SEO Snake Oil

[peter_d]

This is a pretty astute observation:

I think in any industry that is sufficiently mysterious, and also lucrative and growing, you'll see this pattern. Even the most sincere practitioners will often be willing to give up aspects of this "let's just tell the truth to the clientele" fervor they had when they started in (this contrarianism sometimes proves profitable in the early going), to gravitate for the easy sell (because the gullible customer is often practically begging you to sell this way) that their competitors are making so much easy money on. It's called inertia, gravity, a plausible story, a myth you can't bust no matter hard you try, etc.

There is a lot of garbage spoken in the SEO world, and it's not entirely the fault of the SEOs. It's not an excuse for poor behaviour, but sometimes the snake oil is what the punters want to hear, not the truth.

http://www.traffick.com/2007/08/hamm...tree-lexus.asp

[Mihai]

I had many clients that failed to understand the truth and have been very happy with less than accurate information derived from their own words. There are people which practically pay for you to say "Yes, you are correct" at their own statements, they are simply asking for the "snake oil" temptation moment.