can make!

There is nothing worse than an SEO scammer.

"Being a software developer for over 20 years I have seen plenty of things and a whole lot tricks when it comes to software development. One example is when someone says a software program is too slow. A tricky way to fix this problem and make everyone happier is to take the little “wait” icon and make it move faster. The user gets the perception the program is working faster.

"SEO is no exception to this type of trickery. Being the owner of a website, I am constantly bombarded by spam from companies claiming they can boost my ranking, make my company more visible and promote ME, all for a minimal monthly fee or one time payment.

"Here are some ways to help distinguish the ethical SEO practitioners from the unethical ones.

• A true SEO practitioner will not guarantee you a #1 ranking in anything.
• A true SEO practitioner wont spam your name all over blogs and forums, and in general wont SPAM at all.
• If someone says they they can put you on hundreds of search engines and websites, and on top of it wants to charge you a monthly minimal fee a red flag should go up for you.
• A true SEO practitioner wants to see your website, know about your business and look at the HTML code on your page.
• A true SEO practitioner after looking at your code should be able to increase your visibility without changing your intended look of the site.
• A real SEO company will not make up news for your company or backlink fake stories from sites you own to boost your visibility. Bragging about how awesome you are on a site you own that links back to another site you own does more harm than good.
• Ask for references, use the wayback machine and utilize google caching to validate these references claims. Some SEO companies references are actually the same companies.
• Do they have another business and SEO is their side job or is SEO all they do? If the company isnt built around website development and SEO, you best just turn away.
• A true SEO company wont guarantee you X number of hits per day.
• A true SEO company wont use a link farm or use spamdexing."