Why Blackhat SEO is Worse Than No SEO

I thought I would take a moment to discuss what is in my opinion a certain path to ruin for any business that relies on the World Wide Web as a means of generating revenue.  This disastrous path is known as "Blackhat" SEO.  I have intimate experience in dealing with the debacle that these sort of tactics can cause a business.  As Principal Consultant of OvaTek Web Solutions , a Northern Virginia Web Design and Search Engine Marketing firm, I meet and bring on new clients all the time, that are in a complete state of crisis due to the unethical practices of the former SEO company they had been using.

Many of these new clients tell me horror stories of how they went from being very visible in the search engines and business was booming, then one day the phones stopped ringing, the leads stopped coming in, the Live Chat requests have virtually completely ceased.  In an attempt to figure out what was going on, they checked to see if maybe they fell back to the second page on Google perhaps.  To their shock and horror, as they go page to page to page, their site seems to have virtually disappeared from the internet????  What happened?? Well, what happened is that the unethical SEO tactics that their previous provider had been using, finally caught up with them.

Unfortunately, this scenario plays out more often that you might think.  Many times when I present a proposal for SEO services to a client, they respond with, "That's a bit more than I was expecting" "Jimbob's SEO Super Powerpack SEO Services are half the price" "Giant Mega Explosive SEO Gold Package is only $199 and they guarantee I'll be on the first page of Google"  The sad thing is, many businesses fall prey to this snake oil sales tactic.  Yes, good, effective SEO and search engine marketing done by a competent, ethical professional is not "Cheap", but what is much more expensive than implementing an effective online marketing strategy, is fixing a Blackhat SEO disaster.  Many times as the result of a shady snake oil SEO scheme a business simply cannot recover.

The truth is, a good, effective SEO or Search Engine Marketer is grossly underpaid.  An effective online marketing strategy has one of the highest ROI's a business can make!  My best clients are the ones that have done their due diligence and research prior to contacting me.  They understand the real value.

So, going back to the title of my blog post, "Why Blackhat SEO is Worse Than No SEO"

With no SEO a company still has a shot, they can do traditional marketing, hire a bunch of sales people, get referals, ect....

With Blackhat SEO, a company runs the risk of going out of business, and if they are able to fix the Blackhat issues, they will be paying about four times what they would have paid to go with someone reputable and highly effective from the start.

Just my two cents....

Peter Gerardi
Chief Web Strategist
OvaTek Web Solutions
703-888-2977
peter@ovatekweb.com