Recently it came to light that American Express is recommending to their customers not to spend money on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In reviewing their documentation and recommendations, they actually contradict themselves, which is quite embarrassing for such a reputable company. Open for American Express published some Small Business growth techniques and suggestions, and in doing so recommended that it’s a waste of time and money to focus on SEO, however they also indicated that you should invest in your website, and in doing so you should spend time and money developing good content, with ideal keywords.

Why is it that AMEX has contradicted themselves with their statements…..It’s because even they don’t understand SEO. SEO is about driving traffic to your site. Their second statement about good content with good keywords is the foundation for SEO. But there are many different ways of improving your site. New process and procedures come out every month or quarter. Things change in the web industry every six months, and if you are not doing things to your site to keep improving it then you could be left behind.

It’s important to keep your SEO efforts in focus, and under control, so that you don’t get taken by a so called “expert”. Cautiously review what it is you are paying for and what you should be receiving. Be very wary of guarantees. With the industry changing so much, and the algorithms at every search engine changing each week, there is no guarantee for results. The only guarantee you should expect is a time commitment in exchange for payment.

While AMEX is trying to assist their customer base with good information and they had every intent of not contradicting themselves, they managed to possibly confuse their customer base by issuing differing statements. While AMEX is recommending to their customers that they not use SEO Experts, we are recommending to our customers not to use a company that is not clear on what SEO is before making such ridiculous statements.

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