One of the crazy thing you’ll find in internet marketing is a set of people I call “SEO pretenders”. I call them because that’s what they are.

Though I don’t claim to be SEO expert or pretend to act like that in forums, I’ve been doing SEO for last 6 years. I have seen ups and down and have a foot in the SEO market. When people see how much SEO people are charging, they also put up their shop.

Before I talk about some things that are used by SEO pretenders blatantly, I say “SEO is expensive, no doubt about that”. That’s why Shop around and look for people who know what they are doing.

1. Crazy Hosting prices – SEO pretenders literally murders your bank account by charging exorbitant prices. For most small business, you won’t have to worry about too much traffic. Often these pretenders talk about services(and functions) they provide with the hosting and charge HIGH prices.

It completely depends on your website material, if you are going to need expensive servers or not. In most cases spending 100 dollars a month for server is way too much.

2. Mind boggling Web design charges – Mind you, we haven’t even started talking about SEO and you have already emptied your pockets by now. Again small business does not need any complicated design.

Most pretenders use “Personalized website” as slogan and charge Super high prices. When you can easily put up a template and get a personalized template for around $1000 (or you can spend less than $100 to get a general template and get it personalized).

Again the problem is all about knowing the right information, right people. Of course most business owners rather spend money than doing the research (that’s why I recommended right people).

3. SEO practices – White hat, black hat or Grey hat – Which color do you wear?

If you are asking about SEO plan, then do ask for what kind of Hat your SEO expert wears. Almost all of SEO guys are pretty much in Grey category and are very good with black hat too. Those who claim they are White hat are just liars.

For those who doesn’t understand about hats –
White hat SEO – Good practices accoridng to google, yahoo.
Black Hat SEO – Bad practices frowned by google, yahoo.
Grey Hat SEO – middle path, very fine line to walk.

If you talk about techniques, it’s better to ask for 2^nd opinion about hats. I normally say, most good SEO spend their time with Grey hat walking a very fine line. But they often tone down their skills and dabble in white hat for the sake of their client’s website.

This is part where people charge for arm and leg. That’s why I am highly recommending you to ask for second opinion. If you need second opinion, You can ask for my help for SEO. Someone who has been doing SEO for last 6 years can give you far better 2^nd opinion.