Show of hands, how many of you have read through Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Mmmm, ok. go ahead and put your hands down.
Every now and then I find it useful to look and see what Google has to say to webmasters about their websites. It’s been years since I was last in here and I’m amazed by the amount of new content Google has added to their webmaster helps.
One thing to keep in mind whenever reviewing information put out by the search engines is that the engines have a vested interest in being selfish. Sure, they want to be helpful, but at the same time the information they provide comes with a very distinct bias as to what will ultimately help them.
That doesn’t make the advice bad, it just means we need to learn to sift what is really important from what Google wants us to think is important.
Today I want to revisit Google’s Guidelines for selecting an SEO provider. Let’s take them point by point and I’ll provide my own analysis. You can click the link above if you want to read Google’s expanded explanations.