If you’ve had a website for any length of time at all, you’ve probably gotten scary-sounding emails warning you that your site doesn’t rank in the search engines.
I got one just this morning:
We like your site, but we noticed that you are missing out on key web traffic due to where you show up on the search engines…
One of my clients got one yesterday that she forwarded to me:
Dear Business Owner: I searched for (search term) and (business name) was nowhere to be found… you’re buried in position number 11. That means potential clients aren’t finding you. Whether by luck or skill, 7 of your competitors are enjoying the benefits of being on page 1. Simply put, they are getting ALL your business.
An attorney friend told me that someone from a well-known industry-related web design/SEO firm kept calling him to tell him his site didn’t rank for X, Y and Z search terms.
If you get an email or phone call like this, should you be worried?
Maybe.
Some of these emails are just wrong – they’re randomly blasted to tons of people whose sites happen to rank just fine.
Some of these emails are just misleading – they scare you about search terms that either don’t matter or that you’re not trying to rank for to begin with.
Make sure you know your site’s true status – where your site ranks, and for which keywords – before you respond!
It may very well be true that your site doesn’t rank well for important search terms (keywords.) So yes, you may be missing out on a lot of potential clients.
If you DO need help, though, I’d be wary of working with SEO firms who prospect by unsolicited mass emails/phone calls. You just can’t be sure who they are, what their expertise is or how they operate. At the very least I’d recommend talking to another search engine expert for a second opinion.