The other day I was sitting in a coffee shop trying to get some work done, while there was a meeting at the booth directly in front of me, that I just could resist to eavesdrop on. It was a women trying to sell her services to an owner of a company that sold automotive springs. She was selling him on her SEO and PPC services. She was explaining to him the difference between the sponsored links and organic search results. The business owner than asked , “Is there a human person that looks at the sites and decides if they are relevant to the search?” Then to my amazement, she told yes. “That is why Google sponsored links are so effective.” I wanted to jump out of my table and offer my services to this business owner. One of the main reasons that Google is such a powerful company, is that their algorithm can look at sites keywords, content, links, along with other factors, and with in a split second know how relevant the site is to the word being searched. So no there are not people who review every site that is submitted to them.
Let this story be a warning to anyone that is looking in to SEO, and does not know anything about it. For small business owners, if you are looking into SEO, take sometime and do some research. You should have an understanding of what you are looking for and what can be expected. When done correctly SEO is time consuming and almost an art form. As a consumer, you should at least be able to talk to your service provider and have some checks and balances with them. Here are a few resources to help get you started.
A quick check list things that will help your website do well or poor
http://www.webconfs.com/15-minute-seo.php
For the do-it-yourself-er, some sites to help with your SEO
http://www.blogtrepreneur.com/2010/03/10/12-no-cost-tools-to-help-improve-your-seo/
This is my turn to blog on SEO, if you have question it usually it is here.
http://www.seomoz.org/blog