Search engine optimization (SEO) has undoubtedly brought many changes in this era. From globalization to increased sales and marketing, SEO has always proved much valuable for brands and companies. But there are some cons to it as well, which cannot be overlooked and must be known by the users so that they are more cautious while using it. People usually discuss its positive impacts on society, but no one discusses its drawbacks. This article discusses some dark SEO points which you should be aware of.
Dark points of SEO:
- The Google keyword planner is inaccurate:
Google is one of the most used search engines, so most people rely on it for research and data purposes. It has a keyword planner feature that shows how many people are searching for a given phrase. But the number this planner gives is way off the original figure. They don’t accurately represent the actual amount of searches for the phrase. Don’t believe everything you see on the internet. For instance, according to the keyword planner, there were not a lot of people looking out for help designing their footers, but a while later, the rank increased, and so did the traffic. Thus the inaccuracy of the planner was proved.
- Lots of search traffic leads to greater spam:
There are tons of unqualified leads. This leads to a lot of traffic as billions of results based on your research hinder the viewers from getting to the required target information. Moreover, as a content writer, if you rank, everyone finds you and contacts such as; salespeople, recruiters, robots etc. They will then ask you for information, call your teams, spam forms with poorly written offers of every kind, and many robot pitches from guest bloggers. All this wastes time, and you actually have to filter through a lot.
- SEO’s ranking is insufficient:
SEO search ranking is about vanity. People often brag about their phrase being ranked, but when asked about the quality of the traffic from the phrase, they have no idea. Leads aren’t always qualified, as they may have attracted customers who are not a good fit. Moreover, the ranking isn’t equal, as you may be ranked for a phrase no one is searching for.
- Black hat SEO:
SEO can hurt ranking, traffic and brand when poorly done. This black hat SEO can lead to penalties which are hard to recover from. Some bad SEO tricks include; spinning content, keyword stuffing, scraping articles (plagiarism), and spamming emails, which eventually leads to a high spam score. Always look out for the SEO company service you are going to use.
- Ignorance of companies while buying SEO services:
Customers who buy SEO services are unaware of what they are paying for. They don’t know what tools and tactics are involved and what SEO does. This leads to a limited audience and inefficiency for the companies to make their product successful and approachable. People must have proper research on what SEO company they will work with to ensure maximum chances of success.
- SEO audience must be targeted:
Google’s SERPs start with Ad at the top, then display local results and featured snippets. So, according to the content, SEO must target the audience locally and show results that will eventually lead to broader traffic and greater chances for the product/content to be accessed. Local, high-quality listing can be done by taking advantage of Google My Business so that the owners can manage what appears to the public when someone searches for them.
- SEO isn’t for everyone:
If you are an investor or an innovative startup who has launched a product which no one has ever heard of, then SEO isn’t much value for you. Because SEO consistently ranks the most searched items first and the probability of a viewer to go on the next page is only 15%. If you are one of a few companies that sell to a very small group of people, then forget SEO and go for individual sales rather than marketing.
Conclusion:
SEO has no doubt a much contribution to the development of businesses and setups, but there is a dark side which needs to be discussed before jumping to a final conclusion. It is vital for people to check what SEO service they are about to use, so they don’t lose all their money!
