There is something very malodorous about SEO and internet marketing in general. A rancid stench connotes with those practices, which infested with crooked intentions. But that awful smell isn’t derived directly from those naive by nature practices, oh no, it is all those years of deceiving manipulations and deceptive misuses that made them so smelly.

The practice of SEO (acronym for “search engine optimization” if you don’t know) is designated to improve a website’s visibility on the organic search results. It suppose to help search engines to crawl and to read the website and to rank it for the most befitting search queries both for the users and for the website itself. In theory it sounds innocently beneficial, right?

unfortunately, like so many other things which involves the complexity of the human nature, there’s a huge gap between the theoretical concept of the matter and the eventual practicality.

Instead of using SEO to support the product, for (too) many webmasters the product is being used to support the SEO… There’s a countless number of poor websites over the internet whose sole reason of presence on the search results is manipulative SEO tactics, regardless to their actual meager content and feeble value.

Although a website’s organic search referral traffic shouldn’t be mainly driven due to delusive SEO techniques, sadly it is often the case. A website’s predominant propel of search traffic SHOULD be based on its quality and worth for the user. SEO SHOULD only enhance the site’s value, NOT to solely create it!

Just to add additional layer of putrid odor on top, a dubious sub-industry of fishy SEO services has been built. This sub-industry contains the self-proclaimed “SEO gurus” which can supposedly reveal the “special secrets” for traffic and alleged professionals that provides ridiculous solutions to overcome search algorithm penalties.

If you are a true believer in 0% chance, it is everything you need to rank high (for an overpriced symbolic fee of course)…

All those things have daubed SEO as a pretty loathsome profession to engage with. The sad truth is that there are just too many webmasters who would prefer using shady SEO techniques for search engines rather than focusing on creating great quality content for users. This is a widely-twisted approach which been nurtured for far too long.

Lots of webmasters believe that they can build a very popular website that is essentially established on all sorts of quirky SEO techniques. Even if they achieve some short-term success, a website’s popularity can NEVER be relied on manipulative optimization methods alone on the long-term. Soon or later, the system will fail.

There isn’t one major web brand in the world that managed to remain on the top of rankings for a long time JUST by exerting SEO methods without any real value for people. It can’t (and mustn’t) be accomplished. Even the most acclaimed and authoritative blogs that covers the search industry such as Search Engine Land or Search Engine Roundtable are grounded on invaluable content and NOT on SEO!

If you are a site owner, don’t fall into the false claims and bogus offers which fetidly opines that SEO can BUILD your business, because they are utterly erroneous (by mistake or design). Only real value FOR USERS can build a strong sustainable business, whilst SEO can offer nothing more than some support.

In case you stuck so deeply in the undelivered optimization-for-traffic fantasy that you don’t know from where to evaluate your site, perhaps the following questionnaire can be a good place to start.