Recently there’s been a lot of blathering about “standards” in the SEO industry, due to the amount of shysters and conmen who have latched on to the fact that, as SEO is difficult to quantify and the client rarely fully understands what is involved, it can be quite easy to extract quite a bit of money from the unsuspecting without really doing very much. While this is deplorable and we need to do what we can to reduce it and clean up the industry’s image, I really hope standardisation isn’t the answer, unless we want to remove any element of creativity from our jobs so that they become like any other by-the-books daily grind.

Instead of reducing search engine optimisation down to a set of defined rules and standards, I feel it’d be much more productive if potential customers had access to the views and opinions of an SEO company’s previous clients, rather than having to rely on a sales pitch to base their decisions on. I know from my personal experience that if I’m considering purchasing a product or service, especially from an unfamiliar vendor, I am most likely to react based on reviews I have read. If I read mostly good reviews, chances are I will buy. If I read mostly bad reviews, chances are I will not. If I can find no reviews at all, I’ll feel like I’m taking a punt at best.

If more clients were encouraged to leave their reviews and feedback (good or bad) in a publicly accessible forum, this could quickly result in the kind of self-regulation we can see on eBay with a user’s “Feedback score”. Of course, as professionals we know that we’re much more likely to receive feedback for a job done badly than a job done well, as it is generally in our nature to complain more than to complement (without an incentive, at least). But it’s for this reason that, if we truly believe we are offering valuable services, we should encourage the feedback - companies who are consistently failing or leaving their clients underwhelmed and out of pocket would quickly be exposed and earn the reputation they deserve. And while the rest of us might hear back from the odd disgruntled customer, we should take that feedback on board, build on it and improve.

There are already a few SEO review sites out there, such as SEOInsider, but none of them (as far as I can see) are used frequently enough to get a balanced view of any of the companies listed. The best I’ve seen so far is the Review SEO Companies section of ReviewCentre, as it provides both a scoring system and a forum of sorts for you to write your own review.

So far there are reviews of the following SEO companies listed on the site;

Bensykes.co.uk - bensykes.co.uk
BigMouthMedia - bigmouthmedia.com
Neuro SEO - neuroseoservices.com
Search Engine Genie - searchenginegenie.com
1st Page Prophets - 1stpageprophets.com
AdWordsManagement - adwordsmanagement.blogspot.com
Codeweavers - codeweavers.net
Digital Clarity - digital-clarity.com
DirectBrand - directbrand.ie
Esummit - esummit.co.uk
Just Search - justsearching.co.uk
Majon International - majon.com

The following companies also have profiles on the site, and are awaiting reviews;

E Channel - e-channel.com
NCS - net-commerce-solutions.co.uk
Position Gold Ltd - positiongoldltd.com
David Naylor - davidnaylor.co.uk
Dolphin Promotions - dolphinpromotions.co.uk
Dvisions - dvisions.co.uk
Hobo Web - www.hobo-web.co.uk
I Have A Website Now What - ihaveawebsite-nowwhat.co.uk
Vertical Leap - vertical-leap.co.uk
WebPresence - webpresence.tv
White Media - www.whitemedia.com

So far noone has yet posted a review of the company I work for, but I may be asking our clients if they’d like to leave their comments on forums such as this in future.

SO… what do you think? Should we be encouraging more open and honest feedback? Would you be happy about feedback about your business being made available to the public? How would you like to see the con men ousted from our industry?