Basically, there are only a few choices when it comes to getting search engine traffic. You can use pay per click ads, or submit your site to the search engines and hope you get a good ranking.

Instead of hiring some overpriced company who know nothing about optimizing your site, you should keep control of your site and save money by doing the SEO yourself. Another great resource is to find a site that you would like to post your ads and pay them for a static link.

These links are very powerful because they will increase your google page rank since they are permanent. They are dually useful because you know where the traffic is coming from and you know that you are getting traffic from a site that is related to your own.

Legitimate companies won’t try to hide anything – if a company’s WHOIS information looks suspicious, then buyer beware. Any legit SEO specialist or company will give you more for nothing than they make you pay for, to show that they’re serious and they can deliver on their promises.

Basically, there’s no shortage of websites that promise to get your site to that number one position in the rankings. The biggest problem is that all of these scam ‘search engine marketing companies’ use recycled information (the same information anyone can get from the web). Worse, many of them use outdated information, or information that’s just plain wrong. There are too many inexperienced people out there trying to make a buck, without having any knowledge.

The truth is that no one can guarantee the number one position – they can try to get your site there, but it’s rare for anyone to even be able to guarantee you the top 10 nowadays. In many cases you have just as much chance of getting yourself into a top 10 position as any of these companies do. Any person or company that guarantees you a number position is just out to take your money: beware of these people! They’re out there and you might not even realize what you’re dealing with at first, as they do a good job of pretending to be knowledgeable about SEO.

Not only do you have to be careful of the unscrupulous companies doing SEO, but you also you need to be careful of some of the companies trying to sell you SEO tools. Apart from being a waste of your money, some tools can actually damage to your site's rankings. There’s plenty of software that is honestly helpful but there are still problem cases, especially with search engine submission software. Many search engines and directories won’t accept a site that is submitted through one of these programs.

Unfortunately, the Web has more than its fair share of fast-talking con-artists ready to separate naive people from their hard-earned money.

If you do outsource search engine marketing, make sure you find a real, specialized search engine marketing firm to do the work for you. You need to be certain that you’re using a trustworthy firm with a first-rate track record -- check them out and see who they’re working with currently. Knowing something about the subject helps you to ask questions and make the right decision.

Do-it-yourself marketing is still the best way, if you can put in the time and effort to complete it. It can be time consuming in the beginning, and if you don’t have the two or so hours a week it takes then you should consider hiring someone to do it for you. Search engines are a great way of finding out more about SEO – learn as much as you can before you get started and you’ll do much better than the people who didn’t bother.