In a recent report into “Online Solutions” aimed at imparting advice on how to develop an effective web presence American Express have advised companies not to “waste money” on search engin optimisation specialists. Apparently suggetsing that this is a sure fire way to get your site banned from the listings. This is a very strong statement and one which Im sure please their incumbent SEO agency, Greenlight! Imagine being the agency for a company who makes a statement like that! Cant fill you with much confidence for your next contract renewal. I wonder whether the phrase “expensive” and the warning about being penalised refer directly to Greenlight’s work or whether this is jus a coincidence!?!
The full article is here and I have copied the offending paragraph below:
— optimize your search engines
Search engines, like Yahoo! and Google, are usually the first place people will look for you. Make it easier for them to find you. Yahoo! and Google offer tools to let them know the site map structure of your Web site. Also, using clean U.R.L.s such as yourdomain.com/store/widgets instead of yourdomain.com/store.php?id=42&categoryID=widgets will increase your chances of getting indexed in a search engine. Finally, don’t waste money on so-called Search Engine Optimization (S.E.O.) specialists. Search engines are very quick to penalize sites that try to trick their filtering techniques, and once your site has been put on Google’s blacklist, it will take forever to get off.
I couldn’t help but laugh at this! =)
It can’t put Greenligh in a very good position!! Interesting to see if they responsed to this at all??
I wonder if that means American Express are now having SEO work done in house?
By the way, i have enjoyed reading your blog! keep the posts coming!
Lara
For the record we should probably state that Greenlight have been involved in AMEX’s paid search to date and not their SEO, although we have been consulted on various things. The view interestingly is not one shared by the marketing departments of the same, so I can only assume that this ‘guide’ is not a relfection of company policy. Although I coudln’t comment as to the sources behind the content. For some small business this would indeed be right. SEO would not be a justified investment, and buyers should be justifiably wary. But that does not proclude SEO from being a good idea. With regards contract renewal, our relationship is in good form, and our strong results continue to reinforce the reason Greenlight we’re engaged in the first place. We are of course very grateful of the opportunity being given to us by Amercian Express, and will continue to uphold our strong standard of results, client servicing and delivery in everything we do for them.