BackboneITGroup slams SEO advice in AMEX guide

BackboneITGroup.com has criticised advice handed out to small businesses by American Express in a recent edition of its Open book customer publication.

The controversial advice comes from an article in the current edition of AMEX's 'A Practical Guide for Business Growth', which cautions its readers against seeking professional search engine optimisation help for their websites, advising them not to "waste money on so-called Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) specialists".

"These kind of ill-informed statements on the value of good SEO are unhelpful and potentially damaging to their readership," said Richard Unwin, CEO of Backbone IT Group.

"Search engine optimisation is among the most cost-effective forms of promotion available and it would be a shame if AMEX business customers lost out because they have been misinformed," he continued.

To illustrate the benefits of SEO, Backbone highlight the experiences of their own customers, many of whom have a similar profile to the type of businesses targeted by the guide.

Best Doors Joinery, an online supplier of wooden doors, has seen its turnover increase by over 50 per cent since making the decision to switch from an exclusive reliance on pay-per-click advertising to using SEO in mid-2007.

Another SEO customer, Be Flirty Dresses - a supplier of designer dresses, has also achieved first page Google rankings for its key search phrases and has seen a marked increase in traffic, with a 25 per cent increase in sales enquiries as a direct result of search engine optimisation.

According to Backbone, the article has also caused wide offence in the field of internet marketing for equating search engine optimisation with attempting to 'trick' the search engines and implying that websites engaging in SEO face the prospect of being banned from the Google indexes.

"This is simply untrue," stated Andrew Clarke, Head of SEO at Backbone.

He continued: "Ethical optimisation companies, which Google itself recognises as providing useful services for website owners, work in the search engine guidelines to help sites rank highly for relevant keywords, increasing the level of targeted enquiries for our customers".

Mark Jackson, of leading search engine industry site SearchEngineWatch.com, referred to the Open book article, "Online Solutions", created for AMEX by web design agency Cuban Council, as both "irresponsible" and "unfortunate".

"SEO really can be the most effective and efficient form of marketing - it's a legitimate use of marketing funds and can make a difference for companies, both small and large," he concluded.

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