My comments are relative to search engine optimization (SEO). I don't know gflo, so this is not a critique of him in any way. I also don't know much about SEO either, except to know that it works.
No, Gflo should be listened to carefully, hence my joke about most of us actually being evil.
There are a lot of SEO's that are complete scam artists. very much so.
Many people get out there saying there is some magic potion or a "make it happen" button that will solve all of their problems, and sometimes the client will see a lot of success really really quickly. But in the cases Gflo is talking about, that success usually turns sour.
The people that Gflo and I are referring to are what we call "black hats" in the SEO world, and usually signing up with them leads to tragedy for a business. I Have a client now that hired a black hat, and he is just now (2 years later) not banned by google. Completely banned, like, not allowed to appear at all.
I say often, very often, that rule #2 in SEO is "content is king". Nobody ever asks me what rule #1 is. But in all honesty it is very simple:
Don't piss google off.
life without google on the internet is very difficult and not profitable. He (which means I) basically had to beg them to let him back in. And he still doesn't index for a lot of the terms he should, products that his factory makes that other retailers sell, he's around #50, while they are @ #1. it's sad, this is the punishment google doles out.
So when Gflo says look for someone who has a genuine want to help, he means it, and he is right. I completely agree, honestly. He is talking about all the schmucks out there that give me a bad name.
This SEO that the couple in your example hired is what we call a "white hat" or sometimes "gray" (depending on their tactics and the popular lingo of the day). Guys like that are good.
I, and I assume Gflo, only approve of "white". There is no magic button, no potion, no incantation that will make the google gods pay attention.
