Lyons Leadership

We’ve gathered here in order to solve one little problem for you. Why is there a ton of dishonesty in the new world of SEO? Why is it so guaranteed that any time you go looking to optimize your site, there are thousands of people out there, giving you their ‘honest’ word at the price of transparency?

Crises Make People Crazy

The answers are very straightforward, but it’s of the most importance that you understand. Why, you might ask? Because—and most definitely during a crisis—when otherwise normal people get desperate, the common people do stupid things sometimes and the unreliable people start preying.

Two Crucial Points

So: there are two fundamental reasons for the crappy atmosphere that is all over the place in the SEO market. One is simply historical. There have always been types who have tried to make money from nothing, and looking back, they have taken advantage of rough times very similar to this one.

Secondly is the idea of optimization and online advertising. Simply by virtue of what it is, it lures people who aren’t entirely honest. This doesn’t mean you can’t find an honest SEO company—far from it, as there are tons of great companies doing business. But Madison avenue and its like has never pulled in just the top guys. There are a hundred thousand crappy salesmen out there, as everyone is aware of. Why would the internet not be susceptible?

Learning From Old History

So, allow us to begin with the historical reasons first. In depressions, people tend to get confused. 1930s America isn’t only known for dust and the New Deal, but it’s full of shady characters everywhere, taking advantage of rough economic times. Ever seen that HBO series called Carnivale? Its entire cast is constituted entirely from these types.

Combine that climate with some of the explanations for why we’re in this mess, mainly the pipe dream that it’s entirely in the realm of possibility to get rich without putting the work in (one of the main explanations behind the mortgage crisis), and you’ve got a recipe for scammers.

Same Promises, Same Scam

Dishonest black-hatters profit from this economically-driven blindness by making the very same claims that grifters have been dumping on us for as long as we can remember. They claim there’s a friendly online marketplace just sitting there waiting to be monetized, and claim there are great profits to be made, essentially from nothing at all. You simply are required to pony up some cash to have the doors opened to this magic network, which, and this they never explain, they aren’t just taking for themselves.

The idea is that you can create a network of “something” online, and the visitors that never really arrive will amazingly create enough advertising profits for you to simply start receiving heavy payouts in the post-box.

Networks that Go Nowhere

Just what this network of shady information is remains obscure forever, and that’s generally the entire point. As long as you’re making your payment to the optimization guys, that’s all they really need (and thus you are the only income method here).

If your miracle cheques never come to your mailbox, they can’t really be held responsible, because there was never any guarantee from the get-go. There are billions of excuses to muddy your lack of income.

The Nature of Advertising

Then we have our further part of the theory: the core of optimization and the ad world itself. Publicity has always been a world not for the squeamish, and doing so online is definitely the same.

Of course with the rise in proper website traffic analysis , SEO now can be more transparent than ever.

There have always been shifty advertisers ready to take your money, but now with the way the internet works, they’ve proliferated terribly.

Even the Government Spams

Consider this: the US Postal Service gives massive, massive deals for mail in bulk. In sum, this is useless mail, or spam, but slightly less irritating because it arrives in your post-box instead of on your computer (perhaps it’s far worse, actually).

If the US Postal Service is essentially just a funnel for spam half the time, imagine what must happen with the anonymous feeling the internet offers. The count of potential scammers simply increases until it’s at a ridiculous level.

Just don’t let that take you away from the fact that this world of SEO is a legitimate business concern—they are the Madison Avenue of the coming years. Choose a real, established, and white-hat one!