When we first started designing website back in the 1990′s, SEO was an unheard of term. Websites were, generally, electronic brochures so companies could point customers to them 24/7. Very little interaction, none of the functionality of today’s dynamic sites. Search engines were in their infancy and were easily fooled. SEO, such as it was, consisted of keyword stuffing and that was about it. In fact SEO wasn’t even really needed. There was so little competition on the web you often made it to the first page, or even #1, just by having a site on the net.
When more sophisticated SEs came along, with complex and “intelligent” algorithms, the old methods of “SEO” became a joke. We’re still surprised to see many “professionals” still recommending Meta tags as useful for ranking. Sad that people in the industry cannot keep up…. yes, meta is still good to display SE snippets and to help with on page inter-linking of articles (other relevant articles…), but as a ranking tool they are dead – they are easily abused and they were!
Today, SEO is a complex tightrope that the likes of Google keep shaking. Staying on it is an ongoing process of reading, testing and, sometimes, failing. As it’s no exact science, and has only some of the factors known (which could be different tomorrow!) never believe the “Guaranteed #1 in Google” claims. Unless those companies are using Black Hat SEO (black = bad, white = good), they cannot guarantee a #1 spot. And be very certain, that Google WILL find out about your Black Hat SEO… today, tomorrow, next week, and your site will normally get heavily penalized – usually in the form of de-indexing. This is where Google physically removes references to your site from the index – your site is now completely gone from Google – unlocateable! Doesn’t help your online presence at all.
Bottom line – get an experienced SEO professional who has the time to allocate to your online marketing, and stay on the right side of the “law”.